Here are 100 books that The Ex-Wife's Survival Guide fans have personally recommended if you like
The Ex-Wife's Survival Guide.
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From the beginning of my writing journey in 2000, all my girls have been full of spunk and sass and fighting every day to figure out life in the present while also dealing with the past, all while solving murders and mysteries and navigating relationships; oh my! The books I chose are all about that sass and spunk, those main characters in The Cozies (or RomCozies as I call mine since they have both murder and a budding romance) that not only make you snicker in the right places but also sigh when they’re over, you close the book, and hold it to your heart hoping the next is coming soon.
Donna Andrews is next with her delightful Meg Langslow Mysteries. My book was the first book I read in this series, and then I had to go back and start from the beginning and wait (im)patiently between each release for the next one.
I love how Meg handles things and how she puts the pieces together. I often finish the books in this series and think, “I could have figured it out if I hadn’t been snickering so much!”
Poor Meg Langslow. She’s blessed in so many ways. Michael, her boyfriend, is a handsome, delightful heartthrob who adores her. She’s a successful blacksmith, known for her artistic wrought-iron creations. But somehow Meg’s road to contentment is more rutted and filled with potholes than seems fair.
There are Michael’s and Meg’s doting but demanding mothers, for a start. And then there’s the fruitless hunt for a place big enough for the couple to live together. And a succession of crises brought on by the well-meaning but utterly wacky demands of her friends and family. Demands that Meg has a hard…
Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!
On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…
Time travel has always been my favorite genre of storytelling. Devouring every time travel book, movie, TV series, or comic strip I’ve come across in my life got me thinking a lot about cause and effect, chicken and egg, before and after. I eventually came to realize the literary world of prequels and sequels with multiple book series didn’t always have to be read in the order of release, especially if, as a reader, you had a late start that was still “new to you.”
Sequel/prequel/sidequel/timequel: reading a series out of order is a whole new type of adventure.
I’d never heard the term “epistolary novel” prior to reading Michael Kun’s The Locklear Letters, but was immediately smitten with the concept of telling a story solely through a series of letters and/or emails sent by the narrator.
This sequel follows the same template and the same protagonist a decade down the line. I liken it to finding a boxful of letters and using them to piece together a hilarious comedy of errors. Maybe you’ll keep digging and find an older box later, or maybe the archivist kept orderly annals, allowing you to move forward through the years.
Sequencing doesn’t matter, but the written words will leave you in stitches.
Sid Straw, the author of the correspondence that forms Everybody Says Hello, isn t Everyman, but he is someone everyone knows. He tries just a little too hard, says just a little too much, and that extra effort and those extra words are often his undoing. If only Sid could get out of his own way, his life would be wonderful. While Sid Straw may frustrate you at times, you ll end up rooting for him the same way you root for your own equally imperfect friends.
I am a romantic; I live to love. My books Eve’s Blessing and Subjectified both help women build great sex and love lives. As a therapist and sex educator, I help people connect with their partners and build the relationships of their dreams. I am currently working on a romance novel with spiritual and psychedelic themes. I love books that introduce us to new worlds as we explore the inner world of each character.
This classic romance novel—and, now, movie—features a love story not just between a woman and a man but also between two sisters struggling to find themselves and overcome self-destructive behavior.
By the end, you'll experience catharsis as both women confront their longstanding self-confidence issues and make peace with themselves and each other.
Rose Feller is thirty years old, a high-powered attorney, with a secret passion for romance novels, an exercise regime she's going to start next week, and dreams of a man who will slide off her glasses, gaze into her eyes, and tell her that she's beautiful.
Meet Rose's sister Maggie. Twenty-eight years old, drop-dead gorgeous and only occasionally employed, Maggie is a backing singer in a band called. She dreams of fame and fortune -- and of getting her dowdy big sister to stick to a skin-care regime.
These two women with nothing in common but a childhood tragedy, shared…
AcClaim is a dark, high-society romance about Beatrix Winslow-Hale, a successful romance author who believes desire can be negotiated and controlled—until enigmatic billionaire Dorian Wolker crosses the line between consensual surrender and violation. Publicly humiliated and emotionally shattered, Beatrix turns to Manon de Rochemaure, her fiercely loyal best friend and…
I am a picture book author/illustrator who writes humorous stories. One of my favorite techniques for instilling humor in my writing is for the illustrations to show the reader more than the characters’ know. It’s so much fun for kids to realize and be in on the joke before the characters in the book. I love a storytime where the kids get engaged and start pointing out what’s really happening and start talking to the characters to try to change their actions. I also love a good twist ending that makes the reader say, “How did I not see that coming?!” and these are the perfect kind of books for it.
In this book, three thieves make a plan to dig a tunnel to rob a bank, and I just love a mischievous picture book topic.
The art is so clever because we can see where the thieves are digging and the hilarious mistakes they have made as they end up in places that are definitely not the bank. The art is so charming and the digging teacher is perfection.
Sometimes the real treasures are the people you meet along the way.
Fans of Mac Barnett, Jory John, and Chris Haughton will adore this hilarious story of a bank robbery that doesn't go according to plan. Loosely inspired by the most famous bank heist in Argentina, Joaquin Camp decided to explore what would happen if the thieves had not been successful and had instead been content with what they already have. If instead of arriving at the bank, our thieves had landed in all sorts of other surprising places. The result is a story of upending expectations, teamwork, acceptance, and…
I’m a lifelong fantasy reader, but all too often, I find myself grousing at the characters: “Listen! You could solve all your problems with a really confident lie!” Or: “...by revealing the truth in a public campaign before the villain gets you!” Or: “May I suggest a well-placed arrow?” Or: “Is he really the villain? The infrastructure seems pretty sound, and you have no expertise in governance!” Every now and then, I’m delighted to find characters as pragmatic as I am (or as I would be if I were a fantasy hero). These are my favorites.
I’m not much of a re-reader, yet after I finished the five books in this series, I turned straight back to page one and started over, cackling all the while.
Although Johannes Cabal would be far from charming if you met him, following his adventures is a delight due to Jonathan Howard’s delicious, dry wit. Whether it’s coming out on top in a deal with the Devil, solving a murder on an airship, or surviving a time loop in a Lovecraftian universe, I have confidence that Cabal’s clever mind–and giant revolver–will see him triumph with black humor and grumpiness intact. (The only thing that may be his undoing is his annoyingly charming vampire brother.)
These are some of the funniest fantasies around, and it’s a crying shame how little-known they are.
The page-turning first novel in the charmingly gothic, fiendishly funny Faustian series about a brilliant scientist who makes a deal with the Devil, twice. • "The spot-on work of a talented writer." —The Denver Post
Johannes Cabal sold his soul years ago in order to learn the laws of necromancy. Now he wants it back. Amused and slightly bored, Satan proposes a little wager: Johannes has to persuade one hundred people to sign over their souls or he will be damned forever. This time for real. Accepting the bargain, Jonathan is given one calendar year and a traveling carnival to…
I started out my writing career in romance and romantic suspense but discovered my humor gene when I wrote my first chick lit novel. Who knew I could write humor? Certainly not me! I bungle every joke I’ve ever tried to tell. But suddenly humor was flowing from my fingertips onto my computer screen. Seeing this new side to my writing, my agent suggested I try my hand at a humorous cozy mystery. Suddenly I found my true calling. I left the world of romance behind and settled into the world of murder and mayhem, complete with a large dollop of laughter.
Technically, Stephanie Plum isn’t an amateur sleuth because she works as a bounty hunter, but since she was never trained and tends to succeed despite her bungling and ineptitude, I consider her an amateur sleuth. Besides, when you’re sorely in need of a good laugh to release some endorphins, you can’t go wrong spending a few hours with Stephanie and her colorful cohorts. This twenty-seventh outing in the long-running series is one of the best when it comes not only to the humor, but it offers up a well-plotted story, and lots of red herrings. Plus, there’s plenty of Grandma Masur in this one. What more could you ask for?
From “the most popular mystery writer alive” (The New York Times), the twenty-seventh thrilling entry in the #1 New York Times bestselling series isn’t just the biggest case of Stephanie Plum’s career. It’s the adventure of a lifetime.
When Stephanie’s beloved Grandma Mazur’s new husband died on their wedding night, the only thing he left her was a beat-up old easy chair…and the keys to a life-changing fortune.
But as Stephanie and Grandma Mazur search for Jimmy Rosolli’s treasure, they discover that they’re not the only ones on the hunt. Two dangerous enemies from the past stand in their…
"A profound and often affecting story of resilience." —Kirkus Reviews
The Silent Women, an extraordinary novel inspired by the real women of Oak Ridge, Tennessee—the Manhattan Project’s “Secret City," where thousands kept the deadliest secret of World War II—is a sweeping, absorbing, and deeply human story about chosen…
Anyone who knows me knows that Christmas is my absolute favorite time of year! I devour all things Christmas, from decor to movies to music to cookies, so curling up with a magical holiday book is my idea of a very merry holiday!
A Christmas Story is my all time favorite Christmas movie so as a gift to myself I bought a copy of the short stories book that it was based on. Jean Shepard was a great writer and radio personality, and it comes through every page of this book. Such a great companion piece to the film.
A collection of humorous and nostalgic Americana stories—the beloved, bestselling classics that inspired the movie A Christmas Story
Before Garrison Keillor and Spalding Gray there was Jean Shepherd: a master monologist and writer who spun the materials of his all-American childhood into immensely resonant—and utterly hilarious—works of comic art. In God We Trust: All Others Pay Cash represents one of the peaks of his achievement, a compound of irony, affection, and perfect detail that speaks across generations.
In God We Trust, Shepherd's wildly witty reunion with his Indiana hometown, disproves the adage “You can never go back.” Bending the ear…
I teach Jewish studies to Jewish teens and have devoted my life to helping young people find meaningful the legacy that’s been given to us—and building bridges to the future; this is in the classroom as well as on the page. My book is a distillation of everything I love about being Jewish—wrapped in a story that many readers find deeply familiar. At the same time, I believe in planting the universal in the specific—and any reader ready to go on a journey can find themselves in Will Levine’s shoes.
I love this book for its humor, voice, and vivid and lovable characters. Goldie reminds me of the grandma I never had—determined, dry-witted, and unafraid to get involved in her granddaughter Maxie’s love life. Set in an assisted living facility full of quirky characters, this element of aging—the loneliness and the desperation—is both hilarious and universally tragic.
Maxie’s story, meanwhile, follows a delightful rom-com arc that mirrors and breaks the repetition of her grandmother’s adventure in love as she meets T-Jam, her grandmother’s eccentric driver. This book charmed me—brilliantly balancing comedy with themes of heritage, love, and legacy, l’dor v’dor.
Hilarious and surprising, this unapologetically Jewish story delivers a present-day take on a highly creative grandmother trying to find her Ph.D granddaughter a husband who is a doctor-with a yarmulke, of course.
Goldie Mandell is opinionated, assertive, and stuck in an Assisted Living Facility. But even surrounded by schleppers with walkers, pictures of sunrises, fancy fish tanks, and an array of daily activities to complement the tepid tea and stale cookies on offer, her salt-free plate is full. She's got a granddaughter to settle, an eager love interest named Harry to subdue, and precious memories of her happy marriage to…
If one of the main reasons we marry is to raise a family, what happens to the couple once the children grow up and no longer need daily care?
A few years ago, I completed an MSc in Psychology, and my dissertation explored exactly this question. After interviewing many couples, it became clear that unless parents are emotionally prepared for life after children, the sense of loss can be overwhelming. That research raised deeper questions about why we commit—and what keeps us committed.
From the first page I was caught up in the whirlwind of Toby’s post-marriage Manhattan—dating apps, sexting and catching up on years of fidelity—which all seems to be going very well until his ex-wife vanishes.
Then Toby Fleishman has to start getting to know Rachel Fleishman all over again, and in that search, himself.
The quirky narrative shifts from biting to moving to philosophical. Sharply observed and wildly entertaining.
'Sharp and wicked, insightful and funny, and then suddenly so touching' DAVID NICHOLLS
'It is a Great Novel . . . It has depth, wit, nuance and life. Heartbreaking and funny' NIGELLA LAWSON
'This is the novel of the summer . . . There is no one that this book isn't for. I can't believe it's a first novel. Pure brilliance' INDIA KNIGHT, THE SUNDAY TIMES
'Could be one of the books of my entire lifetime. I've never felt so seen' GRACE DENT, GUARDIAN
'This book is a work of utter perfection' ELIZABETH GILBERT
Broken Boots, Redeemed Soul: A Veteran’s War with Sin and Salvation
by
Brian Lofton,
Broken Boots, Redeemed Soul: A Veteran’s War with Sin and Salvation, is a raw and faith-centered memoir about life after military service—and the internal battles many never see. Brian Lofton shares his journey through addiction, shame, identity loss, and spiritual distance, revealing how the hardest struggles often begin after…
I’ve loved children’s books for as long as I can remember. When I became a Kindergarten teacher, I often used children’s books to springboard lessons and activities with my class. Years later, when I became a mom, I wanted children’s books to be a special part of my children’s lives as well. Reading to my kids before bed became a nighttime ritual we all enjoyed. Another activity we regularly enjoyed was baking. As such, children’s books that have food at the forefront were a natural bridge to kitchen adventures with my children. Here are a few of our favorite books to help spark cooking and baking fun with your kids!
I love this story for getting kids excited to bake cookies!
I read this book to my kids before heading into the kitchen to bake homemade chocolate chip cookies just like the little mouse in the story. Just be sure to have a cold glass of milk on hand to go with the cookies! The kids love to pretend they're little mice while enjoying the cookies and see who can take the teeniest, tiniest bites of their cookies!
This book is also great for: discussing the idea of a full-circle story arc; introducing the idea of pairings; learning about cause/effect; and practicing memory recall with questions such as what happened first in the story, next, etc.
If a hungry little mouse shows up on your doorstep, you might want to give him a cookie. And if you give him a cookie, he'll ask for a glass of milk. He'll want to look in a mirror to make sure he doesn't have a milk mustache, and then he'll ask for a pair of scissors to give himself a trim....
This book is a great first introduction to Mouse, the star of the If You Give... series and a perennial favorite among children. With its spare, rhythmic text and circular tale, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie…
