If there’s one point that Jamie McClintock and Nate Goddard can agree upon, it’s that love is overrated. Jamie doesn’t have time for it. Nate doesn’t need it. And they certainly don’t want it from each other. Jamie, a struggling free-spirited artist, is a devoted single mother who hasn’t been in a serious relationship since her boyfriend abandoned her after their son was born. Nate, a charismatic jet-setting salesman, is widowed and estranged from his father and five-year-old son, Christopher. Jamie would rather glue glitter to pinecones than go out on a date. Nate spends most of his nights wooing his clients. Then one afternoon Nate’s father drops dead of a heart attack. In that moment, their highly guarded worlds collide. When Nate shows up at his childhood home to settle the estate and reclaim his son, he discovers that Jamie has been living in the Connecticut farmhouse as his father’s roommate. Mistrustful of each other’s motives, Nate and Jamie bicker about everything from children’s nicknames to Jamie’s fashion choices to Nate’s home renovation methods. It doesn’t help that Christopher prefers Jamie to his absentee father. But after the funeral, Nate and Jamie begin to see each other in a more forgiving light. Nate, traveling to sales conferences all over the country with a sullen Christopher in tow, learns he can’t breeze his way through single parenthood. Jamie, who has moved back in with her sister, wonders at the wisdom of her unconventional choices as a woman with a child to support. And both begin to realize they don’t know as much about love as they thought. Still wounded by past heartbreak and sorrow, can they learn to trust each other and open their hearts?

Kissing Games of the World: A Novel

Literature & Fiction

Shelton, Sandi Kahn

United States

Crown

“A classic romance. . . . It’s been done countless times, but rarely as engagingly as Shelton does it in this novel.” –Boston Globe Jamie is a free-spirited artist and devoted single mom with a slightly unorthodox living situation: in exchange for free rent, she looks after the grandson of her much older landlord. But when Harris Goddard dies of a heart attack–naked and splayed out in Jamie’s bed–nobody believes that he and Jamie were just roommates. With the rumor mill buzzing and two small children to care for, Jamie’s life is further upended when Harris’s handsome son, Nate, a charismatic jet-setting salesman, shows up unannounced at his childhood home to settle the estate and reclaim the five-year-old son he left behind. As Jamie’s and Nate’s highly guarded worlds collide, can these two damaged souls manage to see the good in each other . . . and maybe more? “Shelton’s warm, sentimental love story is told with a tenderness of heart and a nurturing eye.” –Romantic Times “Quite wonderful. . . . Like Anne Tyler, Shelton seems to possess a nearly boundless capacity for empathy. She has the ability to make us love her characters for their faults, not in spite of them.” –Connecticut Post

Broadway Books

From the first night home from the hospital to the joys of toilet training, this irreverent look at parenthood from a popular humor columnist encourages readers to see the lighter side of lost pacifiers and meddling in-laws. Tour.

Sleeping Through the Night. . . and Other Lies

Humor & Entertainment

Humor

St Martins Pr

So you thought you'd made it past the difficult part: the midnight feedings, the colic, the breast pumps, the endless diaper changings. Just when you thought you'd reached the blissful part of parenthood...here come the toddler/preschool years! Only Sandi Kahn Shelton could deliver such a dead-on, hilarious, true-ringing look at the walking, talking, crazy years. In Preschool Confidential, she explored such universal occurrences as: --Dealing with the mutiny in the checkout line (aka: begging or bribing?). --Presenting scientific proof that toddlers ask 437 questions per day. --Unveiling the four "answers" that any parent can recycle to respond to any toddler's question. --Ranking tantrums on a Richter scale. --Understanding day-care romances. --Ducking the sex questions every kid is destined to ask (at the most inopportune moments). --Dissecting the anatomy of a birthday party (or how to control a group of four-year-olds without ropes or sedatives). --Coping when the four food groups are Cheerios, macaroni and chesse, Jell-O, and lollipops. --Cooking purple mashed potatoes, and emergency tactics to stave off a hunger strike. --And much more! Preschool Confidential will have you howling at the apt, accurate, and painfully honest look at the preschool years. It will also have you thinking, I thought only my child did that!

Preschool Confidential

St.Martin's Press

You've got circles under your eyes, crusty white stuff on your clothes, and strained carrots in your hair--welcome to the lighter, messier and definitely funnier side of parenthood!In this laugh-out-loud collection of wit and wisdom, the WorkingMother columnist and author of You Might As Well Laugh delivers chuckles, cheer, and compassion--guaranteed to help parents survive the first three years. From breast feeding to toilet training and everything in-between, Sleeping Through the Night explores:Parent Lingo--or words you never thought you'd want to know the meaning of, like Onesies, Zwieback, and Projectile VomitingThe going bribery rates for toddlers (M&Ms are the currency of choice)All-time favorites toys: the toilet brush, lids from pots and pans, anything in your cosmetic drawer, fireplace tools, your keysHow to reconnect with old what's-his-name, that guy across the pillowThings NOT to discuss with the parents in the park (like your babysitter's phone number)

Sleeping Through the Night...and Other Lies: The Mysteries, Marvels, and Mayhem in the First Three Years of Parenthood

Parenting & Relationships

Parenting

St. Martin's Paperbacks

Is Wilber Winkle a consumer advocate extraordinaire or just a nut with too much time on his hands? Whatever the verdict, this hilarious collection of complaint letters to American corporations and their responses are a laugh-aloud page-turner. Readers everywhere will recognize the beefs that Wilber strives to get to the bottom of: Denny’s waitresses disturbing the delicate balance of cream and sugar in their coffee, the disappearance of the almond from the 5th Avenue candy bar, and insulting automotive technicians at Jiffy Lube. After studying Wilber’s letter-writing campaigns, readers will learn how to complain the Wilber Winkle Way and translate customer service-ese. An unflinchingly funny look into the world of customer service and one consumer who will not stand for life’s little inconveniences.

You Might As Well Laugh: Surviving the Joys of Parenthood

Bancroft Press

Fast-paced, warm, and laugh-out-loud funny, What Comes After Crazy chronicles a quest for normalcy that nearly drives a woman nuts. Maz Lombard craves a nice, quiet life—and who can blame her? Having grown up as the daughter of Madame Lucille, “Fortune Teller to the Stars,” she spent her Southern childhood traveling from town to town, wondering which of the many men her mother brought home would become her next stepfather (in a long line of stepfathers). Maz’s soon-to-be-ex-husband Lenny left for Santa Fe after his very public affair with a fetching young daycare teacher imploded. And Maz’s daughter Hope has become convinced she’s inherited the family “seeing” gene and is scaring her classmates with séances and dark prophecies. When Lenny shows up on the doorstep wanting another chance, and Madame Lucille pulls into town with her newest husband, any chance Maz has for a simple, ordinary life seems to go out the window. But is life at its craziest also at its most instructive? Will seeing her family in all its complicated, infuriating, and mystifying splendor enable Maz to define herself on her own terms and live the life she’s always wanted? Delightful, rollicking, but most of all unforgettably touching, What Comes After Crazy marks the debut of a radiant new talent in women’s fiction.

What Comes After Crazy: A Novel

Humor & Satire

Shaye Areheart Books

Having grown up as the daughter of Madame Lucille, “Fortune Teller to the Stars,” traveling from town to town, wondering which of the many men her mother brought home would become her next stepfather, Maz Lombard just wants a nice, quiet life. But Maz’s soon-to-be-ex-husband, Lenny, recently left for Santa Fe after his very public affair with a fetching young day-care teacher imploded, and her daughter Hope is convinced she’s inherited the family “seeing” gene and is scaring her classmates with séances and dark prophecies. When Lenny shows up wanting another chance, and Madame Lucille pulls into town with her newest husband, any hope Maz has for a simple, ordinary life goes out the window. But seeing her family in all its complicated, infuriating, and mystifying splendor might be just the thing to help Maz define herself on her own terms and live the life she’s always wanted. And what’s so crazy about that? Includes a new essay by the author and a preview chapter of her terrific new novel, A Piece of Normal Look for the Reader’s Group Guide at the back of this book.

Dear Lily . . . At age thirty-four, Lily Brown has her life just the way she likes it. And what’s not to like? She’s got a great job as an advice columnist for the local newspaper, an adorable four-year-old son, and an ex-husband, Teddy, who still thinks she’s wonderful. She even lives in the same beach house where she grew up, with a great view of Long Island Sound and plenty of beach roses to smell. So what if she won’t let herself date anyone until she finds a new girlfriend for Teddy, who happens to still be hung up on her? So what if she hasn’t changed a thing in her parents’ house, even twelve years after their tragic deaths? So what if it’s been ten years since she’s heard from her younger sister, Dana, who stormed out of the house in a rage when she was a teenager? Lily is fine. But it’s funny how life has a way of upsetting even the most perfectly laid-out plans, and when one night Lily finds herself painting ghastly orange highlights into her lovely auburn hair, even she suspects that she’s been in something of a rut. And then, when her long-lost little sister shows up, bringing with her the fun and drama and hell-raising spontaneity Lily has missed, her life suddenly takes a turn for the unexpected. To Lily’s chagrin, Dana’s energy seems to enthrall everyone, especially Teddy. As the tension between the sisters escalates, Dana reveals decades-old family secrets that she’s been burdened with all these years, and Dear Lily must heed her own advice about accepting life’s messiness and chaos. With her trademark blend of sparkling wit and characters you can’t forget, Sandi Kahn Shelton tells a compelling and universal story of two sisters who learn what they need to let go of, and what they have to hold on to as tightly as they can.

A Piece of Normal: A Novel

Dear Lily . . . At age thirty-four, Lily Brown has her life just the way she likes it. And what’s not to like? She’s got a great job as an advice columnist for the local newspaper, an adorable four-year-old son, and an ex-husband, Teddy, who still thinks she’s wonderful. She even lives in the same beach house where she grew up, with a great view of Long Island Sound and plenty of beach roses to smell. So what if she won’t let herself date anyone until she finds a new girlfriend for Teddy, who happens to still be hung up on her? So what if she hasn’t changed a thing in her parents’ house, even twelve years after their tragic deaths? So what if it’s been ten years since she’s heard from her younger sister, Dana, who stormed out of the house in a rage when she was a teenager? Lily is fine. But it’s funny how life has a way of upsetting even the most perfectly laid-out plans, and when one night Lily finds herself painting ghastly orange highlights into her lovely auburn hair, even she suspects that she’s been in something of a rut. And then, when her long-lost little sister shows up, bringing with her the fun and drama and hell-raising spontaneity Lily has missed, her life suddenly takes a turn for the unexpected. To Lily’s chagrin, Dana’s energy seems to enthrall everyone, especially Teddy. As the tension between the sisters escalates, Dana reveals decades-old family secrets that she’s been burdened with all these years, and Dear Lily must heed her own advice about accepting life’s messiness and chaos. With her trademark blend of sparkling wit and characters you can’t forget, Sandi Kahn Shelton tells a compelling and universal story of two sisters who learn what they need to let go of, and what they have to hold on to as tightly as they can. From the Hardcover edition.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Shelton, Sandi Kahn. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Shelton, Sandi Kahn

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Shelton, Sandi Kahn. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Kissing Games of the World: A Novel

Kissing Games of the World: A Novel

Sleeping Through the Night. . . and Other Lies

Preschool Confidential

Sleeping Through the Night...and Other Lies: The Mysteries, Marvels, and Mayhem in the First Three Years of Parenthood

You Might As Well Laugh: Surviving the Joys of Parenthood

What Comes After Crazy: A Novel

What Comes After Crazy: A Novel

A Piece of Normal: A Novel

A Piece of Normal: A Novel