Ellie Haskell goes back to school in the “thoroughly entertaining series” (Cosmopolitan) that began with The Thin Woman. From Agatha Award nominee Dorothy Cannell, this delightful mystery is an education . . . in murder. “Ellie, the headmistress wants to see you.” Words to strike terror in the heart of any inmate of St. Roberta’s boarding school. Fortunately for Ellie Haskell, she is no longer a pudgy, wayward pupil but a happily married mother and interior designer with a beautiful home by the sea. Rather, Ellie has been summoned thanks to her reputation as an amateur sleuth. The headmistress, Mrs. Battle, has requested Ellie’s help in the investigation into the disappearance of a coveted lacrosse trophy. Unless the prize is found, someone will succeed in dealing the school a great deal of embarrassment. So, despite her less-than-rosy memories of her alma mater, Ellie begins snooping around St. Roberta’s—only to have her homecoming spoiled by the suspicious death of the recently retired games mistress, Ms. Chips. Now, with a killer possibly stalking the halls, Ellie must act fast to have a sporting chance at justice. Praise for Goodbye, Ms. Chips “Engaging Ellie provides a peak at boarding-school charms and horrors while solving one of her more intriguing cases.”—Kirkus Reviews “This humorous cozy is filled with sympathetic characters and an inside look at an English boarding school.”—Booklist Praise for Dorothy Cannell and the Ellie Haskell series “It is the absurd predicaments of her central characters that readers find themselves recalling, and Cannell is cunning at devising outlandish situations for them.”—Chicago Sun-Times “Cannell is a master of subtle wit and humorous asides that lift her cozies to great heights. Before the influx of writers trying to out-humor Janet Evanovich, there was Dorothy Cannell. Long may she write!”—Library Journal

Wise Women is a collection of autobiographical essays by important and renowned teachers at mid-life. The essays, which are deeply personal, will focus on how these women negotiate the psychological, physical, and social changes brought on by menopause and how the aging process affects their lives as professionals, feminists, writers, mentors, and instructors in the academy. The book addresses such questions as the following: What challenges are left for the feminists who came of age during the women's movement and now have achieved academic success? How do women teachers experience their aging selves in the classroom? What legacy will mid-life women leave their younger women colleagues? All of these questions, as well as many others, are covered in this insightful and groundbreaking work.

This comprehensive overview of Julia Alvarez's fiction, nonfiction, and poetry offers biographical information and parses the author's important works and the intentions behind them. Reading Julia Alvarez reviews the author's acclaimed body of writing, exploring both the works and the woman behind them. The guide opens with a brief biography that includes the saga of the Alvarez family's flight from the Dominican Republic when Julia was ten, and carries her story through the philanthropic organic coffee farm that she and her husband now operate in that nation. The heart of the book is a broad overview of Alvarez's literary achievements, followed by chapters that discuss individual works and a chapter on her poetry. The book also looks at how the author's writings grapple with and illuminate contemporary issues, and at Alvarez's place in pop culture, including an examination of film adaptations of her books. Through this guide, readers will better understand the relevance of Alvarez's works to their own lives and to new ways of thinking about current events.

A guide to series fiction lists popular series, identifies novels by character, and offers guidance on the order in which to read unnumbered series.

Heading for her young cousin Ariel's delightfully Gothic mansion on the Yorkshire moors, Ellie Haskell discovers that a mysterious villain is stalking the house's picturesque halls.

“Julia Alvarez has suitcases full of history (public and private), trunks full of insights into what it means to be a Latina in the United States, bags full of literary wisdom.” —Los Angeles Times From the internationally acclaimed author of the bestselling novels In the Time of the Butterflies and How the García Girls Lost Their Accents comes a rich and revealing work of nonfiction capturing the life and mind of an artist as she knits together the dual themes of coming to America and becoming a writer. The twenty-four confessional, evocative essays that make up Something to Declare are divided into two parts. “Customs” includes Alvarez’s memories of her family’s life in the Dominican Republic, fleeing from Trujillo’s dictatorship, and arriving in America when she was ten years old. She examines the effects of exile--surviving the shock of New York City life; yearning to fit in; training her tongue (and her mind) to speak English; and watching the Miss America pageant for clues about American-style beauty. The second half, “Declarations,” celebrates her passion for words and the writing life. She lets us watch as she struggles with her art--searching for a subject for her next novel, confronting her characters, facing her family’s anger when she invades their privacy, reflecting on the writers who influenced her, and continually honing her craft. The winner of the National Medal of Arts for her extraordinary storytelling, Julia Alvarez here offers essays that are an inspiring gift to readers and writers everywhere. “This beautiful collection of essays . . . traces a process of personal reconciliation with insight, humor, and quiet power.” —San Francisco Examiner and Chronicle “Reading Julia Alvarez’s new collection of essays is like curling up with a glass of wine in one hand and the phone in the other, listening to a bighearted, wisecracking friend share the hard-earned wisdom about family, identity, and the art of writing.” —People Julia Alvarez’s new novel, Afterlife, is available now.

What does a blonde get on her intelligence test? Drool. Ace cub reporter Tressa Jayne Turner is carrying a full load—and we're not talking post-holiday pounds. Back in college for the fourth time (but who's counting!?), "Calamity Jayne" is looking to nab a raise from her stingy boss at the Gazette, Stan. So, what's to stop her from making the grade? Well, for starters her grandmother turned roommate rekindling an old flame, maid of honor madness run amok, a botched betrothal that's more than just schoolyard gossip, and a campus criminal who is out to teach the student body a lesson... one crime at a time. As Tressa navigates the halls of higher education, she finds herself torn not only between homework and investigating, but also between a man who likes her for herself and another man who wants to save her from herself. It's a case of murder and mayhem by the books...and failure is so not an option. (NOTE: This book was previously published under the title Calamity Jayne Goes to College.) Calamity Jayne Mysteries: Calamity Jayne – book #1 Calamity Jayne and the Fowl Play at the Fair – book #2 Calamity Jayne and the Haunted Homecoming – book #3 Calamity Jayne and the Campus Caper– book #4 Calamity Jayne in the Wild, Wild West– book #5 Calamity Jayne and the Hijinks on the High Seas– book #6 Calamity Jayne and the Trouble with Tandems– book #7 What critics are saying about the Calamity Jayne Mysteries: "Filled with dumb-blonde jokes, nonstop action and rapid-fire banter, this is a perfect read for chick-lit fans who enjoy a dash of mystery." ~ Publishers' Weekly "Fun and lighthearted with an interesting mystery, a light touch of romance and some fascinating characters." ~ RT Book Reviews "Throw in two parts Nancy Drew, one part Lucille Ball, add a dash of Stephanie Plum, shake it all up and you’ve got a one-of-a-kind amateur sleuth with a penchant for junk food and hot-pink snakeskin cowgirl boots. A word to the wise: if you’re prone to laughing out loud when reading funny books, try not to read Calamity Jayne when you’re sandwiched between two sleeping passengers on an airplane…sometimes we learn these things the hard way." ~ Chick Lit Cafe "Bacus provides lots of small-town fun with this lovable, fair-haired klutz and lively story, liberally salted with dumb-blond jokes." ~ Booklist *starred review*

There is a wealth of published literature in English by Latin American women writers, but such material can be difficult to locate due to the lack of available bibliographic resources. In addition, the various types of published narrative (short stories, novels, novellas, autobiographies, and biographies) by Latin American women writers has increased significantly in the last ten to fifteen years. To address the lack of bibliographic resources, Kathy Leonard has compiled Latin American Women Writers: A Resource Guide to Titles in English. This reference includes all forms of narrative-short story, autobiography, novel, novel excerpt, and others-by Latin American women dating from 1898 to 2007. More than 3,000 individual titles are included by more than 500 authors. This includes nearly 200 anthologies, more than 100 autobiographies/biographies or other narrative, and almost 250 novels written by more than 100 authors from 16 different countries. For the purposes of this bibliography, authors who were born in Latin America and either continue to live there or have immigrated to the United States are included. Also, titles of pieces are listed as originally written, in either Spanish or Portuguese. If the book was originally written in English, a phrase to that effect is included, to better reflect the linguistic diversity of narrative currently being published. This volume contains seven indexes: Authors by Country of Origin, Authors/Titles of Work, Titles of Work/Authors, Autobiographies/Biographies and Other Narrative, Anthologies, Novels and Novellas in Alphabetical Order by Author, and Novels and Novellas by Authors' Country of Origin. Reflecting the increase in literary production and the facilitation of materials, this volume contains a comprehensive listing of narrative pieces in English by Latin American women writers not found in any other single volume currently on the market. This work of reference will be of special interest to scholars, students, and instructors interested in narrative works in English by Latin American women authors. It will also help expose new generations of readers to the highly creative and diverse literature being produced by these writers.

Ellie Haskell, the beloved heroine of The Thin Woman, is stuck on a reality TV set. And, as the “thoroughly entertaining series” (Cosmopolitan) from Agatha Award nominee Dorothy Cannell continues, this cast is dying for their fifteen minutes. A dark foggy night. A big spooky mansion. And a reality TV dating show? It’s not exactly the scene Ellie Haskell expects to find while stranded near the Yorkshire moors with her husband, Ben, and their plucky housekeeper, Mrs. Malloy—who promptly signs up as a contestant when she learns that the bachelorettes are competing for the affections of Lord Belfry himself. Then again, maybe Ellie shouldn’t be so surprised. Some women would kill to marry a lord . . . perhaps literally. Even before the shooting starts, one would-be bride is knocked out of the game by a fatal car wreck. Then another is struck by Cupid’s arrow in an archery event. Ellie is beginning to suspect that murder is a grim inevitability on this doomed production. Somewhere in the dark passageways and hidden nooks of Mucklesfeld Manor, another life is about to be canceled—but Ellie will do anything to ensure that she and her friends make it back to reality unscathed. Praise for She Shoots to Conquer “Hilarious and always engaging sleuth Ellie Haskell is back—always a good thing for the health of British cozies.”—Booklist “A delight . . . A satire on the gothic suspense novel, She Shoots to Conquer is also an engaging mystery, as the deft and talented Cannell proves again that hilarity and horror can meet.”—Kirkus Reviews Praise for Dorothy Cannell and the Ellie Haskell series “It is the absurd predicaments of her central characters that readers find themselves recalling, and Cannell is cunning at devising outlandish situations for them.”—Chicago Sun-Times “Cannell is a master of subtle wit and humorous asides that lift her cozies to great heights. Before the influx of writers trying to out-humor Janet Evanovich, there was Dorothy Cannell. Long may she write!”—Library Journal

From the national bestselling author of Murder on a Hot Tin Roof. Paige Turner’s skills as a crime reporter and mystery novelist have earned her an intriguing job opportunity. Sabrina Stanhope of Gramercy Park wants her to look into the murder of Virginia Pratt, a young secretary whose naked body was found in Central Park—with the understanding that Paige keeps her exclusive investigation off the record and out of her work for Daring Detective magazine. Virginia was more than a secretary—she worked nights as a high priced call girl in Sabrina’s employ. Should word get out, the resulting scandal could be devastating not only to Sabrina’s secret enterprise, but to some of Manhattan’s wealthiest movers and shakers. Now, Paige must become a daring detective herself, even if it means going undercover to entice the interest of a killer. Praise for the Paige Turner Mysteries “Prepare to be utterly charmed by the irrepressible Paige Turner.”—Dorothy Cannell “Great writing by a fresh talent.”—Nelson DeMille “Funny, fast, and suspenseful.”—Max Allan Collins