Millions of American parents sit down to dinner every night, wondering why fully grown children are joining them --- or, more likely, grunting good-bye as they head out for another night of who knows what. Sally Koslow, a journalist, novelist and mother of two “adultescents,” digs deep to reveal what lies behind the current generation's unwillingness --- or inability --- to take flight.

Millions of American parents sit down to dinner every night, wondering why fully grown children are joining them --- or, more likely, grunting good-bye as they head out for another night of who knows what. Sally Koslow, a journalist, novelist and mother of two “adultescents,” digs deep to reveal what lies behind the current generation's unwillingness --- or inability --- to take flight.

Millions of American parents sit down to dinner every night, wondering why fully grown children are joining them --- or, more likely, grunting good-bye as they head out for another night of who knows what. Sally Koslow, a journalist, novelist, and mother of two "adultescents" digs deep to reveal what lies behind the current generation’s unwillingness --- or inability --- to take flight.

By delving into the latest research and conducting probing interviews with both frustrated parents and their frustrated offspring, Koslow uses humor, insight, and honest self-reflection to give voice to the issues of prolonged dependency. From the adultescent’s relationship to work (or no work), money (that convenient parental ATM), or social life, SLOUCHING TOWARD ADULTHOOD is a provocative, razor-sharp, but heartfelt cri de coeur for all the parents who sent their kids to college only to have them ricochet home with a diploma in one hand and the DVR remote in the other.

Janet Groth recalls the two decades she spent as a receptionist for The New Yorker in this memoir that details the comings and goings, marriages and divorces, scandalous affairs, failures, triumphs, and tragedies of the eccentric inhabitants of the eighteenth floor. During those single-in-the-city years, Groth tried on many identities, but eventually she would have to leave The New Yorker to find her true self.

Janet Groth recalls the two decades she spent as a receptionist for The New Yorker in this memoir that details the comings and goings, marriages and divorces, scandalous affairs, failures, triumphs, and tragedies of the eccentric inhabitants of the eighteenth floor. During those single-in-the-city years, Groth tried on many identities, but eventually she would have to leave The New Yorker to find her true self.

Thanks to a successful interview with a painfully shy E. B. White, a beautiful 19-year-old hazel-eyed Midwesterner landed a job as receptionist at The New Yorker. There she stayed for two decades, becoming the general office factotum --- watching and registering the comings and goings, marriages and divorces, scandalous affairs, failures, triumphs, and tragedies of the eccentric inhabitants of the eighteenth floor. In addition to taking their messages, Groth watered their plants, walked their dogs, boarded their cats, and sat their children (and houses) when they traveled. And although she dreamed of becoming a writer herself, she never advanced at the magazine.

This memoir of a particular time and place is as much about why that was so as it is about Groth’s fascinating relationships with poet John Berryman (who proposed marriage), essayist Joseph Mitchell (who took her to lunch every Friday), and playwright Muriel Spark (who invited her to Christmas dinner in Tuscany), as well as E. J. Kahn, Calvin Trillin, Renata Adler, Peter Devries, Charles Addams, and many other New Yorker contributors and bohemian denizens of Greenwich Village in its heyday.

During those single-in-the-city years, Groth tried on many identities --- Nice Girl, Sex Pot, Dumb Blonde, World Traveler, Doctoral Candidate --- but eventually she would have to leave The New Yorker to find her true self.

Daniel Smith articulates what it is like to live with anxiety, defanging the disease with humor, traveling through its demonic layers, and evocatively expressing its self-destructive absurdities and painful internal coherence. He exposes anxiety as a pudgy, weak-willed wizard behind a curtain of dread and tames what has always seemed to him a terrible affliction.

Daniel Smith articulates what it is like to live with anxiety, defanging the disease with humor, traveling through its demonic layers, and evocatively expressing its self-destructive absurdities and painful internal coherence. He exposes anxiety as a pudgy, weak-willed wizard behind a curtain of dread and tames what has always seemed to him a terrible affliction.

Anxiety once paralyzed Daniel Smith over a roast beef sandwich, convincing him that a choice between ketchup and barbeque sauce was as dire as that between life and death. It has caused him to chew his cuticles until they bled, wear sweat pads in his armpits, and confess his sexual problems to his psychotherapist mother. It has dogged his days, threatened his sanity, and ruined his relationships.

In MONKEY MIND, Smith articulates what it is like to live with anxiety, defanging the disease with humor, traveling through its demonic layers, and evocatively expressing its self-destructive absurdities and painful internal coherence. With honesty and wit, he exposes anxiety as a pudgy, weak-willed wizard behind a curtain of dread and tames what has always seemed to him, and to the tens of millions of others who suffer from anxiety, a terrible affliction.

Aaron Beck, the most influential doctor in modern psychotherapy, says that "MONKEY MIND does for anxiety what William Styron’s DARKNESS VISIBLE did for depression.” Neurologist and bestselling writer Oliver Sacks says, “I read MONKEY MIND with admiration for its bravery and clarity...I broke out into explosive laughter again and again.” Here, finally, comes relief and recognition to all those who want someone to put what they feel, or what their loved ones feel, into words.

Special agent Maggie O'Dell is called in to investigate a building fire with a human casualty. The local team insists the suspect is a rash and young perp, but Maggie thinks this is the work of a calculated and controlled criminal. As the acts of arson become more brazen, Maggie's professional and personal worlds begin to collide dangerously.

Special agent Maggie O'Dell is called in to investigate a building fire with a human casualty. The local team insists the suspect is a rash and young perp, but Maggie thinks this is the work of a calculated and controlled criminal. As the acts of arson become more brazen, Maggie's professional and personal worlds begin to collide dangerously.