Emma Jean's Bad Behavior


Book Description

Best-selling novelist Emma Jean Sullivan longed for a baby for years. But when she was unable to conceive with her husband, Peter, she staunchly vowed to become the standard bearer for all childless couples. And she succeeds spectacularly. At age 48 (43 according to her blog, "Life, Full Tilt") Emma Jean enjoys a rabid anti-baby fan base, and her novels have sold millions. But now, she confronts a dilemma larger than any her heroines have faced: She’s pregnant. And the baby’s father is not her husband. Terrified of losing both her fan base and her identity, she struggles to maintain her brand and her marriage, but Peter is too busy embezzling Emma Jean’s money and completely uninterested in fatherhood. Not only that, her latest novel is a miserable failure, and a Vanity Fair reporter, who plans to out Emma Jean’s pregnancy to her fans, is stalking her. What’s a suddenly broke, failing, middle-aged, pregnant novelist to do? Why, flee to a glamorous resort town, of course.




Death by Surfboard


Book Description

No one is more stunned than Mermaid Swimwear sales exec Holly Schlivnik when a fisherman hooks her unscrupulous colleague’s battered corpse attached to a surfboard and hauls it onto the Washington Street Pier. The coroner ruled that while Jack Tyne drowned, he “had help dying,” and Holly’s boss is wrongly arrested for the crime. To save the big cheese from a life behind bars, the wise-cracking, irreverent amateur detective dons her sleuthing hat to find Jack’s real killer. But the trail has more twists and turns than a pretzel, and nothing turns out the way Holly thinks it will as she tangles with a clever killer hellbent for revenge.




Death by Sample Size


Book Description

Everyone wanted her dead…but who actually killed her? The last thing swimwear sales exec Holly Schlivnik expected was to discover ruthless buying office big wig Bunny Frank's corpse trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey with a bikini stuffed down her throat. When Holly's colleague is arrested for Bunny's murder, the wise-cracking, irreverent amateur sleuth jumps into action to find the real killer. Nothing turns out the way Holly thinks it will as she matches wits with a wily murderer hellbent for revenge.




Death by Pins and Needles


Book Description

The last thing Mermaid Swimwear sales exec Holly Schlivnik expected to find when she opened the closet door was nasty competitor Lissa Charney’s battered corpse nailed to the wall. When Holly’s colleague is wrongly arrested for Lissa’s murder, the wise-cracking, irreverent amateur sleuth sticks her nose everywhere it doesn’t belong to sniff out the real killer. Nothing turns out the way she thinks it will as Holly matches wits with a heartless killer hellbent for revenge.




Breaking the Silence


Book Description

In Living with Mental Illness, mental health professionals and scientists, ranging from newly trained individuals to seasoned clinicians and researchers, tell their own and their families' stories of mental disorder, providing an unprecedented level of honesty and disclosure. This volume will be indispensable reading for those in the mental health professions, trainees across many related fields, family members, persons contending with mental illness, and all those who wish to know more about the effects of mental illness on our society.




Perfect Peace


Book Description

As seen on TikTok, Daniel Black’s Perfect Peace is the heartbreaking portrait of a large, rural southern family’s attempt to grapple with their mother’s desperate decision to make her newborn son into the daughter she will never have—“a complex, imaginative story of one unforgettable black family in mid-twentieth century Arkansas” (Atlanta Magazine). When the seventh child of the Peace family, named Perfect, turns eight, her mother Emma Jean tells her bewildered daughter, “You was born a boy. I made you a girl. But that ain’t what you was supposed to be. So, from now on, you gon’ be a boy. It’ll be a little strange at first, but you’ll get used to it, and this’ll be over after while.” From this point forward, Perfect’s life becomes a bizarre kaleidoscope of events—while the rest of his family is forced to question everything they thought they knew about gender, sexuality, unconditional love, and fulfillment. “A morality tale of the consequences of letting our selfish needs trap the ones we love into roles they weren’t born to play. The characters here are as flawed, their sins numerous, as any living human being held under the lens, but the author brings a compassion and understanding to their plights.”—Mat Johnson, award-winning author of Invisible Things “Part cautionary tale, part folk tale, part fable, Daniel Black’s Perfect Peace is a complete triumph...In Emma Jean Peace, Dr. Black has created a character as complex, equivocal and unforgettable as Scarlett O'Hara.”—Larry Duplechan, Lambda Literary Award-winning author of Got ’Til It’s Gone




A Quiet Place to Grow


Book Description

The relationship between a mother and daughter is a special one. Unfortunately, not all mothers and daughters share good relationships. This is the case with Deloris and her mother, Emma Jean. Deloris dreams of the moment when she'll leave home and her mother for good. But when she comes up pregnant for Jasper Reynolds, a man several years older, Deloris becomes a bargaining chip between Emma Jean and Jasper for his freedom. Married to Jasper and expecting her first child, Deloris finds some comfort in being the woman of her own home. Although Jasper imposes house rules of his own, Deloris feels freer than ever before. However, her freedom is short-lived with the return of Luther Diamond, a dangerous man from her past. Deloris knows that her marriage to Jasper is a betrayal to Luther and he's not a man that takes betrayal well. In fact, Luther has every intent to kill Jasper Reynolds, but Deloris in desperation to save the life of her new husband, reveals another tragic betrayal committed by her mother. Jasper's suspicion of his new wife causes him to decide to place Michael, his best friend, in the position of watchdog for Deloris. This might prove to be a mistake because unknown to Jasper, Michael carries a torch for Deloris and she might be carrying much more for Michael. Deloris has many problems, but her mother remains the biggest. After the birth of her baby, Deloris lies in a coma while Emma Jean sets an evil plot in motion to steal her daughter's baby. The relationship between this mother and daughter isn't just bad, it's downright criminal.







Emma-Jean Lazarus Fell Out of a Tree


Book Description

A heartwarming story from the author of the I SURVIVED series. Emma-Jean Lazarus is the smartest and strangest girl at William Gladstone Middle School. Her classmates don't understand her, but that's okay because Emma-Jean doesn't quite get them either. But one afternoon, all that changes when she sees Colleen Pomerantz crying in the girl's room. It is through Colleen that Emma-Jean gets a glimpse into what it is really like to be a seventh grader. And what she finds will send her tumbling out of a tree and questioning why she ever got involved in the first place.




Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker


Book Description

New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Chiaverini's compelling historical novel unveils the private lives of Abraham and Mary Lincoln through the perspective of the First Lady's most trusted confidante and friend, her dressmaker, Elizabeth Keckley. In a life that spanned nearly a century and witnessed some of the most momentous events in American history, Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley was born a slave. A gifted seamstress, she earned her freedom by the skill of her needle, and won the friendship of First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln by her devotion. A sweeping historical novel, Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker illuminates the extraordinary relationship the two women shared, beginning in the hallowed halls of the White House during the trials of the Civil War and enduring almost, but not quite, to the end of Mrs. Lincoln's days.