Showing results for "Secrets and Lives" in Literature & Fiction

Tara Gallagher is knackered. She used to dream of being Beyoncé, but suddenly she’s 36—with three kids, a loving husband, a very boring job—and instead of headlining Glastonbury, she’s in her pyjamas on a Friday night, watching Gogglebox. It’s time for a mammy makeover. She’s going to show her teenage daughter she’s still cool. She’s going to show her husband she’s still an absolute ride. She’s going to show her colleagues she’s still a boss bish.

Take David Sedaris’ self-deprecation and deep sense of the absurd and toss in a pinch Erma Bombeck’s happy skewering of domestic life: there you have M. A. C. Farrant. In this witty, affecting collection of personal essays, Farranthas a gift for making those observations that would be harrowing, if they weren’t so funny, and here tackles the absurdities of family life from both sides of the generational divide: as a young girl growing up in a dysfunctional family in the 1960s, and as a mother herself to three troublesome teenagers.

Sixty-four-year-old Albert Entwistle has been a postie in a quiet town in Northern England for all his life, living alone since the death of his mam 18 years ago. He keeps himself to himself. He always has. But he's just learned he'll be forced to retire at his next birthday. With no friends and nothing to look forward to, the lonely future he faces terrifies him. He realises it's finally time to be honest about who he is. He must learn to ask for what he wants. And he must find the courage to look for George, the man that, many years ago, he lost - but has never forgotten.

Fatima, Farah, Bubblee and Mae, the four sisters of the Amir family, are sometimes tired of being the only Muslim young women in a rural British village, not helped by their eccentric neighbours, including the hippie nudists next door. Oldest sister Fatima - or, as her family have always nicknamed her, Fatti (which, she worryingly suspects, has just as much to do with her inability to lose weight and guilty-pleasure love of Primula squeezy cheese as it does her birth name) - is having a particularly hard time finding her place in the world.

MacGyver the tabby is feeling very pleased with himself. His human, Jamie Snyder, has found the perfect packmate - and it's all thanks to Mac. By stealing personal items from the home of Jamie's handsome neighbor David, the matchmaking cat brought these two LA singles together. Now, while the newlyweds are off on their honeymoon, MacGyver is ready for a well-deserved cat nap. That is, until he meets his cat sitter Briony. Like most humans, she's hopeless when it comes to romance. And Mac can't resist a challenge....

Lyssa Harper should have warned divorced DILF du jour Harry Wilder before she invited him to meet the mommies of the Paradise Heights Women’s League Board. At least he brought cupcakes. Since taking the former Master-of-the-Universe turned stay-at-home-single-dad under her wing, Lyssa has been his domestic Sherpa, teaching him the ins and outs of life inside their gated community. She never dreamed her friends would bombard him with casseroles, leopard-print bikini briefs, and offers to rearrange his kitchen cabinets.

Packed with authentic Southern flavor and characters as colorful as an azalea in full bloom, The Secret Lives of the Kudzu Debutantes serves up stinging one-liners and earthy wisdom in equal measure.

After being mugged by a pair of pensioners outside the Darby & Joan Club, the Reverend Timothy Carswell has had enough of his rough, tough inner-city parish. Convinced that someone so meek would be better suited somewhere quieter, the Bishop packs him off to a nice, sedate residential neighbourhood where nothing ever seems to happen. However, unbeknownst to the vicar, his apparently respectable new parish is a hotbed of passion, paranormal experimentation and geriatric prostitution.

**Pre-order Bella Mackie's new 2026 novel CLAWS OUT! now** Grace Bernard is on a murderous mission… to avenge her mother, she plans to do away with every member of her family, one awful rich person at a time. And then she's imprisoned for a crime she didn't commit. Entertaining, shocking and...

Frederick Fife has borrowed someone else’s life – but it might just save his own… A funny, tender and uplifting story about second chances, human connection and the families we find along the way. The feel-good runaway bestseller about forgiveness, redemption, and finding family. Frederick...

When Catherine Moran’s long-lost brother bequeaths her a boat in Key West, she’s not sure what hurts more: his death or the decades they’ve been estranged. The fifty-seven-year-old thinks this could be the answer to her financial strain since putting their mother in a memory care facility, but when she arrives on the island, her bonanza is a bust. The boat is a dilapidated trawler supposedly once owned by Ernest Hemingway, and a handsome buddy of her brother is living onboard but refuses to jump ship.

‘Absolutely adored this book, what a brilliant read… Would highly recommend.’ NetGalley reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A fresh start brings a second chance at love… When Orly’s boyfriend and business partner dumps her for a celebrity fling, she finds solace in tacos, tequila and tears. One...

She married him for better or worse. But no one mentioned the ex-wife. When saying 'I do' to the love of her life, it didn't matter to Marie that Scott had been married before. But four years later, it's a different story. These days, Marie feels as though Scott sees more of his first wife and...

Fans of Katie Fforde, Phillipa Ashley and The Vicar of Dibley will love this heartwarming and witty audiobook from Julie Houston. Three devoted sisters... One complicated family. After the untimely death of their biological father, triplets Eva, Rosa and Hannah find themselves the unlikely...

'Wonderfully drawn characters you really root for . . . a delightfully uplifting story' – Mike Gayle, author of All the Lonely People When an elderly eccentric collector and a troubled teen become each other's only hope of getting their lives back on track, what can possibly go wrong? Alfred...

“Wonderful. . . . Dark, funny, full of emotional intelligence and gripping from the start . . . beautifully written.”—Daily Mail The internationally bestselling author and host of The Graham Norton Show returns with a tense and darkly comic novel thatcasts a caustic light on the...

The extraordinary new novel from David Flusfeder. ‘John the Pupil’ is a medieval road movie, Umberto Eco seen through the eyes of Quentin Tarrantino, recounting the journey taken from Oxford to Viterbo in 1267 by John and his two companions, at the behest of the friar and magus Roger Bacon...

The Secret World is an impressions show with a difference – it shines a light on the imaginary alternative lives of famous folk. Each episode takes place over one day, with stories unfolding and overlapping from morning to night. In these 22 episodes, we hear about the bizarre habits of celebrities from Lady Gaga to Keith Harris and Orville. Al Pacino reveals his alternative life as a balloon twister, Barack Obama becomes a Pearly King; Professor Brian Cox finds himself stalked by various women, including the Queen.

Friday January 2nd I felt rotten today. It's my mother's fault for singing 'My Way' at two o'clock in the morning at the top of the stairs. Just my luck to have a mother like her. There is a chance my parents could be alcoholics. Next year I could be in a children's home. Meet Adrian Mole, a...

Poor Jean Collins. She stepped out into the road without looking and now lies broken in hospital. But what distracted her? And why was she carrying a box of vanilla slices, the cream cakes she only ever bought for special occasions? Jean's daughter Anne travels back up north to find out. But her...