The Mommy Mafia

At last, here’s a confronting yet humorous look at Mom stereotypes. Think you’re not a cliché? Think again! The Mommy Mafia is a walk-through guide to every conceivable Mom type, with each parenting style brutally revealed. Author LJ Charleston has created The Mommy Mafia as a primer to personality profiling for Moms. We all know a Boot Camp Mom, but recognizing you are one is part of the fun of taking a light look at the toughest job in the world – being a Mom. Olympic, Germ Phobic, Chardonnay, Runaway, Lazy, Wikipedia, or Afraid of the Sun Mom—which mother are you? The Mommy Mafia will make you: 1. laugh and enjoy 2. gain fresh understanding 3. change your perspective of other mothers 4. make changes in your own mothering Because The Mommy Mafia will: 1. poke fun at the mothering types 2. educate women about the different mothering types 3. reveal some of the reasons behind mothers’ behavior 4. allow mothers to recognize their own traits—good and bad—and perhaps set about “fixing” negative behavior

From Karen Gravano, a star of the hit VH1 reality show Mob Wives, comes a revealing memoir of a mafia childhood, where love and family come hand-in-hand with murder and betrayal. Karen Gravano is the daughter of Sammy "the Bull" Gravano, once one of the mafia's most feared hit men. With nineteen confessed murders, the former Gambino Crime Family underboss—and John Gotti's right-hand man—is the highest ranking gangster ever to turn State's evidence and testify against members of his high-profile crime family. But to Karen, Sammy Gravano was a sometimes elusive but always loving father figure. He was ever-present at the head of the dinner table. He made a living running a construction firm and several nightclubs. He stayed out late, and sometimes he didn't come home at all. He hosted "secret" meetings at their house, and had countless whispered conversations with "business associates." By the age of twelve, Karen knew he was a gangster. And as she grew up, while her peers worried about clothes and schoolwork, she was coming face-to-face with crime and murder. Gravano was nineteen years old when her father turned his back on the mob and cooperated with the Feds. The fabric of her family was ripped apart, and they were instantly rejected by the communities they grew up in. This is the story of a daughter's struggle to reconcile the image of her loving father with that of a murdering Mafioso, and how, in healing the rift between the two, she was able to forge a new life.

And Jen Klein knows motherhood. She's survived changing a soiled diaper in a truck-stop bathroom while suspending a baby in mid-air. She's witnessed the judgment of the so-called "Mommy Mafia." She's found dried applesauce on her shirt. And in her hair. And the baby's hair. And the dog's fur. Here she reveals secrets she's learned along the way about mastering the art of motherhood, from how to handle strangers who ask how much weight you've gained to (finally!) getting them on the big yellow bus--on time and with clean underwear. Inside SheKnows.com Presents: The Mommy Files you'll find: Your mom didn't know what she was doing either A pediatrician is your partner, not your adversary Playgroups are for moms more than they are for kids Just because they can talk doesn't mean they can reason Being a supermom is all about asking for help Disclosed here in a friendly, wry look at motherhood, Jen Klein takes you through each lovable (and less than enjoyable) step toward that coveted title that will be screamed at you so many times in the years to come: "Mommy!"

Based on the book of Nehemiah, the author presents an overall approach to parenting.

A comedy of compromise thaT “brims with wit, passion and soul” from the international bestselling author of Beautiful Music (The Millions, A Most Anticipated 2020 Book). Joe Keen and Ana Urbanek have been a couple for a long time, with all the requisite lulls and temptations, yet they remain unmarried and without children, contrary to their Midwestern values (and parents’ wishes). Now on the cusp of forty, they are both working at jobs that they’re not even sure they believe in anymore, but with significantly varying returns. Ana is successful, Joe is floundering—both in limbo, caught somewhere between mainstream and alternative culture, sincerity and irony, achievement and arrested development. Set against the backdrop of bottomed-out 2009 Detroit, a once-great American city now in transition, part decaying and part striving to be reborn, The Narcissism of Small Differences is the story of an aging creative class, doomed to ask the questions: Is it possible to outgrow irony? Does not having children make you one? Is there even such a thing as selling out anymore? “While everyone is trying so hard to act normal, The Narcissism of Small Differences revels in its own weirdness.” —Ben Folds, New York Times bestselling author/singer-songwriter “In a literary landscape where most are hell-bent on outplotting their peers, Michael Zadoorian has sculpted a thriller from everyday life.” —Josh Malermann, author of Bird Box “The Narcissism of Small Differences is one of [Zadoorian’s] best. He has become an essential chronicler of the life in Detroit at the beginning of our century.” —Stateside, Michigan Public Radio

Popular political news commentator Scottie Nell Hughes tackles the myth of the weak and meek conservative American woman with a fighting spirit that refuses to be intimidated by the mainstream media.

In this companion to acclaimed Mary and the Mouse, the Mouse and Mary, Maria (Mary's daughter) and Mouse Mouse (Mouse's daughter) are looking for their mothers. They're not in their bedrooms, their car and cart are still in the driveway, and they are not in the gazebo or under the mushroom! Where could they be? Well, turns out Mary and the Mouse are great friends—just like Maria and Mouse Mouse—and soon the new generation is in on the old generation's secret, and vice versa. Sparingly told and beautifully illustrated, this book is every bit as charming as its predecessor. Kids will pore over the minute details of a mouse's parallel world.

The true crime story of a New York mother who killed and a daughter who wouldn’t die, from the author of A Killer’s Touch and Watch Mommy Die. Anti-Freeze For A Husband It looked like a suicide. A man’s corpse on the bathroom floor—next to a half-empty glass of anti-freeze. But fingerprints on the glass belonged to the deceased’s wife, Stacey Castor. And a turkey baster in the garbage had police wondering if she force-fed the toxic fluid down her husband’s throat. Pills For A Daughter In desperation, Stacey concocted a devious plan. She mixed a deadly cocktail of vodka and pills, then served it to her twenty-year-old daughter Ashley. The authorities would find Ashley with a suicide note, confessing to the anti-freeze murder. But Stacey’s plan backfired—because Ashley refused to die . . . A Killer For A Mother Charged with murdering her second husband—and attempting to kill her oldest daughter—Stacey Castor sparked a media frenzy. But when police dug up her first husband’s grave—and found anti-freeze in his body, too—this New York housewife earned a nickname that would follow her all the way to prison. They called her “The Black Widow.” And with good reason. The story that inspired the Lifetime film, Poisoned Love: The Stacey Castor Story, starring Nia Vardalos. Case Featured On 20/20 Includes Sixteen Pages of Shocking Photos