Life Satire

Sloane Jacobsen is the most powerful trend forecaster in the world (she was the foreseer of "the swipe"), and global fashion, lifestyle, and tech companies pay to hear her opinions about the future. Her recent forecasts on the family are unwavering: the world is overpopulated, and with unemployment, college costs, and food prices all on the rise, having children is an extravagant indulgence. So it's no surprise when the tech giant Mammoth hires Sloane to lead their groundbreaking annual conference, celebrating the voluntarily childless.

Siem Sigerius is a beloved, brilliant professor of mathematics with a promising future in politics. His family - including a loving wife, two gorgeous, intelligent stepdaughters, and a successful future son-in-law - and carefully appointed home in the bucolic countryside complete the portrait of a comfortable, morally upright household.

I messed up! But no worries because TV icons Letterman, Lorraine, Paxman, and Ellen are all on my side. Those shiny, chatty people combined with my controversial concept of jogger fancying will win back my precious family from the Blob a.k.a. mega-rich bastard Max Cocklash. Well, that’s my Lycra-fetish-inspired plan anyway.

A Harvard reunion prompts a Boston Brahmin’s search for meaning in this comedy of manners by the number-one New York Times best-selling author of Point of No Return.

It's a story that Ted Grayson has reported time and time again in his job as a network TV anchor: the public downfall of those at the top. He just never imagined that it would happen to him. After his profanity-laced tirade is caught on camera, his reputation and career are destroyed, leaving him without a script for the first time in years.

One minute I'm working in a bookshop and the next minute a vampire decides to kill me. Enter the tall, dark, handsome stranger who’s been hanging around the store lately. He has a deal he says I can’t refuse. I can either a) die or b) become a vampire and Queen of the Wayward. Great choices there, hey? Obviously, I choose option b. So here I am, trying to get used to not only being undead, but to my new royal role where I'm in charge of the Home of Wayward Souls. Yep, any newly dead spirits that are wild, unhappy, and out to cause trouble. All mine.

Do you have a neighbor or, heaven forbid, friend or family member, who regularly spews utter nonsense in your direction along the lines of their government being out to chip them or that a quack aromatherapy pill like vitamin D might save lives from Covid? Or perhaps you have been accosted by a random conspiracy theorist in the street who adamantly believes that everyone should add horse-dewormer to their morning coffee or that lockdowns aren’t the pinnacle of scientific acumen that they clearly are and that whoever invented them should obviously win a Nobel Prize?

Catherine Sloper, the heroine of this tragicomic tale set in mid-19th century New York, is absolutely ordinary in every way except for her exceptional capacities in love and loyalty. These latter qualities are of no interest to her father, the successful society Doctor who is constantly disappointed by his daughter's failure to be brilliant, either physically or intellectually. For this reason, he is highly suspicious when Morris Townsend begins to woo her and is convinced the handsome young man's interest is only in the fortune Catherine will eventually inherit.

The story of a woman's life, from childhood to death, somewhere in provincial France, from the 1950s to just shy of 2025. She has doting parents, does well at school, finds a loving husband after one abortive attempt at passion, buys a big house with a moonlit terrace, makes decent money, has children, changes jobs, retires, grows old and dies. All in the comfort that the middle classes have grown accustomed to. But she's bored.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that every man in possession of a wife must be in want of a son. Seventeen eighty-five was to be the most marvelous year of Marianne's life until an unfortunate turn of events left her in a compromised state and desperate for a husband to care - or rather cover - for her. Now she is stuck in an undesirable marriage to Mr. Edward Bennet, a man desperate in his own way for a male heir.

The riotously funny new novel from Penny Smith.Miranda Blake is divorced. At 45, things are starting to head south. She's toying with the idea of Botox. Toying with the idea of facial surgery. Toying with getting a job. Toying with getting a toy boy. The only block to all those things is her stiff, uppity daughter, 23 year old Lucy, who takes after her father. Pompous, is how Miranda describes it. (Sane, is how Lucy sees it.)

Meet Sonny Anderson, funny failed LA Galaxy hopeful, recovering misophonic meth-head and Shaun of the Dead-obsessed survivor. On his 21st birthday, gifted the opportunity of inheriting a life-changing sum of money, Sonny needs answers to a few important questions. For instance, where is his mother? He last saw her age five when his dad kidnapped him and took him to live on a commune in Brazil. His dad claimed to be a spiritual guru, but what kind of man was he really? To find his answers Sonny must leave his home in California and return to the UK, his country of birth.

Mack McAllister has a $600 million dollar idea. His mindfulness app, TakeOff, is already the hottest thing in tech, and he's about to launch a new and improved version that promises to bring investors running and may turn his brainchild into a $1 billion dollar business - in startup parlance, an elusive unicorn. Katya Pasternack is hungry for a scoop that will drive traffic. An ambitious young journalist at a gossipy tech blog, Katya knows that she needs more than another PR friendly puff piece to make her the go-to byline for industry news.

The day after an epically hideous and embarrassing disaster, Allison comes to school transformed. Suddenly she's sporting a cute new hairstyle, and she has all the right answers in class. With the help of a strangely wise freshman boy, Jane discovers the unbelievable truth behind the drastic change: Allison has sold her soul to the devil. Now it's up to Jane to put it all on the line to save her friend - without losing her own soul in the process.

Actuary Penny Sinclair has a head for business, and she always makes rational decisions. Knowing that 60 percent of spouses cheat and 50 percent of marriages end in divorce, she wasn't too surprised when her husband had an affair. (That he did so with a woman their daughter's age? Well, that part did sting a bit.) She just made sure she got everything in the divorce, including their lovely old Victorian house. And as soon as her younger daughter has her hipster-fabulous wedding in the backyard, she's trading it in for a condo in downtown Chicago....

George Hall is an unobtrusive man. A little distant, perhaps, a little cautious, not quite at ease with the emotional demands of fatherhood or of manly bonhomie. “The secret of contentment, George felt, lay in ignoring many things completely.” Some things in life can’t be ignored, however: his tempestuous daughter Katie’s deeply inappropriate boyfriend Ray, for instance, or the sudden appearance of a red circular rash on his hip.

Taking the company into the 21st century was not going to be easy for Mr. Blue, Jr. His Chief of Staff, B.B. Queen, seemed to be getting with the program, while other sales executives were lagging behind. Faced with constant threats from those challenging his authority and the voice of Mr. Blue, Sr. echoing in his head, he and others find themselves involved in a series of games with plots and twists that keep them all on their toes, everyone vying for the prize. Who will advance? And who will be sent packing?

Aly Meadows is a self-proclaimed 'catfluencer' using her two beloved pets to earn thousands of likes on Instagram. But behind the lens, Aly is broke, facing eviction and living a life that's a million miles away from the glamourous world of social media stardom. Rick Harvard, the CEO of talent agency Glimmer, has the power to change her life, but only if Aly agrees to dive in at the deep end. Can Aly come out of her shell and channel the confidence of her insta-famous cats? And if so, will she finally find the love and laughter she deserves?

Hell's too full, so the Devil hires ad man Dirk Quigby to pen a travel guide enticing travelers to different afterlives: Hindu, Catholic, Protestant (that one's got a lot of subdivisions), Scientologist, and more. Instead of writing a boffo best seller, Dirk unites all religions in a common goal: kill Dirk. E. E. King grew up in one of those tolerant households that don't force religion down kids' throats. This is the result.

With freshman year behind her, things look grim for Rachael O'Brien's summer back home in Canton, Ohio, where the chances of hooking up with her crush seem to fall between slim and none. As if "quality time" working in her father's restoration shop isn't tortuous enough, his ditzy, age-inappropriate aerobics-instructor girlfriend moves into their house and tries to bond.