Kirjahaku

The hilarious diary of Alice and her attempts to survive the embarrassments that are her parents, the small-minded nature of her hometown, and her own struggle to fit in. Highly observant, satirical and wise. Fifteen years old and nursing a "serious case of outcastitis," Alice MacLeod is having a hard time finding anything much to like in small town Smithers, British Columbia. Her mum's a folk-festival hippie chick with a hair-trigger temper, her dad's a mild and reasonable sort of loser who hides out in the basement trying to write soft-core romance novels, and her last school counsellor threw a teary fit in the middle of a session and left the profession entirely. She'd love to "get past what my father calls my 'knee-jerk dislike of just about anything,'" but she's not sure that there's anything out there that's worth it.Alice's journal is filled with eye-rolling protests at the embarrassments and stupidities she finds herself surrounded with: her mother's drumming-circle friends, the therapeutic jargon thrown her way by counsellors and the outstanding inefficacity of her current counsellor, Death Lord Bob. But Alice's sharp bark doesn't do much to conceal her lack of a bite. It's her mum, after all, not Alice, who gets into a fistfight with Linda, the town's teen thug, while Alice sits cringing in the family car. In fact, Alice has a sweet side, which she makes all the more endearing by getting all squirmy and ashamed whenever she reveals it. Alice's fierce ungainliness, and her unwillingness to surrender it to make her life any easier, make her struggles highly appealing.

From the author of the hilarious I'm Alice (I think), comes the irresistibly funny sequel, with further adventures of Alice's adolescent angst.

"I laughed out loud more times reading this book than any book I've read in years....I never wanted to leave Woefield, and you won't, either."--Meg Cabot, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Princess Diaries and Insatiable Susan Juby, already a reader-favorite YA author, makes her triumphant first foray into adult contemporary fiction with Home to Woefield, a hilarious, wildly original, and wonderfully insightful tale of no-so-ordinary life down on the farm. Told in four delightfully distinct narrative voices--a crusty 70-something farmer, a hair band-loving teen, a precocious 11-year old, and an earnest New Yorker in her 20s--Home to Woefield will enchant readers of all ages, as its motley cast struggles to avoid foreclosure with outlandish schemes and prize-winning chickens.

Allegations against his father turn eleven-year-old Rodney's life upside down in a powerful and surprisingly funny novel about new beginnings, friendships and a fresh look at the way things really are, by critically acclaimed author Susan Juby. Eleven-year-old Rodney is starting sixth grade in a new school, in a new home in a new state. The new school is really old and smells like someone ate a couple of pounds of glue and then barfed it back up, and he's in a class with a bunch of kids who seem to sort of hate him. Even his best friend won't write him back. It's strange, because just a couple of months ago, Rodney was one of the most popular guys in his fifth-grade class. He lived in Las Vegas, with his mom, older sister and his dad, who was a successful professional poker player. Now his old life is over -- his mom even says they shouldn't tell anyone their real last name. Because of something his dad did. Or something people said that he did. His dad says it's all a big misunderstanding, but he's now staying in a center for people who are having problems, like being addicted to drugs or gambling, or because other people don't understand that you are just funny and friendly and sometimes you give people hugs or put your arm around them and they accuse you of taking liberties and ruin everything. Rodney is confident that it won't be long until the misunderstanding is all cleared up and they can all go back to their old life. But he can only keep the truth at bay for so long . . .

Buddhist butler and reluctant investigator Helen Thorpe bands together with her fellow butler school graduates to rescue her very wealthy employer and his son in this new mystery by bestselling author Susan Juby. Butler Helen Thorpe is not one to judge, but the participants in Close Encounters for Global Healing are astonishingly unpleasant. The five-day program brings together people from across the political spectrum with the goal of helping them bridge their ideological and personal differences. Helen and her employer, Mr. Levine, have come to Side Island to assist David, his youngest son, who is facilitating the course. The motley assortment of participants includes a burned-out environmental activist, an internet troll, a clueless consumerist, an alleged white nationalist and a man who was arrested at the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa. No one seems interested in a civil conversation, much less global healing, and each person has shown up with their own secret agenda. No rapprochement between the warring, or at least endlessly bickering, parties seems possible. But when something deadly happens, they must learn to work together. First, they have to figure out who among them can be trusted.