Adult

In this no-holds-barred book of comedic and personal essays, "Everybody Loves Raymond" star Brad Garrett waxes hilarious --- and irreverently honest --- about the gaffes, challenges and ultimately the joys of middle age as he advises us on how to best approach the dreaded “second half” of life. Ranging in topics from genetics to genitals, weight to women, and dating to diarrhea, Brad leaves no stone unturned in this laugh-out-loud look at getting older.

Aaron Littman is the premier lawyer of his generation and the chairman of Cromwell Altman, the most powerful law firm in New York City, when a high-profile new client threatens all that he’s achieved --- and more. Nicolai Garkov is accused of laundering funds for the Russian Mafia and financing a terrorist bombing in Red Square. He admits his guilt to Aaron but has a plan for exoneration that includes blackmailing the presiding judge, the Honorable Faith Nichols. If the judge won’t do his bidding, Garkov promises to go public with irrefutable evidence of an affair between Aaron and Faith.

When New York journalist and recently bereaved mother Charlotte “Charlie” Cates begins to experience vivid dreams about children, she is sure that she has lost her mind. Yet these are not the nightmares of a grieving parent, she soon realizes. They are messages and warnings that will help Charlie and the children she sees, if only she can make sense of them. After a little boy in a boat appears in Charlie’s dreams asking for her help, Charlie finds herself entangled in a 30-year-old missing-child case that has never ceased to haunt Louisiana’s prestigious Deveau family.

Roberta Gilbert, owner of Primrose Haus, has been hosting events at her charming Victorian for 30 years. She's an expert on weddings, but not on mother-daughter relations. When her daughter, Daphne, comes home and decides to help with the business, the receptions become truly memorable --- and not in a good way. Then there's the added complication of Roberta's gardener, who seems more interested in Daphne than he is in planting primroses.

When tragedy rears its head with an industrial leak that kills and sickens residents of Friendswood, Texas, it pulls on the common thread that runs through the community, intensifying everything. From a confused 15-year-old girl beset by visions, to a high school football star tormented by his actions, to a mother galvanized by the death of her teen daughter, to a morally bankrupt father trying to survive his mistakes, René Steinke explores what happens when families are trapped in the ambiguity of history’s missteps --- when the actions of a few change the lives and well-being of many.

Like all citizens since the Ruining, Carrington Hale knows the importance of this day. But she never expected the moment she’d spent a lifetime preparing for --- her Choosing ceremony --- to end in disaster. Ripped from her family, she’ll spend her days serving as a Lint, the lowest level of society. But then Carrington is offered an unprecedented chance at the life she’s always dreamed of, yet she can’t shake the feeling that it may be an illusion. With a killer targeting Lints and corruption threatening the highest levels of the Authority, Carrington must uncover the truth before it destroys her.

A goldfish named Ian is falling from the 27th-floor balcony on which his fishbowl sits. He's longed for adventure, so when the opportunity arises, he escapes from his bowl, clears the balcony railing and finds himself airborne. Plummeting toward the street below, Ian witnesses the lives of the Seville on Roxy residents.

One June day, an old book arrives on Simon Watson's doorstep, sent by an antiquarian bookseller who purchased it on speculation. It is a log from the owner of a traveling carnival in the 1700s, who reports strange and magical things, including the drowning death of a circus mermaid. Since then, generations of "mermaids" in Simon's family have drowned --- always on July 24, which is only weeks away. Could there be a curse on Simon's family? What does it have to do with the book, and can he get to the heart of the mystery in time to save his sister?

Rachel Rabinowitz is confronted with her dark past when she becomes a nurse at Manhattan’s Old Hebrews Home and her patient is none other than the elderly, cancer-stricken Dr. Mildred Solomon, who subjected her to X-ray treatments that left her disfigured as a child. Rachel becomes obsessed with making Dr. Solomon acknowledge, and pay for, her wrongdoing. But each passing hour Rachel spends with the old doctor reveals to Rachel the complexities of her own nature.

Sophie Stark begins her filmmaking career by creating a documentary about her obsession, Daniel, a college basketball star. But when she becomes too invasive, she finds herself the victim of a cruel retribution. The humiliation doesn’t stop her, though. Visionary and unapologetic, Sophie begins to use stories from the lives of those around her to create movies, and as she gains critical recognition and acclaim, she risks betraying the one she loves most.