The Woman Outside My Door is Rachel Ryan’s first novel. It is a chilling story with ghostly undertones which creates a uniquely suspenseful story and will keep you guessing as to the outcome with many twists and turns in between.
Georgina, who has recently lost her mother is trying to create a bit of new normalcy in her life. She, along with her husband Bren and young son Cody, and with her widowed father are all trying to pick up the pieces to their lives. On top of this Georgina and Bren had been having problems just as her mother began her downfall. Now, they must begin to sort out their relationship as well as help their son heal from losing his grandmother.
So when Cody comes home after playing with some friends with candy and tells Georgina his New Granny gave it to him, she is beside herself. Bren feels this is Cody’s way of processing his grandmother’s death, by pretending she is still here. But as Cody begins talking to his New Granny on the phone, when the phone has not rung, Georgina feels he’s taken this imaginary friend to a new level.
Then Georgina begins to see and hear things. She believes someone has followed her home. She sees someone staring at her through their window looking into their house. Her husband feels she perhaps should go and see someone, as Cody tries to convince them that he no longer sees New Granny. But Georgiana knows deep in heart New Granny is not imaginary. She is real. Who could she possibly be? What does she want with her family?
She feels she needs to protect her family. But from who or what she is unsure. As her life begins to spin out of control, she believes perhaps she does need some help. And as the situation goes from disturbing to deranged, Georgina realizes she is in the fight of her life to save her family.
Although The Woman Outside My Door is Ryan’s first novel, with the fascinating and gripping plot, surprising moments and compelling ending, I am quite sure it will not be her last.
Thank you #GoodReads #GalleryBooks #TheWomanOutsideMyDoor #RachelRyan for the advanced copy.
Nora Pennington, our beloved local Miracle Springs bookstore owner seems to have settled down quite nicely into her new town. Her store, with help from her new employee an older gentleman named Sheldon, is doing a brisk business. Her relationship with Jed seems to be going well and her friends in the Secret, Book and Scone Society are…well, as Sheldon says “the magical women of this town.”
But none of that will last very long.
With Halloween fast approaching, Nora and Sheldon must decide what type of outdoor window display they want to create. Usually the town appreciates the creative displays, but this year one of the mother’s from an organization has decided the display is unacceptable. Her group decides to cause quite a scene in the town by boycotting the bookstore as well as other shops she feels are inappropriate. With ads placed in the newspaper, picketers outside and vandalism, the stores begin to suffer.
One of these businesses is a new shop named Soothe which sells CBD oils and other products, along with many healing herbs. The new shopkeeper Celeste and her teenage daughter Bren have just moved to Miracle Springs. Celeste is hoping to start a new life for them both while Bren unfortunately is only angered by the move and seems to resent her mother.
When Bren dies suddenly on Nora’s property and she finds pages with symbols on them which seem to have been torn out of a very old book left under her doormat, she begins to think this is may not be the accidental death the coroner has claimed.
So as they do, the Secret, Book and Scone Society jumps into action by assisting Celeste in her shop as she grieves for her daughter. But when Nora finds a threatening postcard addressed to Celeste, she realizes Celeste must be hiding secrets from her previous life with Bren from their former town.
As for those pages with symbols, Nora knows someone who could decipher them. But that would mean calling a person from her own past, a past she would rather not revisit, and friends she has had no contact with since she fled her own former life. But Nora feels responsible in some way for Bren’s death and must make peace with the idea of exposing her new present to someone from her past. What could these pages possibly mean? Where is the book they were torn out of? And how do they connect to Celeste and Bren?
In Ink and Shadows there is murder, mystery, mayhem, chaos and wonderfully empowered funny women who have all gone through major life crisis and who have come out on the other end with a great sense of passion for life and sympathy and understanding for others in this wonderful town Ellery Adams has created.
And finally, just another reason to love Adams, throughout the story she places her own book selections with an appendix at the end of the book. So know that while you read this mystery with a town full of loving and caring people…well most of them, you can perhaps find your next read while trying to solve a murder!
Thank you #NetGalley #Kensington #InkandShadows #ElleryAdams for the advanced copy.
When a group of people who don’t know each other get invited to vacation on a beautiful secluded tropical island for free to review some of the owner of the island’s products how could they not accept? But in what I would consider a terrifying updated version of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, the invitation should have come with a dire warning.
Within a twisted plot, the group are horrifically killed off one at a time, with a nod to a sci-fi novel as they are forced to be implanted with something called a memory tracker which when activated displays memories of horrible deeds they have done which all can see.
With this tracker, they are also allowed to think of something they want and it appears. But, they can also wish for something to happen to someone and unbeknownst to them, it will happen!
But one of the guests, Amelia is not fitted for the device. She seems to be exempt from the scathing memories the other’s seem to endure looking at. As the group makes their way to the house where they will be staying, they are not only tortured by their own memories, but by the island itself. They seem to all notice Amelia’s exemption and don’t understand and start to become resentful of her.
Amelia begins to have memories which seem to have been hidden deep in the recesses of her mind. This island looks somehow familiar. But why? Could she have been here before? And as her recollection becomes even clearer she thinks she could possibly be the reason they are all here. And for those who make it to the house to enjoy the last supper, they are in for a terrible surprise.
Who is behind this and why are they torturing this group who did not know each other until embarking the plane? What is it that Amelia knows that could kill them all, and why? What kind of a monster would take joy in terrorizing people?
The Last Resort is a wonderful thriller in which the answers to questions come only after a terrifying climax. The story is so very well plotted out you may want to go back as I did to look for the missing clues the reader was given during the story!
Thank you #NetGalley #Thomas&Mercer #TheLastResort #SusiHolliday for the advanced copy.
The Other Einstein is another incredible Marie Benedict novel which once again sheds light on another unsung woman way ahead of her time but who would unfortunately never get proper credit for her true genius. A woman whose husband not only was jealous of her insightful creativity, but quite frankly punished her for her ability by intimidation.
Mitza Maric was a highly intelligent girl whose father saw the promise and potential for her to become a scientist, regardless of her gender. As a young woman she never felt pretty, as she had limp and her parents had always felt no one would ever marry her. Her father sent her to a University in Zurich for science during the 1800’s, something unheard of back then. The only woman in classes, Mitza kept her head down and excelled, much to the surprise of her teachers and classmates.
This caught the eye of one of her classmates, Albert Einstein, who developed a crush on Mitza. As he attempted to court her, she was torn between her love for science and her love for him. He promised her she could have both and she believed him. Against her father’s wishes and sadness, Mitza leaves the University without her degree.
Her love for Einstein takes many twists and turns with Mitza always giving in to Einstein’s wishes, believing him when he would say she makes it all about her and with him always promising to give her the recognition she deserves. And then Einstein deliberately leaves her name off of a paper whose concept was her idea. This paper catapults Einstein into celebrity and solidifies Mitza’s changing relationship with him.
Their romance seems to deteriorate further, perhaps due to Einstein’s jealousy of Mitza, or his own guilt for what he did, but he begins to treat Mitza as someone whose only purpose is to cater to his needs, even having her walk steps in back of him when they are out with others.
By this time, Mika’s life is filled with anger, rage and sadness. She cannot tolerate the mistreatment of this man who had once promised her a world of science and discovery in which they would create together equally, only to be made to feel not only unworthy of her intelligence, but an unacceptable partner to this man she once thought her soulmate.
As in all of Benedict’s books the research is impeccable and the storytelling mesmerizing. Stories such as these shed light on just how far women have come and brings to light the sadness and abuse women who had any intelligence endured with their only flaw being a brain.
Two sisters vie for the the ultimate $100,000 prize in a restaurant food competition and come out of the experience with a renewed sense of family, life and love.
Years ago two sisters created a chicken restaurant. As in some families, there was jealousy and fighting. The two sisters decided to go there separate ways and establish two restaurants…Chicken Mimi’s a down home chicken and biscuit place and Frannie’s a more upscale (they sell mozzarella sticks) chicken and biscuit place.
Amanda Moore who works at Frannie’s and is the daughter-in-law of the owner, decides to apply to a food reality show called Food Wars. Her idea is for them to come to their small town and taste both Frannie’s and Mimi’s chicken and decide which is better. Her logic being that exposure to their restaurants and the prize which Amanda is sure Frannie’s will win will have people from all over coming to the restaurant. She just has to get her sister Mae on board. You see while Amanda works at Frannie’s, Mae’s loyalty is to Mimi’s, their mother’s restaurant.
Mae, who lives in New York has a chaotic lifestyle with her two children and handsome husband. She is an organizational master with a best selling book and is not very interested in Amanda’s idea. That is until she gets let go of what was suppose to be a promising television career. Mae decides to go back home to their tiny town in Kansas to get a bit of exposure from the television show in hopes of reviving her career.
What neither sister ever expects is that the reality show, in order to create as much drama for their viewers as possible, begins to pit the two restaurants against each other, as well as the two sisters who have not been very close in quite a while. Mae and Amanda begin to turn on each other and in the process out long hidden family secrets, much to the other family member’s distress and embarrassment, but to the joy of the producers of the reality show.
Then Mae’s husband Jay, who always thought Mae lived in Kansas City, not a small town, and her family restaurant was a fancy establishment, not a chicken and biscuit joint, sees an embarrassing video going around and decides to come to the town to find out why Mae has been hiding her roots all this time.
With all this swirling around them, Amanda and Mae must come to some sort of understanding. Amanda, who is tired of running a restaurant and Mae who is tired of always trying to be perfect must learn who they really are not only to each other, but to their families and more importantly to themselves. Who will win the food war? Is it really worth winning?
The Chicken Sisters is a funny, warm-hearted story of the love and hate between families and about picking up the pieces (of chicken) and putting a generation separated family back together if possible.
Thank you #Goodreads #G.P.Putnam’sSons #KJDell’Antonia #TheChickenSisters for the advanced copy.
Zoe is just beginning to get over the heartbreak of losing the love of her life. A chef, she and her cat Frazzle live upstairs from the bar she cooks at aptly named The Ginger Cat.
She starts to get a bit of pressure to begin to date again from the other chef, Ronnie, who seems to have no problem finding trysts. He insists she at least put herself out there on one of the many dating apps that exist. She does and after her first date, or no show date, she decides she can’t find love this way. But then she discovers a dating astrology app, which partners love compatibility through your signs. Zoe thinks she has hit the jackpot! She signs up! Let the love match begin!
And then it doesn’t go as well as anticipated. She finds one match to be perfect! So perfect that not only do they never go on another date, but he blocks her! Then there is another date which after serenading her for one hour has her married with children! Finding Mr. Right may be very wrong for Zoe.
Then the stars align, not on the app but accidently and she literally falls for someone. She seems to think she has met “the one”. OK, so he’s not that great in bed, that will get better, and he does not have a real job but that could change right? and he is a bit of a slob, but at least she can clean up after him. It’s still a boyfriend and she can stop dating.
As Zoe debates the pro’s and con’s of being in love, what she seems to miss are the goings on at the bar and how sometimes you may not need an an astrology app to see the vision right in front of you. Perhaps sometimes the only help you really need when looking for love is no help at all.
Thank You, Next is an enjoyable, funny story as are all Ranald’s books. This book will take you away from the toil of one’s life and plunge you into a world of lightness, wit and of course, love.
Thank you #NetGalley #Bookouture #SohieRanald #ThankYou,Next for the advanced copy.
In a sleepy retirement village in England, a group of seniors meet every Thursday in their clubhouse to discuss old unsolved mysteries. They call themselves the Thursday Murder Club. Until one day a local developer is found dead. And now they have an actual murder they can investigate themselves. And they are very excited!
We are introduced to these comical, intelligent, octogenarians as they seem to bumble through the investigation, but quietly actually begin to piece together the clues. One must never underestimate the power of a senior citizen able to manipulate a situation! We have Elizabeth, who seems to be the ring leader with a mysterious past who has many former friends in law enforcement, Joyce, a retired nurse, who through her written humorous yet informative daily journal gives us more detail into the goings of the club members, Ron, whose son is a celebrity boxer turned reality star and Ibrahim, a former psychiatrist.
As the group begins to investigate and tackle the murder, they are hindered as more bodies start to pile up, some from years ago. With the help from their friends…but in reality are the police investigators Donna De Freitas and Chris Hudson, who they seem to be able to manipulate into unknowingly (or knowingly) pass them information during hysterical tea visits. Suddenly, the case takes a strange turn…could the killer or killers be one of them? Will this group be able to piece together the clues, and masterfully solve the case?
But the Thursday Club not only solves murders. We see the love they have not only for each other, but for spouses both past and present as well as others who live in the retirement community. They take care of each other, no matter what that means. No matter what needs to be done. No matter what needs to be left unsaid. Their bond is unbreakable.
The Thursday Murder Club is an extremely funny mystery with ingenious clues and a perfectly executed ending. One can only hope Richard Osman writes a second.
When Ellie and Neil Patterson finally vacation without children at their newly purchased cottage, they believe it will be a chance for them to reconnect and try to get back to where they once were. It seems their relationship has stalled and neither knows really what to do.
But they may never get that chance. Ellie is kidnapped by their next door neighbor, a George Clooney look-a-like. He tells her that they knew each other from long ago. He explains to Ellie that she will be given only three chances to guess his name. With each wrong answer Neil, who has also been abducted and is in the next room, will have extremities chopped off. If she fails to remember him by the third name, Neil dies.
Ellie then must begin a difficult walk down memory lane, with situations she never wanted to remember, including the tragic death of her beloved sister Bethany after she was involved in a horrific car accident. But those memories are nothing compared to what this mysterious psychotic man has in store for her and her husband. And what Ellie will learn will tear her world apart forever.
As the police try and track Ellie and her captor by the bodies he leaves in their wake, will they be able to find her before she too becomes one of his casualties? Will both Ellie and Neil come out of this alive? Will Ellie be able to make peace with what she discovers about her captor, a murderer with mommy issues, or with her husband after she uncovers an explosive secret he as hidden from her all these years.
Tell Me My Name is an intense psychological thriller with so many twists and turns you never see coming, and shocking revelations which intertwine in the storylines brilliantly.
Thank you #NetGalley #Dundurn #TellMeMyName #ErinRuddy for the advanced copy.
Take It Back is a riveting courtroom thriller which explores race, disabilities, entitlement and rape. Although not your average psychological suspense novel, the story will haunt you for days after you have finished it and your heart will perhaps hurt with sadness.
Jodie is a disabled young girl in high school with a misshapen face. She is lonely and quiet. Her mother is an alcoholic who can barely tolerate her. She abuses her emotionally by making her feel less than human. They barely make ends meet. When her best friend invites her to attend a party she is hesitant, but her friend offers to dress her with her clothes and put her hair up and they are off. At some point they become separated and a boy, who she has had a crush on for years, offers to take her to her friend. And from that point on there are two sides of the story. Jodie says she was raped. Four boys says nothing happened.
Zara Kaleel is a Muslim social worker, former attorney now working to help assist children in need. When Jodie comes to her a few days after the rape and tells they story of how four Muslim boys took turns raping her, she does not know what to believe. Jodie’s story at times seems inconsistent, but when her shirt with DNA on it from one of the boys comes back that sends the case to trial.
The boys who do not seem very concerned, repeatedly deny any knowledge of what Jodie is accusing them. Why would they rape an ugly girl when they could have anyone they want? All from Muslim families, there neighborhood supports them and condemns the victim. As the case goes to trial it becomes a media circus. Zara is shunned for taking the side of the victim and not supporting her community.
Her own family is close to disowning her for taking the case. Zara, who tried for years to live by the stringent laws and rules of her religion was banished by her father when she decided she could not continue to believe in the religious views of her family.
As the hatred between sides spills into the streets, a picture of Zara kissing a white man surfaces which puts her own life in jeopardy. But she will not give up. Jodie has no one to support her. As the case winds down explosive information against Jodie and the rape surfaces. It will take all of Zara’s strength to both physically and mentally survive as well as hold on to her belief that Jodie is innocent.
The book as a whole gives a radical inside look at racism, mob mentality and social injustice which can sometimes worsen when a person does not fit the norm. Are they not to be believed just because they don’t fit everybody’s perception of what is ordinary?
But the ending will surely haunt you for quite a while.
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KIA ABDULLAH is an author and travel writer. She has contributed to The Guardian, BBC, Channel 4 News, and The New York Times. Kia currently travels the world as one half of the travel blog Atlas & Boots, which receives over 200,000 views per month.
In TAKE IT BACK, you deal with a challenging topic–a sixteen-year-old girl accuses four boys from her class in school of rape–how do you tell a story about such a traumatic subject while keeping readers turning the pages?
For me, character is so important because it does two things. Firstly, it forces me to approach a subject sensitively because I grow to care about my characters. I didn’t want Jodie – the 16-year-old girl in Take It Back – to be a loosely-sketched victim on which to hang my plot, so I took the time to interview survivors, counsellors, lawyers and police officers to make sure I was doing her justice.
Secondly, great characters make readers care about what happens and that’s what keeps the pages turning. The four boys who are accused in the novel are fully-fledged characters in their own right and so that setup is really compelling for the reader: “I care about both the victim and the accused here, but who is telling the truth?”
Where did the inspiration for TAKE IT BACK come from?
I wouldn’t say that Take It Back is an angry novel, but it does come from a place of anger. I don’t like to admit that because anger is such a primitive emotion, but I was angry for nearly my whole twenties. I was raised in a conservative Muslim family in London and struggled with the pressures it placed on me: to be quiet and not raise my head above the parapet.
At the same time, I could see how the mood in certain quarters of the media was turning against Muslims and that made me deeply uncomfortable because we are not the monolithic, malevolent entity we are sometimes made out to be.
Take It Back allowed me to examine this conflict in the context of a thriller. It’s a gripping courtroom drama at heart, but it also asks: how do we judge people based on what they look like or what they believe in? That is really the root of the novel.
How much of a challenge is it to write about potentially divisive social issues like racial and ethnic biases while keeping the tension high and driving the plot forward?
There is definitely a temptation to get on my soapbox and preach about issues that matter to me. The key is to trust the reader. I don’t need to spell things out or drone on for pages and pages. Sometimes, a simple action speaks volumes and I have to trust the reader to catch its meaning.
For example, in one scene, Mo (one of the accused) is embarrassed of his father who works as a butcher because of the dried crust of blood on the cuticles of his nails. I could have expanded on this for several pages – about how immigrant children can be simultaneously proud and ashamed of their parents, or the plight of the working class – but I trusted the reader to recognise the pathos of that moment. Cutting out extra detail helps to keep tension high and drive the plot forward.
I can’t take all the credit though. There were definitely parts where my brilliant editor stepped in to say, “Um, this might be a bit much, so pare it back a little”. I owe her a huge amount.
Zara, the heroine in TAKE IT BACK, is smart, strong and fearless. And she faces a lot of pressure from her family over her choices that break with tradition. How did you go about writing her?
Zara was tricky because when you’re writing a woman of colour – especially one from a South-Asian background – you feel the burden of representation because there aren’t many characters like this in fiction. On one hand, I wanted to be true to who and what she was, but on the other I didn’t want to play into stereotypes.
I’ll give you an example. Zara’s backstory involves an arranged marriage. On one hand, that plays into stereotypes of the South-Asian woman, but on the other, nearly every British-Bangladeshi woman from London that I personally know – certainly of Zara’s generation – had an arranged marriage (as did I by the way). Do I ignore this in favour of a false narrative?
Ultimately, I opted for what I felt was true to Zara’s character. She isn’t purely one thing (strong, fearless, invincible) or the other (quiet, docile, submissive); she’s a mixture of many things as are we all.
Tell us about your other passion–travel writing. How did you get started with that? And does it influence your fiction?
I’d always wanted to travel around the world so, after a year of intense saving, my boyfriend and I quit our jobs in 2014 to spend a year hopping across the South Pacific and South America. Along the way, we set up our own travel blog, Atlas & Boots, mostly as a way to keep our skills sharp. It quickly gained traction and continued to grow. (Before Covid hit, it was getting 300,000 readers a month!)
The travel writing is very different from fiction, although I’m sure that the first informs the second. For example, I might be out on a swim and notice how seaweed looks like a woman’s hair floating in the bath and use that description in fiction. I could have written my novels if I’d just stayed at home, but the writing would likely be flatter.
What is your writing process typically like? Do you set a goal of a certain number of pages per day? Start with an outline or see where the story leads you?
I am a planner for sure. I outline my novels before I write a single word. The idea of jumping in headfirst without knowing that I have a strong ending (or beginning and middle for that matter!) is just too scary. I do leave some room for the story to breathe so if it takes me in a different direction, I’m open to that.
In terms of the writing itself, I’m fairly regimented. I write 1,500 words a day and won’t stop until that’s done. Sometimes, this means that I end up with terrible words, but I leave that for the editing!
Do you have a routine or process that helps to get into a flow and stay productive when you’re writing?
I use Freedom to block out social media, which is absolutely intrinsic to my routine. Without it, Twitter would swallow hours of productivity.
Other than that, I try to get out for a short walk every day. Sometimes, when I’m warm and toasty in my study and it’s gloomy outside (as it often is in England), it’s hard to motivate myself to venture out, but I always feel better for it. Whenever friends tell me that they’re feeling a bit sad or sluggish, I always encourage them to get out and go somewhere green if possible.
TAKE IT BACK was first published in the UK in 2019–was the reaction to the book what you’d hoped for? Any memorable reader feedback?
I’ve been blown away by the feedback. I’ve been writing professionally for 14 years and would occasionally receive a message of appreciation for a column or a feature. With Take It Back, I got hundreds of tweets, emails and messages from readers who adored the book.
It’s especially heartening when South-Asian women get in touch to say that they really see themselves in Zara. This makes me pleased that I stuck to the truest version of her.
Another piece of feedback that sticks in my mind is from a reader who compared my work to Ibsen. That was rather nice to hear!
What’s coming up next that you’re excited about?
I’m gearing up for the UK paperback release of Truth Be Told in March 2021. It’s the follow-up to Take It Back and we will see Zara return to fight a new case.
Aside from that, I’m looking forward to the world getting back to normal – or some version of it. I really miss travelling. In December 2019, I was on a road trip through Florida, Georgia and North Carolina. I’d love to return and explore more of the area and beyond.
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Early praise for Take It Back:
“Riveting, thought-provoking legal thriller… Abdullah is definitely a writer to watch.” – Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Abdullah has done an exemplary job of character development and is especially good at ratcheting up suspense as the trial proceeds.” – Booklist, starred review
“A thought-provoking and sparklingly intelligent novel, with the welcome bonus of an unguessable ending.” —The Telegraph
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Take It Back Book Description
From author Kia Abdullah, Take It Back is a harrowing and twisting courtroom thriller that keeps you guessing until the last page is turned.
One victim.
Four accused.
Who is telling the truth?
Zara Kaleel, one of London’s brightest legal minds, shattered the expectations placed on her by her family and forged a brilliant legal career. But her decisions came at a high cost, and now, battling her own demons, she has exchanged her high profile career for a job at a sexual assault center, helping victims who need her the most. Victims like Jodie Wolfe.
When Jodie, a sixteen-year-old girl with facial deformities, accuses four boys in her class of an unthinkable crime, the community is torn apart. After all, these four teenage defendants are from hard-working immigrant families and they all have proven alibis. Even Jodie’s best friend doesn’t believe her.But Zara does—and she is determined to fight for Jodie—to find the truth in the face of public outcry. And as issues of sex, race and social justice collide, the most explosive criminal trial of the year builds to a shocking conclusion.
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Thank you #NetGalley #St.Martin’sPublishingGroup #TakeItBack #KiaAbdulla for the advanced copy. You can buy the book now with the following links:
Ever since I read and laughed through Irby’s latest book of essays, Wow, No Thank You, I wanted to read her very first book which is based on her blog, bitches gotta eat. Although Meaty is still very funny and extremely clever, it is much more raunchy than her last book. But what I could absolutely see is how strong her writing has become since Meaty.
The essays are once again hysterical and identifiable. She writes what women feel. In the essay “awkward first date” Irby lets the reader begin to know her by answering questions she poses to herself. Question: what is your favorite cereal? Answer: Is Triscuits a cereal? Question: who do you miss the most? Answer: The idea of my mother. As you can see, she tries to give both funny and truth.
Irby grew up raising herself, and being the caretaker for her disabled mother at the early age of 9. Her mother, a nurse had suffered from MS and other debilitating issues. It was up to her to run home and make sure her mother was ok for fear if the school found out her mother could not care for her, she would be taken away and put in a foster home.
But as Irby grew up, and her outlook on life being sarcastic yet naive, being complicated by her many health issues which she takes on with honesty and humor, she was able to prosper and grow stronger. With wit she describes dates where she had to wear adult diapers due to her colitis, having chin hairs, being exhausted by bad first dates…you know, having to shave your body and be extra super clean, only to know in an instant the guy was not for her and wondering why she tried so hard in the first place. She opens up about how she really enjoys eating in bed and watching television. Irby also give us a few of her favorite recipes, with entertaining commentary as she explains the ingredients.
The book of essays is filled with her distinctly different views on just about everything; life, love, hospital stays and hilarious stories of friends. Although some of the essays could be taken for being a bit vulgar, they are always based in truths which I believe some of us really do think, but never say out loud. Irby though, brazenly puts them down on paper.
Lisa's Cubby 