Books On The Nightstand

As the year is quickly winding down, I see I have several titles still sitting on the nightstand that it doesn't look like I will get read by the end of the year.

Here is what's stacked up...

Dating Big Bird by Laura Zigman

Description: With the laugh-out-loud humor and heartfelt wisdom that made ANIMAL HUSBANDRY a national bestseller, Laura Zigman's second novel introduces Ellen Franck, a successful single career woman whose one desire -- a child of her own -- throws her into the ever-growing ranks of the "reproductively challenged."

Ellen has a life many people dream about -- a glamorous fashion industry job, an apartment in Greenwich Village, good friends -- and yet Ellen feels herself at sixes and sevens, filled with a vague longing for... what? She can't say. Then the sight of her newborn niece, Nicole (a.k.a. "The Pickle"), makes her realize exactly what she's been missing: a child. But there's one problem. Malcolm, the man she loves, is too scarred by the long-ago death of his young son to ever consider fatherhood again.

Looking down the barrel of the dark side of thirty-five, Ellen knows that time is passing, and as it does, her desire to have a baby only increases -- especially when her sister Lynn announces she's pregnant with her second child. Now Ellen must finally address the very real flaws in her relationship with Malcolm and examine her doubts and fears about the only option that seems to be available -- single motherhood. And so begins nine months of reading, Internet surfing, and nonstop Zigmanesque observations about morning sickness, stretch marks, accelerated hair growth, digestion, amniocentesis (and that's just the beginning). And Ellen... well, Ellen finally makes a clear-eyed decision that will change her life.


Murder Between The Covers by Elaine Viets

Description: Once on the fast track to success, Helen Hawthorne is going nowhere faster. Forced to trade in her chic life for a shabby one, she's now on the run, jumping from city to city and dead-end job to dead-end job, trying to stay one step ahead of her past....

Helen has a new job "off the books" at Page Turners bookstore in Fort Lauderdale. It's run by Page Turner III, who happens to be neither well-read nor well-liked. When his money troubles surface, it seems the store's long life may be over --- but it's Page's life that's cut short instead. He had plenty of enemies, including an unhappy wife and unfortunate employees. But it is his unforgiving lover --- Helen's wacky neighbor --- police are ready to throw the book at. To save her friend, Helen will have to read between the lines ... and uncover the truth about a clever killer.


Wife In The Fast Lane by Karen Quinn

Description: Christy Hayes is a case study in successful living. She's won two Olympic gold medals, built a multimillion-dollar business, and landed a gorgeous and powerful CEO husband. But Christy's dream life begins to unravel when she inherits custody of an eleven year old girl named Renata. Suddenly she finds herself battling three formidable opponents: a treacherous business partner bent on ousting her from the company she founded, a ruthless stay at home mom who'll stop at nothing to maintain her PTA power base, and a stunning single woman scheming to steal her husband. Throw in the demands of one high maintenance spouse and it's clear: something's got to give. But what? Her marriage? Her career? Her sanity?


Tall, Dark & Dead by Tate Hallaway

Description: The line between magic and sanity is very thin. That's part of why I, Garnet Lacey, quit cold turkey. Never touch the stuff. No exceptions.

But magic is so addictive...and my inner Goddess, Lilith, is hard to resist. Besides, restraint isn't easy when you manage Wisconsin's premier occult bookstore, and get customers like Sebastian Von Traum --- piercing brown eyes, a sexy accent, and a killer body in black leather and denim. The only thing missing is an aura. Which means he's dead...

That means trouble. I guess I'm a sucker for it. The Vatican witch hunters are on to us. My long-lost vampire ex has crawled out of the woodwork looking for action. And Sebastian's frustrated ex is stirring in her grave.

What's a girl to do if she's hot for a dead man walking? Run like hell --- and take full advantage of the nights...


Nursery Crimes by Ayelet Waldman

Description: A public defender turned stay at home mom, Juliet Applebaum is bored with playdates and trips to the park --- so near the end of her second pregnancy, she gets off the mommy track to track down a murderer....

Juliet isn't too surprised when her feisty, tantrum throwing two year old daughter doesn't get into Hollywood's premier preschool ---- but she's shocked and suspicious when the school's principal is killed in a hit and run accident. Against the advice of her screenwriter husband, and with her rambunctious toddler in tow, Juliet heads to the local playground to dig up some dirt on a disgruntled studio executive whose daughter wasn't offered a place in the school. But she has some surprising new suspects to consider when her investigation takes her into a seedy online newsgroup --- and the most dangerous parts of the human heart....


Couch World by Cathy Yardley

Description: It's all about the furniture, the friends, the funk.

I WOKE UP HAVING NO IDEA WHERE I WAS.
IT'S A FAMILIAR FEELING.
IF I DID KNOW WHERE I WAS... THEN I THINK I'D BE WORRIED.

P.J.'s life is simple. Wake up at 2:00 p.m. In someone else's place, on someone else's couch. Shower. Clothes. Club. P.J.'s a punter -- someone who fills in if a DJ isn't able to make a gig. San Francisco is a hotbed of glam bands and alternative rock, and P.J.'s into all of it -- she's been living the urban Bedouin lifestyle for almost a year now, saving money to create the blow-out, off-the-hook demo of the music she loves, the music for which she deliberately abandoned "normal."

Ever wondered what it would be like to pack it all in and live the carefree life -- no 9 to 5, no daily grind, no routine, no one to check in with? P.J. knows how it's done. The most important element? Lots of friends, with couches. One night it's Cecil's high-end settee, the next it's Sticky's lumpy sofa. P.J.'s even got smarmy Samantha to make sure there's always a hideaway bed from hell in the wings. But when a reporter infiltrates her life, then acts as if she wants to make it her own, P.J. senses real trouble. Could this spell the end of couch world?


What's sitting on your nightstand?