Zomorod (Cindy) Yousefzadeh is the new kid on the block...for the fourth time. California’s Newport Beach is her family’s latest perch, and she’s determined to shuck her brainy loner persona and start afresh with a new Brady Bunch name—Cindy. It’s the late 1970s, and fitting in becomes more difficult as Iran makes U.S. headlines with protests, revolution, and finally the taking of American hostages. Even puka shell necklaces, pool parties, and flying fish can't distract Cindy from the anti-Iran sentiments that creep way too close to home. A poignant yet lighthearted middle grade debut from the author of the bestselling Funny in Farsi. California Library Association’s John and Patricia Beatty Award Winner Florida Sunshine State Young Readers Award (Grades 6–8) New York Historical Society’s New Americans Book Prize Winner Middle East Book Award for Youth Literature, Honorable Mention Booklist 50 Best Middle Grade Novels of the 21st Century
Hilariously funny and oddly informativeStella Rheingold's"Ain't it Awful" is the perfect gift for the chronic grumbler, or anyone who wants to get their gripe on! WARNING! May contain opinions and ideas that you disagree with."
"Monroe is a masterful storyteller." --Philadelphia Inquirer There are some things even forever friends can't fix. . . Annette Goode Davis is a survivor. Life has often knocked her down, but she's never stayed there for long. To Annette, it's all about family and old friends like Rhoda O'Toole. And right now, Annette needs all the friends she can get. Because lately, her husband, Pee Wee, barely has the time of day for her. And she has no idea why. . . Desperate to regain Pee Wee's affections, Annette goes on a crash diet, gets a makeover, and looks hotter than she has in a long time. Everyone notices--except Pee Wee. So when handsome Louis Baines showers her with attention, Annette finds herself having an affair and spending money on Louis like there's no tomorrow. But when she learns a terrible secret about her new lover, she realizes she's in way over her head. Soon Annette must face the fact that she may have destroyed the life she loved--and this time, not even Rhoda can help her make things right. . . "A fast-paced, sexy, tense story that will make readers think twice before getting tangled up in an affair." --Booklist "Monroe's never better than when she's writing about Annette and Rhoda. . .who are always getting in trouble." --Publishers Weekly
"Ain't it Awful" was a favorite phrase of a Milbank matron who was known for her active role in the community grapevine. Phyllis Dolan Justice adopted that phrase as the title of her new column that appeared in print for the first time in the July 16, 1936, issue of the Grant County Review. The Review was a newspaper published in Milbank, South Dakota, and owned by Phyllis' father, William Dolan. Phyllis began collecting news for her father at the age of 11. She interviewed travelers at the train station, and reported on their comings and goings. She began writing "Ain't it Awful" just prior to transferring to the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis to study journalism. She had previously attended South Dakota State College in Brookings for two years. Phyllis continued the column once in college, and for the next 10 years, no matter where she roamed, she wrote the column for the Review. It was a time of change for the country, and Phyllis' columns reflect the times. From the first full-length Walt Disney picture, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," to presidential press conferences she attended, "Ain't it Awful" covered a wide range of topics. She wrote of gas rations and food coupons as well as the shortage of butter and sugar. Through her job at a Minneapolis newspaper she met many celebrities, and wrote about interviewing Judy Garland, James Cagney, Dick Powell and others. She spoke to famous Mexican muralist Diego Rivera on a trip to Mexico. He was working on a huge mural in the National Palace in Mexico City, and he eagerly stopped painting to talk to an inquisitive Phyllis. Phyllis changed jobs several times from 1936 to 1946, and in-between her career shifts she landed back in Milbank to aid her father with the production of the Review. When residing in Milbank her columns often included funny mishaps of the residents of Grant County. When she resided elsewhere, she frequently ran into people from Grant County, and reported on their happenings in the column. For 10 years, Phyllis wandered around the country, enjoying her experiences and writing about them in her "Ain't it Awful" column. She continued to write the column after returning home to run the newspaper, but these early columns produce nostalgia for a simpler time in our country's history when patriotism was high, and everybody pulled together.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Finalist for the PEN/USA Award in Creative Nonfiction, the Thurber Prize for American Humor, and the Audie Award in Biography/Memoir This Random House Reader’s Circle edition includes a reading group guide and a conversation between Firoozeh Dumas and Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner! “Remarkable . . . told with wry humor shorn of sentimentality . . . In the end, what sticks with the reader is an exuberant immigrant embrace of America.”—San Francisco Chronicle In 1972, when she was seven, Firoozeh Dumas and her family moved from Iran to Southern California, arriving with no firsthand knowledge of this country beyond her father’s glowing memories of his graduate school years here. More family soon followed, and the clan has been here ever since. Funny in Farsi chronicles the American journey of Dumas’s wonderfully engaging family: her engineer father, a sweetly quixotic dreamer who first sought riches on Bowling for Dollars and in Las Vegas, and later lost his job during the Iranian revolution; her elegant mother, who never fully mastered English (nor cared to); her uncle, who combated the effects of American fast food with an army of miraculous American weight-loss gadgets; and Firoozeh herself, who as a girl changed her name to Julie, and who encountered a second wave of culture shock when she met and married a Frenchman, becoming part of a one-couple melting pot. In a series of deftly drawn scenes, we watch the family grapple with American English (hot dogs and hush puppies?—a complete mystery), American traditions (Thanksgiving turkey?—an even greater mystery, since it tastes like nothing), and American culture (Firoozeh’s parents laugh uproariously at Bob Hope on television, although they don’t get the jokes even when she translates them into Farsi). Above all, this is an unforgettable story of identity, discovery, and the power of family love. It is a book that will leave us all laughing—without an accent. Praise for Funny in Farsi “Heartfelt and hilarious—in any language.”—Glamour “A joyful success.”—Newsday “What’s charming beyond the humor of this memoir is that it remains affectionate even in the weakest, most tenuous moments for the culture. It’s the brilliance of true sophistication at work.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review “Often hilarious, always interesting . . . Like the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, this book describes with humor the intersection and overlapping of two cultures.”—The Providence Journal “A humorous and introspective chronicle of a life filled with love—of family, country, and heritage.”—Jimmy Carter “Delightfully refreshing.”—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel “[Funny in Farsi] brings us closer to discovering what it means to be an American.”—San Jose Mercury News
Ten-year-old (nearly eleven) Zara's nickname is "Queen of the Neighborhood" because she organizes the other children (even the older ones), sets the rules, and generally makes sure everyone has fun; but now another ten-year-old, Naomi, has moved in across the street and she has her own ideas about fun games, and suddenly the other kids (even Zara's younger brother Zayd) are listening to Naomi--if she is going to retain her influence Zara needs to come up with something quick, and an old copy of the Guinness Book of World Records gives her an idea.
The most lucid account of the patterns of problem drinkers ever set down in a book! Drawing on soundly tested theories of transactional behavior, Dr. Steiner describes the three distinct types of alcoholics -- Drunk and Proud, Lush and Wino -- and their games, scripts and rackets: Debtor... Kick... Cops and robbers... Plastic Woman... Captain Marvel...Ain't it awful... Schlemiel... Look how hard I've tried... and others. His approach is the single most useful tool for dealing with alcoholism since A.A. and the Twelve Steps, and offers the first real help -- and hope -- for problem drinkers and their families.
Eleanor & Park meets Perks of Being a Wallflower in this bittersweet 1980’s story about love, loss, and a comet that only comes around every ninety-seven years. When Carrie looks through her telescope, the world makes sense. It’s life here on Earth that’s hard to decipher. Since her older sister, Ginny, died, Carrie has been floating in the orbit of Ginny’s friends, the cool kids, who are far more interested in bands and partying than science. Carrie’s reckless behavior crosses a line, and her father enrolls her in a summer work camp at a local state park. There, Carrie pulls weeds and endures pep talks about the power of hard work. Despite her best efforts to hate the job, Carrie actually feels happy out in nature. And when she meets Dean—warm, thoughtful, and perceptive—she starts to discover that her life can be like her beloved night sky, with black holes of grief for Ginny and dazzling meteors of joy from first love.
