The Grass Is Always Greener

The “marvelously funny” and much-loved humorist explores the perils of suburban living in this New York Times bestseller (Vogue). For years, the Bombecks have heard rumors of a magical land called Suburbia where the air is clean, the grass is trimmed, and children don’t risk getting mugged on their walk to school. After watching their friends flee the city for subdivided utopias like Bonaparte’s Retreat and Mortgage Mañana, Erma and her family load up their belongings and cry, “Station wagons . . . ho!” But life on the suburban frontier is not as perfect as they had hoped. The trees are stunted, the house is cramped, and there’s no grass at all. But the Bombecks will make do, for they are suburbanites now—the last true pioneers! This ebook features an illustrated biography of Erma Bombeck including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author’s estate.

The Grass Is Always Greener is part of The Year of Short Stories and is one of several digital shorts released to celebrate the publication of Jeffrey Archer’s magnificent seventh collection, Tell Tale. Taken from Jeffrey Archer's fourth collection of short stories, To Cut a Long Story Short, comes The Grass Is Always Greener, an irresistible, witty and ingenious short read. Bill has had the same spot under the archway outside Critchley's Bank for years. He knows all the staff: the yuppies, the middle-management, the executives . . . perhaps better than they know themselves. Across the company, from lowest to highest ranking, each looks at what the other has. But with every rung further up the ladder problems become increasingly complex and more difficult to escape from . . . Be sure to look out for more from The Year of Short Stories collection, including One Man's Meat and The Endgame.

On November 6, 2017, Brian Gushue attended his 500th NFL football game. He achieved this unlikely feat despite his lifelong battle with cerebral palsy. His devotion to football, especially its highest level, was borne out of his enjoyment of playing the sport as a child and his lifelong admiration for Miami Dolphins quarterback Bob Griese, who he got to see play in person only once. Eventually, Brian made it his mission to see a game in every NFL stadium with a grass field -- because he prefers the look, feel and smell of grass compared to artificial playing surfaces. Brian soon came up with a new goal. Sometime in the late 1990s, when he had witnessed fewer than 100 NFL games on grass, he set his sights on attending 500 of them. Late in the chase, he added a caveat to the quest: to see every NFL team play at least 10 times. Now he hopes to see every team play at least 25 times. The Grass Is Always Greener -- One Football Fan's Improbable Quest to Attend 500 NFL Games is full of football facts, commentary, and history intertwined with memories from Brian's incredible journey, which will awe and inspire not only fans of the game but anyone who has a dream and the determination to make it come true.

Do you think the grass really is always greener on the other side? Let us take a look and see. Join us for this heart-warming story of friendship, perception and self-esteem, as we discover together if... THE GRASS REALLY IS GREENER ON THE OTHER SIDE.

Who says you can't choose your family? Their shared sweet sixteen party is just around the corner, and half sisters Isabelle Scott and Mirabelle Monroe are ready to cut loose, even if they are the daughters of a prominent public figure. So when Izzie's estranged aunt, Zoe, breezes into town unannounced, it just might be the change that the Monroe family needs -- or not, depending on who you ask... Happy with her cute surfer boyfriend and a group of great girlfriends, Izzie has no interest in getting to know yet another long-lost family member. But Mira, who's on a mission to try new things and meet new people -- a handsome brooding painter in particular -- is drawn to Izzie's artsy aunt, who seems to the be the polar opposite of the uptight Monroe family. As the girls try to negotiate the unexpected paths their lives have taken, Zoe's laid-back attitude eventually charms them both. But when Zoe offers Izzie the chance to leave Emerald Cove and start fresh in California, Izzie and Mira are faced with bigger changes than they expected. Is a move to the West Coast what Izzie had in mind for her sweet sixteen? The heartwarming conclusion to Jen Calonita's Belles trilogy.

The fourteen short stories in To Cut a Long Story Short show Jeffrey Archer's great skills with a wide variety of character, of subject and of setting, but all with that trademark twist in the tale. Every reader will have their own favourites: the choices run from love at first sight across the train tracks to the cleverest of confidence tricks, from the quirks of the legal profession – and those who are able to manipulate both sides of the Bar – to the creative financial talents of a member of Her Majesty's diplomatic service – but for a good cause. The last story, The Grass is Always Greener, is possibly the best piece Archer has written, and will haunt you for the rest of your life.

In the year 2072, new technology allows the television to be broadcast straight into?and out of?the human eye. When a reality show offers a lifetime of lazy luxury to the one person living the world?s worst life, everyone is out to prove just how bad they?ve got it. Eight contestants vie for the prize, allowing the whole world to see life through their eyes, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Only the show?s ever-smiling host, an equally hopeful and hapless former weatherman, seems to have any faith left in humanity. Each week, he struggles behind the scenes as he attempts to elevate the show and wring meaning out of his own unhappy existence.

Sooty & Snow is a fun and colourful book about boundaries based on the true story of an adventurous chicken who insists on finding ways to get to the other side of the fence.Will Sooty realise the fence is there to keep her safe and that home really is best?