Sam is a fifteen-year-old drug orphan living with her custodial grandmother who is stricken with late-stage Alzheimer's. She struggles to fill the role of caregiver to her grandmother while keeping her little family a secret from the authorities who would send her grandmother to a state facility and Sam to foster care. Just because her life isn't hard enough, there are still boys to have crushes on, essays to write for horrible English teachers, and a squad full of bullies to torment her o...

The wondrous Aimee Bender conjures the lush and moving story of a girl whose magical gift is really a devastating curse.On the eve of her ninth birthday, unassuming Rose Edelstein, a girl at the periphery of schoolyard games and her distracted parents’ attention, bites into her mother’s homemade lemon-chocolate cake and discovers she has a magical gift: she can taste her mother’s emotions in the cake. She discovers this gift to her horror, for her mother—her cheerf...

Rose Parker's husband has been lying. About everything. When a conversation with her husband triggers questions, Rose Parker uncovers alarming answers that shatter her perfect life. But it is only when she shoves her belongings in her SUV and drives off that Rose realizes just how far from perfect her life actually was. She has nowhere to turn. While debating between distressing sleeping arrangements–her mother’s house full of questions or a hotel room with too much solitud...

Three hilarious books in one from the #1 New York Times–bestselling author on marriage, motherhood, and the absurdities of suburban life.If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits? is Erma Bombeck's timelessly witty look at the hidden side of married life.Motherhood captures one of the toughest jobs on earth with humor and heart.The Grass Is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank is Bombeck's take on th...

View our feature on Tyler Perry's Don't Make a Black Woman Take Off Her Earrings.In 2005, Tyler Perry took Hollywood by storm. The movie he wrote, produced, and starred in, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, opened number one at the box office and went on to gross more than $50 million. In its first week on sale, the DVD sold 2.4 million copies. At the same time, Perry was starring nightly across the country in a soldout stage show he'd also writ...

This third installment of true ghost stories recounts not only experiences from Willow Cross, but also stories from close personal friends. Ghostly knocks on doors, an apparition who seems to enjoy peeping into windows in the dead of night, and even a specter who insists on taking up residence in a child's closet. As with the other two volumes, all the stories are believed to be 100% true.

A collection of mordantly hilarious and sharply-observed stories on motherhood from the bestselling author of Family—The Ties That Bind . . . And Gag!Erma Bombeck has learned a few things about children and family over the years—and in a way that is uniquely and wonderfully her own, she shares everything she knows with her readers. Whether it's cleaning up after the kids and him, or expendable mothers-in-law, Erma Bombeck gets to the heart of the matter an...

Chicken Soup for the Soul: On Being a Parent includes the best selections on parenting from Chicken Soup for the Soul’s rich history, with 101 stories carefully selected to appeal to both mothers and fathers.Parenting is the hardest and most rewarding job in the world. Filled with stories on the humor, hard work, and joy of being a parent, this is a great book for couples to share, whether they are embarking on a new adventure as parents or reflecting on t...

A sinister puppet finally makes a new friend.A man learns about his bleak future.A killer has another painful lesson to teach.From the author of LESSONS AND OTHER MORBID DRABBLES comes this terrifying and amusing follow-up. 30 100-word shorts about horrible ghouls, monsters and deranged, bloodthirsty lunatics. In these drabbles, you'll run into kid-hungry goblins, sadistic dolls, zombies and psychopaths who believe that violence can solve just about anything.D...

A breathtaking literary debut, Love Letters of the Angels of Death begins as a young couple discover the remains of his mother in her mobile home. The rest of the family fall back, leaving them to reckon with the messy, unexpected death. By the time the burial is over, they understand this will always be their role: to liaise with death on behalf of people they love. They are living angels of death. All the major events in their lives – births, medical emergencies, a move to a northern boo...

Posey is really nervous about starting first grade. Instead of getting walked to her classroom, her mom has to drop her off at the Kiss-and-Go Lane. Then she'll have to walk into school and face the Monster of the Blue Hall all by herself. Worst of all, she has to do it without the one thing that always makes her feel brave and special: the tutu that turns her into the Pink Princess. But when Posey inspires her new teacher to throw a first-day parade in which all the kids are invited to we...

“The perfect haunted house story for these unnerving times.” —New York TimesDream House, the riveting debut novel from Pushcart Prize-winning author Valerie Laken, tells the story of one troubled house—the site of a domestic drama that will forever change the lives of two families. Embracing volatile issues such as race, class, and gentrification, while seamlessly mixing genres as diverse as crime fiction, suspense, and home renovation, Dream House is a “...