Happy Go Lucky Me

Paul Evans, a New Yorker has had a long and varied musical career. As a songwriter, Paul has written hits for himself as well as for Bobby Vinton – the 1962 classic, 'Roses Are Red, My Love', the Kalin Twins 'When' in 1957, and Elvis Presley 'The Next Step is Love' and 'I Gotta Know' and more. His songs have been featured in movies – Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas and John Waters' Pecker, television shows (Scrubs) and TV ads. He also wrote an off-off Broadway show, Cloverleaf Crisis, and the theme for the original network television show, CBS This Morning. Paul has spent a great deal of his life as a recording artist. From his 1959 and 60's hits: 'Seven Little Girls Sitting in The Back Seat', 'Midnight Special' and 'Happy Go Lucky Me' to his 1979 hit: 'Hello, This Is Joannie', #6 on the UK pop charts and Top 40 on Billboard's Country charts. This book describes his journey from getting his start in the music business, becoming part of the Brill's song-writing community and the sixty-three music-filled years that followed.

David Sedaris, the “champion storyteller,” (Los Angeles Times) returns with his first new collection of personal essays since the bestselling Calypso Back when restaurant menus were still printed on paper, and wearing a mask—or not—was a decision made mostly on Halloween, David Sedaris spent his time doing normal things. As Happy-Go-Lucky opens, he is learning to shoot guns with his sister, visiting muddy flea markets in Serbia, buying gummy worms to feed to ants, and telling his nonagenarian father wheelchair jokes. But then the pandemic hits, and like so many others, he’s stuck in lockdown, unable to tour and read for audiences, the part of his work he loves most. To cope, he walks for miles through a nearly deserted city, smelling only his own breath. He vacuums his apartment twice a day, fails to hoard anything, and contemplates how sex workers and acupuncturists might be getting by during quarantine. As the world gradually settles into a new reality, Sedaris too finds himself changed. His offer to fix a stranger’s teeth rebuffed, he straightens his own, and ventures into the world with new confidence. Newly orphaned, he considers what it means, in his seventh decade, no longer to be someone’s son. And back on the road, he discovers a battle-scarred America: people weary, storefronts empty or festooned with Help Wanted signs, walls painted with graffiti reflecting the contradictory messages of our time: Eat the Rich. Trump 2024. Black Lives Matter. In Happy-Go-Lucky, David Sedaris once again captures what is most unexpected, hilarious, and poignant about these recent upheavals, personal and public, and expresses in precise language both the misanthropy and desire for connection that drive us all. If we must live in interesting times, there is no one better to chronicle them than the incomparable David Sedaris.

Every workplace has that one person you don’t want to mess with. At James & Peterson Investigations, that would be Cameron Grant: sullen, grouchy, intimidating, oh yeah, and sexy as hell. He can make your soul wither with a single disapproving glare. And he never, ever socialises with his co-workers. This is why Maisie Wilkins, happy-go-lucky ray of sunshine, can’t fathom why Cameron finally decided to show up at their annual office Christmas party. Every year he received an invite, and every year he failed to attend. But not this year. Curious as to why he’s there, Maisie can’t resist sitting next to Cameron. Before she knows it, she’s had one too many drinks and is drunkenly hailing a cab back to his place. Office party flings are not something she normally does, but despite his intimidating character, Cameron has a charm she can’t resist. Or maybe it was just those five gin and tonics blurring her judgement. Whatever the reason, Maisie now has to navigate the awkward, tension filled waters of sharing an office with someone she’s slept with.

A wisecracking former car thief turns amateur sleuth in this “appealing, offbeat” thriller series debut from an Edgar Award–winning author (Booklist). It’s 1974. Foggy Moskowitz, once a Jewish car thief on the run from the Brooklyn authorities, is now in Florida working for Child Protective Services. For personal reasons. An unlikely but tenacious child protection officer, he’s investigating the case of a missing infant taken from the hospital by her addict mother. But the case takes several unexpected turns—including a vision quest—as Foggy journeys from seedy Fry’s Bay to Indian Seminole swampland. Along the way he encounters more than a few interesting characters, including John Horse, an Indian mystic, and works to foil a vast land-grab scam by an uber-rich felon. By turns amusing and moving, mixing passion with pathos, and introducing some truly colorful characters, Cold Florida is the first in an irreverent mystery series from the acclaimed author of the Fever Devlin novels. “DePoy’s lively mix of Seminole history and the wry observations of a ‘Yankee Jew criminal’ make for an amusing tale.” —Publishers Weekly “Those who are able to roll with Foggy will get an unholy kick out of the characters’ flexible allegiances and the hero’s colorful descriptions.” —Kirkus Reviews