“Shiny Objects: Why We Spend Money We Don’t Have in Search of Happiness We Can’t Buy” by James A. Roberts c.2011, HarperOne $25.99 / $28.99 Canada 353 pages, includes index   By TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER Your financial goals for the next year are set. On the list are things like “pay off credit cards” and “save [...]

“Bedbugs” by Ben H. Winters c.2011, Quirk Books $14.95 / $16.95 Canada 253 pages   By TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER Did you hear that? It was loud, like a clunk but not quite. And it smells like smoke in here. Or minty; definitely something. You can’t smell it?  Unbelievable that you didn’t notice; you’re usually really observant. [...]

“Are You Ready? How to Prepare for an Earthquake” by Maggie Mooney c.2011, Greystone Books $15.95 / $17.95 Canada 160 pages   By TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER The footage of that day was beyond scary. It looked like those first few steps when someone gets off a carnival ride, those dizzy, leg-shaking seconds of no equilibrium. Like [...]

“Trust Me, I’m Dr. Ozzy: Advice from Rock’s Ultimate Survivor” by Ozzy Osbourne c.2011, Grand Central Publishing $26.99 / $29.99 Canada 274 pages   By TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER You can feel it down to your bones. You’ve got a pain in the neck, for one thing. No, not that kind – a real pain in the [...]

“The Secret Lives of Wives” by Iris Krasnow c.2011, Gotham Books $26.00 / $30.00 Canada 267 pages   By TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER You saw them walking around town today. Everyone did, and they all smiled. They had to be seventy- or even eighty-something. He had a cane over one elbow and his other was crooked for [...]

“Cat Calls” by Jeanne Adlon and Susan Logan c.2011, SquareOne Publishers $14.95 U.S. 123 pages   By TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER You’ve been thinking lately about the pitter-patter of tiny feet. You love a round baby belly and tiny baby ears. You long to gaze into an innocent little face as you hold your baby in your [...]

“The Night Circus” by Erin Morgenstern c.2011, Doubleday $26.95 / $32.00 Canada 384 pages   By TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER Some days, you feel like you’re living inside a circus. Each morning, your family races out the door like a herd of elephants. At work, you’re surrounded by clowns and dealing with a dog-and-pony show. You juggle, [...]

“The Last Deployment: How a Gay, Hammer-Swinging Twentysomething Survived a Year in Iraq” by Bronson Lemer c.2011, University of Wisconsin Press $24.95 U.S. & Canada 223 pages By TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER They’ve become as familiar to you as your own living room: auditoriums filled with uniformed, spine-straight soldiers on their way to deployment, or smiling men [...]

“Beating the Odds: Eddie Brown’s Investing and Life Strategies” by Eddie Brown with Blair S. Walker c.2011, Wiley $27.95 / $33.95 Canada 207 pages, includes index   By TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER Sell or stay?  Stay or sell? In times like these, when the market resembles a cheap yo-yo, you don’t know which to do. Should you [...]

“Small as an Elephant” by Jennifer Richard Jacobson c.2011, Brilliance Audio $22.99 / $28.99 Canada 5 CDs / 5h 9m   By TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER Slam. There are days when slamming your bedroom door, though it might get you in trouble, is really satisfying. Those are the days when everybody bugs you, nothing goes right, and [...]