It’s time to gather up mystery fare for the long, lazy days of summer. If you are a fan of Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, you’ll like two new best sellers.
For those attracted to mean-girl protagonists, try Jessica Knoll’s The Luckiest Girl Alive. Ani FaNelli has reinvented herself as a New York magazine writer, boasting a wealthy fiancé and a brand-name wardrobe, but the past threatens her perfect life when she agrees to participate in a documentary about a long-ago shooting at her fancy private high school.
If twists by an unreliable narrator were your Gone Girl turn-on, then The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins is your English cup of tea. Protagonist Rachel is a boozy, fantasizing mess who has been fired from her job but structures her days by continuing her London train commute, a trip that conveniently allows her to spy on the street where her ex-husband and his new wife live. She fantasizes about the street’s other inhabitants, including a young couple, and when the young woman goes missing, Rachel injects herself into the police inquiry and the lives of the missing woman’s husband and her own ex-husband.
Of course, there are many well-known writers on the best-seller list this summer–James Patterson, David Balducci, John Sanford, etc.–but if you’re tired of urban crime detectives, try these alternatives. First, how about a trip to Wyoming’s high plains to meet Craig Johnson’s Sheriff Walt Longmire? In Cold Bones, Longmire investigates whether a local Cheyenne man’s murder is related to valuable dinosaur bones unearthed on his property.
Another alternative detective is “enigmatologist” Jeremy Logan in Lincoln Child’s The Forgotten Room. Logan is called in by a prestigious think tank to investigate the suicide of a respected doctor following suddenly bizarre behavior and, in the organization’s sprawling mansion, discovers a secret room full of old equipment for mysterious experiments.
Finally, Stephen King’s 2015 Edgar Award-winning Mr. Mercedes plays with the trappings of the hard-boiled detective story but transforms it with unlikely heroes, including a nervous 43-year-old spinster, who take on the unsolved murder of 23 people run down by a stolen car and then race to prevent the crazed killer from more deadly mayhem. For more options: http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Books-Mystery-Thriller-Suspense/zgbs/books/18
ABOUT KATHERINE SHARMA
Katherine Sharma’s family roots are in Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas. But after her early childhood in Texas, she has moved around the country and lived in seven other states, from Virginia to Hawaii. She currently resides in California with her husband and three children. She has also traveled extensively in Europe, Africa and Asia, and makes regular visits to family in India. After receiving her bachelor’s degree. in economics and her master’s degree in journalism from the University of Michigan, Katherine worked as a newspaper and magazine writer and editor for more than 15 years. She then shifted into management and marketing roles for firms in industries ranging from outdoor recreation to insurance to direct marketing. Although Katherine still works as a marketing consultant, she is now focused on creative writing.
When you said “I do,” you promised you’d stick it out no matter how sick, poor or miserable you got. Now you realize till death do us part is a really long time. Happily ever after? Perhaps a slight exaggeration.
With ballsy wit and bawdy humor, she explores everything from male domestic idiocy and the frustrating misfires in spousal communication to how to stay true to the peskiest of vows: forsaking all others. Part in-your-face guide, part brutal confession, this book is a must-read manifesto on surviving marriage in an age when everyone seems to live forever and getting a divorce is as easy as ordering a latte.
“Like I said, my husband is a decent guy. No, he’s a great guy. But living with the same person day in and day out, for years on end, is no confetti-dusted cakewalk. I once saw a comedienne slay an entire audience with this line: “When I said ’til death do us part, I had no idea it was going to take this long.”
“Make me a sandwich!”
“Honey, this is the best sandwich ever!” . . . And then, he dropped a bomb me: “You’re, like, 300 sandwiches away from an engagement ring.”
300 Sandwiches is the story of Stephanie and E’s epic journey of bread and betrothal, with a whole loaf of recipes to boot. For Stephanie, a novice in the kitchen, making a sandwich—or even 300—for E wasn’t just about getting a ring; it was her way of saying “I love you” while gaining confidence as a chef. It was about how many breakfast sandwiches they could eat together on future Sunday mornings, how many s’mores might follow family snowboarding trips, how many silly fights would end in makeup sandwiches. Suddenly, she saw a lifetime of happiness between those two slices of bread.
From culinary twists on peanut butter and jelly to “Not Your Mother’s Roast Beef” spicy French Dip to Chicken and Waffle BLTs, Stephanie shares the creations—including wraps, burritos, paninis, and burgers—that ultimately sated E’s palate and won his heart.
“Forever alone” is such a daunting phrase, isn’t it? Sure, it’s thrown around occasionally as a joke (because everyone knows you’ll find someone eventually, right?) but it can quickly send you into a frenzy to find “The One.” We all know that process just can’t be rushed (otherwise you might settle for a d-bag), so here is a list of some of our favorite products, rated from crazy to cool, for the “forever alone” (or “temporarily single,” as we’d like to rebrand it) that’ll help you keep your cool and satisfy your need for affection (however fake it may be) while you await your happily ever after.
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2. 
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Girlfriend Leg Pillow
5. 
It must be those countless number of men and women searching for true love who inspired Chris Harrison to write The Perfect Letter. Harrison has been the host of ABC’s The Bachelor and The Bachelorette since 2003 and has seen his fair share of true love and heartache. A romantic through and through, Harrison decided to create his own version of a true love fairy tale with his first book, which is a romance novel. Here’s the plot:
Out of reasons to say no to a free trip, Leigh sees the conference as a perfectly timed escape—just a few days away to catch up with old friends, meet a few potential authors, and clear her mind. But Leigh’s plans for a quiet retreat quickly dissolve when a stack of deeply personal letters from the past are left in her hotel room. After all these years of running, Leigh has nowhere to hide. In her hands she holds the letters that bare her soul and her secrets, the letters she wrote to one man, the love of her life—Jake. With her past and present crashing in around her, Leigh must decide just how much she’s willing to risk for love.
I’m a fan of fiction, but I also love biographies and memoirs–from weighty tomes like Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson to slim books heavy with inspiration like I Am Malala by the youngest Nobel Peace Prize-winner Malala Yousafzai, from souffles like Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert to the hard-to-swallow agonies of Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, from the laughter of Bossypants by Tina Fey to the lyrical grief of The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion.
His lips softened over mine, teasing and cajoling, seducing me with promise. He tasted of wine and desire. He pressed me closer, molding me to his taut frame. Fire swept up my spine and I curled my arms around his neck, lost in his heat, wanting more. Tiny sounds of pleasure I barely recognized as mine escaped me. An ache built deep inside and I forgot everything but the feel of his lips and his body. He cradled the back of my head with his hands, burying his fingers in my hair. I’d never before been kissed like this, with an urgency and expertise that turned my insides to liquid and made me forget everything but the man who held me in his arms.
As I applied a coat bright red lipstick, I felt the familiar pang of need whenever I thought of kissing Adam again. I wanted to kiss him. I wanted to do a lot more than that. I’d never lost a dare. But my resolve to resist him wavered with each date. He was charming, funny, and sexy. He knew what his nearness and his touch did to me and he tempted me every chance he got.
The first boom of fireworks pulled our attention to the Philadelphia shore. We ran to the railing as fireworks lit the sky, brightening everything around us. Adam put his arm around my waist and pulled me against him. His touch provoked a rush of pleasure. I’d seen fireworks my whole life, but this night there was something special in the air, something that made the fireworks more colorful, more exciting than ever before. Maybe it was the man next to me. The man who made me feel more alive than ever before.
Olivia Munn is feeling pretty super human at the moment. The former model and actress was recently cast by Marvel as the sexy and mysterious assassin, Psylocke in the new X-Men movie. She recently wrapped filming of the Aaron Sorkin hit series, The Newsroom. As if that weren’t good enough, Munn is also madly in love with and dating MVP quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Good things seem to happen to good people, and Munn is no exception. 
Whether to describe, how to describe and when to describe a character’s physical traits are among the conundrums of fiction writers. Many great writers have provided only minimal clues to a protagonist’s appearance and thus freed the imaginations of readers–who are more interested in a character’s, well, character than eye and hair color–to conjure up images that satisfy personal tastes and experiences.
However, men also have different standards for sexy vs. competent women’s looks. For example, an Elmhurst College study found that, in job interviews of women, men awarded mature women, with smaller eyes and larger noses, more respect. Take a look at 2014’s top five actors (Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Robert Pattinson) and top five actresses (Angelina Jolie, Marion Cotillard, Charlize Theron, Julia Roberts, Mila Kunis) to see how well study results fit popular beauty tastes.