In My TBR Stack:

Nobody Cares What You Think (Book 1)
by Brian Barton
Fifth Street Publishing
Trade Paperback

From the book publicity:


“That’s pure genius.” — Alan T. Saracevic of San Francisco Chronicle

“Barton knows firsthand.” — Janet Kornblum of USA Today

“Good clean style ...” — Jeff Cohen of Playboy



In Los Angeles, Hollywood creatives struggle for survival. They go to work and try to manage daily life in Southern California: wildfires, earthquakes, traffic. They also have problems.

These creatives are in competition to create the best stories—and they’ll do anything to succeed. They crave praise because, well, what they’re doing is hard. And they hate criticism because it stings. You don’t like their latest story? You obviously don’t get it. That’s what they think. But the next thing they’re doing? It’s gonna be huge—a blockbuster. They hope. Nobody Cares What You Think is about what happens in Hollywood when things don’t go according to plan. 

Note: This is 90 pages and the first part in a series. 



Brian Barton is an author of books and essays, including Never Going Home, Brooklyn Girls Don’t Cuddle, and Words with Steve Jobs. His dramatic series Nobody Cares What You Think has become his most popular book to date. Barton’s work has been featured in Esquire, Playboy, and USA Today. Click his name at the top of this page to see all of his writing.

In My TBR Stack:

The Size of Everything: A Memoir
by Erin Cole with Jenna McCarthy
Bella Luna Press
Trade Paperback

From the book publicity:


As the face of her eponymous couture bridal business, Erin Cole radiates refined elegance. But the designer’s glamorous lifestyle and sweeping success belie a childhood marked by profound dysfunction. 

Raised on a steady diet of abuse, alcoholism, poverty, and death, no one would have expected Cole to go on to become a force in the fashion world. As a child, she often had no access to food; other times she was force-fed until she vomited. At home and at school, she was beaten, bullied and belittled. Her alcoholic parents alternately abused and ignored her. By the age of sixteen, she was living on her own. 

The Size of Everything is Cole’s moving story and so much more. Equal parts heartbreaking and hilarious, it’s a love letter to her surviving siblings, a how-not-to-parent manual, a testament to the power of positivity, and proof that where you come from doesn’t have to determine where you can go. Above all, The Size of Everything offers a powerful message of hope to anyone who believes that impossibly rocky beginnings can’t have a happy ending.




"A beautifully written story of triumph, wit, and sheer determination to survive."
-W. Bruce Cameron, New York Times Bestselling Author

"Remarkable and inspiring."
-Jane Heller, bestselling author 

"A searing account of a broken, devastating childhood and the triumph that emerged in spite of--and because of--the wreckage. What a book!"
-Allison Winn Scotch, bestselling author

MORE PRAISE FOR THE SIZE OF EVERYTHING

“I’ll wager my mother that Erin Cole’s life is wilder and weirder than yours. That, in and of itself, doesn’t mean you ought to read this book. But the combination of grace, hope, and beauty with which she and Jenna McCarthy tell her story elevates it so far beyond the traditional memoir that they’ve practically invented a new genre. If the very best memoirs inevitably teach us something about ourselves, The Size of Everything could realistically be considered a graduate level class in you. At turns heartbreaking, sweet, and inspirational, this book reveals new pockets of reality while slowly and slyly making you fall in love with one of the toughest protagonists you’ll ever meet.” 
~Travis Sentell, author of Fluid and In the Shadow of Freedom

“In The Size of Everything, Erin Cole’s life is stunningly documented by Jenna McCarthy in short but powerful chapters that describe the pain of an unimaginably brutal childhood that eventually becomes a life-changing message of hope. Cole’s amazing story is raw, honest, often heartbreaking, sometimes laugh-out-loud hilarious, and guaranteed to warm your heart.” 
~Vikki Jensen Claflin, author of Who Left the Cork Out of My Lunch? 

“The story of Erin Cole is told in eloquent slivers of time that will, at times, jar the reader from complacency. Reading about the atrocities that Erin endured is sometimes hard, yet the poetic way in which her tale unfolds makes it impossible to peel your eyes from the page. This is one you’ll read again and again.” 
~Tamara Doris, author of Casey’s Quest 

“I was captivated by The Size of Everything from the very first page. With a magical blend of moments funny, uplifting and unforgiving, Cole and McCarthy have managed to turn a gruesome past into poetry. Get ready to fall in love.” 
~Elizabeth Lyons, bestselling author

“From tumultuous to triumphant, you will be mesmerized by this story from the very first page. The misplaced child of alcoholics, Erin Cole’s life was filled with unimaginable abuse and neglect. That she came out unscathed is a miracle in itself; her story - told with honesty and grace - is a lesson to us all, to never give up no matter what obstacles are in the way.” 
~Stephanie Elliot, author of Sad Perfect

On My Radar:

Hitchhike America
by Jon Lott
Bookbaby
Trade Paperback

From the book publicity:

In an age where cynicism and suspicion has replaced hope and trust, Jon Lott gives himself to the open road and the winds of chance.  Hitchhiking west across the United States, he meets more than two dozen drivers along the way, mountain men, hipsters, horse ranches, felons, and people looking for love, hope, drugs, and more. Beginning in Washington, D.C. and ending on the Pacific Coast, Hitchhike America honestly recounts the amazing journey exploring the United States and meeting new people, seeking to uncover the true soul of America.

Part memoir and part travel writing, Hitchhike America also acts as a new guide for hitchhikers, with wisdom and anecdotes to teach you the best hitchhiking and vagabonding practices for adventuring the United States on a tight budget and a loose schedule.

On My Radar:

Trump on the Couch: Inside the Mind of the President
by Justin A. Frank, MD
Avery Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

No president in the history of the United States has inspired more alarm and confusion than Donald Trump. As questions and concerns about his decisions, behavior, and qualifications for office have multiplied, they point to one primary question: Does he pose a genuine threat to our country? The American Psychiatric Association’s Goldwater Rule constrains psychiatrists from offering diagnoses on public figures who are not patients and who have not endorsed such statements. But in Trump on the Couch Clinical Professor of Psychiatry Justin A Frank invokes the moral responsibility that compels him to speak out and present a full portrait of a man who presents us with a clear and present danger.

Using observations gained from a close study of Trump’s patterns of thought, action, and communication, Dr. Frank uncovers a personality riddled with mental health issues. His analysis is filled with important revelations about our nation’s leader, including disturbing insights into his childhood, his family, his business dealings, and his unusual relationship with alternative facts, including how

  *  The absence of a strong maternal force during childhood has led to Trump’s remarkable lack of empathy and disregard for women’s boundaries;
  *  His compulsion to polarize America has grown out of the way he perceives the world as full of deceitful and destructive persecutors;
  *  His inability to tolerate the pain of frustration has triggered his belief that omnipotence will finally remove it;
  *  His idiosyncratic use of language points to larger issues than even his tweets might suggest.

With our country itself at stake, Dr. Frank calls attention to the underlying narcissism, misogyny, deception, and racism that drive the President who endangers it. A penetrating examination of how we as a nation got here and, more important, where we are going, Trump on the Couch sounds a call to action that we cannot ignore.

In My TBR Stack:

The Poison Squad: One Chemist's Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the  Turn of the Twentieth Century
by Deborah Blum
Penguin Press
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

By the end of nineteenth century, food was dangerous. Lethal, even. “Milk” might contain formaldehyde, most often used to embalm corpses. Decaying meat was preserved with both salicylic acid, a pharmaceutical chemical, and borax, a compound first identified as a cleaning product. This was not by accident; food manufacturers had rushed to embrace the rise of industrial chemistry, and were knowingly selling harmful products. Unchecked by government regulation, basic safety, or even labelling requirements, they put profit before the health of their customers. By some estimates, in New York City alone, thousands of children were killed by “embalmed milk” every year. Citizens–activists, journalists, scientists, and women’s groups–began agitating for change. But even as protective measures were enacted in Europe, American corporations blocked even modest regulations. Then, in 1883, Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley, a chemistry professor from Purdue University, was named chief chemist of the agriculture department, and the agency began methodically investigating food and drink fraud, even conducting shocking human tests on groups of young men who came to be known as, “The Poison Squad.” 

Over the next thirty years, a titanic struggle took place, with the courageous and fascinating Dr. Wiley campaigning indefatigably for food safety and consumer protection. Together with a gallant cast, including the muckraking reporter Upton Sinclair, whose fiction revealed the horrific truth about the Chicago stockyards; Fannie Farmer, then the most famous cookbook author in the country; and Henry J. Heinz, one of the few food producers who actively advocated for pure food, Dr. Wiley changed history. When the landmark 1906 Food and Drug Act was finally passed, it was known across the land, as “Dr. Wiley’s Law.” 

Blum brings to life this timeless and hugely satisfying “David and Goliath” tale with righteous verve and style, driving home the moral imperative of confronting corporate greed and government corruption with a bracing clarity, which speaks resoundingly to the enormous social and political challenges we face today.

On My Radar:

The King of Con: How a Smooth-Talking Jersey Boy Made and Lost Billions, Baffled the FBI, Eluded the Mob, and Lived to Tell the Crooked Tale
by Thomas Giacomaro and Natasha Stoynoff
BenBella Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

As a teenager, Tom Giacomaro began working in the mob-laden New Jersey trucking industry. A charming, brash-talking salesman with a genius-level IQ, he climbed the ranks and let his lust for money and relationships with New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Chicago crime families send him spiraling into a world of drugs and violence. Forced to go on the lam in South Africa and Europe, he returned a year later with millions of dollars’ worth of diamonds stuffed in his underwear. And that’s only the beginning.

In The King of Con, Tom details how he hashes out a deal with the FBI, agreeing to become a special crime informant in an effort to avoid jail time—only he somehow manages not to rat anyone out and, incredibly, continues his high-finance, white-collar scheming, luring celebrities and other high-profile contacts to invest multimillions in his new business ventures. When it all inevitably comes crashing down, Tom is thrown in prison for over a decade, yet, even behind bars, he’s able to get what he wants from anyone: the warden, the doctors, the guards, his fellow inmates . . . and he eventually finds a way to get released early.

Cowritten by journalist Natasha Stoynoff, The King of Con is the true story about a streetwise Jersey boy who talked and scammed his way to the top and became richer and more successful than his wildest dreams. It offers an unforgettable look into the life of a man who became hooked on living life to thrilling and dangerous excess, rubbing elbows with celebrities and crime bosses, until he was humbled by the FBI, by the US Attorney, and by life itself.

Now, Tom is back in his old New Jersey neighborhood. His old business cronies and mob contacts are calling, his palms are itching to make billions again, and the US Attorney’s office is watching. Will he stay on the straight and narrow, or will he steal back his crown of crime as the King of Con?

In My TBR Stack:

101 Things to Do With a Dead Body
by Jason Blake
Laki Press
Trade Paperback

From the book publicity:

It seems like every day people are finding themselves left with perfectly good dead bodies. Sure, perhaps they're a little bruised and they may even have some stretch marks. But what are the reasonable alternatives? Cremation? Yes, it's affordable but entirely environmentally-unfriendly in the era of climate change. Burial? That's at least $15,000 if done right. People fill obligated to come to the service, say nice things about people who may not have been nice, and then the body is buried semi-permanently, often on top of the bones of generations past. Do you really want to assist in making our world one big landfill of bodies? I think not.

This is the new millennium. Reduce, reuse, recycle. Don't let your dead body be a liability on your balance sheet. It's time to put it to use. If you're at a lack of creative ideas, this first volume will get your creative juices flowing so you can find the solution that's right for you. While the big lifestyle brands are focusing on centerpieces for your Thanksgiving table and reupholstering Grandma's antique chair, this book offers real solutions for real people like you and me. After reading 101 Things To Do With A Dead Body, you'll wonder, "How did I ever survive without this handy guide?" With a snicker, you'll realize that the other guy wasn't so lucky....

On My Radar:

The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War
by Ben Macintyre
Crown Publishing
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

If anyone could be considered a Russian counterpart to the infamous British double-agent Kim Philby, it was Oleg Gordievsky. The son of two KGB agents and the product of the best Soviet institutions, the savvy, sophisticated Gordievsky grew to see his nation’s communism as both criminal and philistine. He took his first posting for Russian intelligence in 1968 and eventually became the Soviet Union’s top man in London, but from 1973 on he was secretly working for MI6. For nearly a decade, as the Cold War reached its twilight, Gordievsky helped the West turn the tables on the KGB, exposing Russian spies and helping to foil countless intelligence plots, as the Soviet leadership grew increasingly paranoid at the United States’s nuclear first-strike capabilities and brought the world closer to the brink of war. Desperate to keep the circle of trust close, MI6 never revealed Gordievsky’s name to its counterparts in the CIA, which in turn grew obsessed with figuring out the identity of Britain’s obviously top-level source. Their obsession ultimately doomed Gordievsky: the CIA officer assigned to identify him was none other than Aldrich Ames, the man who would become infamous for secretly spying for the Soviets. 

Unfolding the delicious three-way gamesmanship between America, Britain, and the Soviet Union, and culminating in the gripping cinematic beat-by-beat of Gordievsky’s nail-biting escape from Moscow in 1985, Ben Macintyre’s latest may be his best yet. Like the greatest novels of John le Carré, it brings readers deep into a world of treachery and betrayal, where the lines bleed between the personal and the professional, and one man’s hatred of communism had the power to change the future of nations.

On My Radar:

Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World
by Tom Wright and Bradley Hope
Hachette Books
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

In 2009, with the dust yet to settle on the financial crisis, a baby-faced, seemingly mild-mannered Wharton grad began setting in motion a fraud of unprecedented gall and magnitude–one that would come to symbolize the next great threat to the global financial system. His name is Jho Low, a man whose behavior was so preposterous he might seem made up. 

An epic true-tale of hubris and greed, Billion Dollar Whale reveals how this young social climber pulled off one of the biggest heists in history–right under the nose of the global financial industry. Federal agents who helped unravel Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme say the 1MDB affair will become the textbook case of financial fraud in the modern age–and its fallout is already being credited for taking down the prime minister of Malaysia. With his yacht and private jet reportedly seized by authorities and facing money-laundering charges in Malaysia, an Interpol red notice, and an ongoing U.S. Department of Justice Investigation, Low has become an international fugitive.

For readers of Liar’s Poker, Den of Thieves, and Bad Blood, Billion Dollar Whale will become a classic, harrowing parable about finance run amok.

On My Radar:

The Gospel According to Luke
by Steve Lukather
Simon and Schuster
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

No one explodes one of the longest-held misconceptions of music history better than Steve Lukather and his band Toto. The dominant sound of the late ‘70s and ‘80s was not punk, but a slick, polished amalgam of rock and R&B first staked out on Boz Scaggs’ Silk Degrees. That album was shaped in large part by the founding members of Toto, who were emerging as the most in-demand elite session crew in LA, and further developed on the band’s self-titled multi-platinum debut. A string of massive hits followed for Toto while Lukather and bandmates David Paich, Jeff Porcaro, and Steve Porcaro also served as creative linchpins on some of the most successful and influential records of the era, including Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

In this incisive memoir, Lukather tells the complete Toto story. He also lifts the lid on what went on behind the closed studio doors, shedding light on the unique creative processes of some of the most legendary names in music: from Quincy Jones, Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney, Stevie Nicks, and Elton John to Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, Bruce Springsteen, Don Henley, Roger Waters, and Aretha Franklin. Lukather’s extraordinary tale also encompasses the dark side of stardom and the American Dream. Frank, engaging, and often hilarious, The Gospel According to Luke is no ordinary rock memoir. It is the real thing.

On My Radar:

In Pieces
by Sally Field
Grand Central Publishing
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

One of the most celebrated, beloved, and enduring actors of our time, Sally Field has an infectious charm that has captivated the nation for more than five decades, beginning with her first TV role at the age of seventeen. From Gidget‘s sweet-faced “girl next door” to the dazzling complexity of Sybil to the Academy Award-worthy ferocity and depth of Norma Rae and Mary Todd Lincoln, Field has stunned audiences time and time again with her artistic range and emotional acuity. Yet there is one character who always remained hidden: the shy and anxious little girl within.

With raw honesty and the fresh, pitch-perfect prose of a natural-born writer, and with all the humility and authenticity her fans have come to expect, Field brings readers behind-the-scenes for not only the highs and lows of her star-studded early career in Hollywood, but deep into the truth of her lifelong relationships–including her complicated love for her own mother. Powerful and unforgettable, In Pieces is an inspiring and important account of life as a woman in the second half of the twentieth century.

On My Radar:

Passing for Human: A Graphic Memoir
by Liana Finck
Random House
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:

In this achingly beautiful graphic memoir, Liana Finck goes in search of that thing she has lost—her shadow, she calls it, but one might also think of it as the “otherness” or “strangeness” that has defined her since birth, that part of her that has always made her feel as though she is living in exile from the world. In Passing for Human, Finck is on a quest for self-understanding and self-acceptance, and along the way she seeks to answer some eternal questions: What makes us whole? What parts of ourselves do we hide or ignore or chase away—because they’re embarrassing, or inconvenient, or just plain weird—and at what cost?

Passing for Human is what Finck calls “a neurological coming-of-age story”—one in which, through her childhood, human connection proved elusive and her most enduring relationships were with plants and rocks and imaginary friends; in which her mother was an artist whose creative life had been stifled by an unhappy first marriage and a deeply sexist society that seemed expressly designed to snuff out creativity in women; in which her father was a doctor who struggled in secret with the guilt of having passed his own form of otherness on to his daughter; and in which, as an adult, Finck finally finds her shadow again—and, with it, her true self.

Melancholy and funny, personal and surreal, Passing for Human is a profound exploration of identity by one of the most talented young comic artists working today. Part magical odyssey, part feminist creation myth, this memoir is, most of all, an extraordinary, moving meditation on what it means to be an artist and a woman grappling with the desire to pass for human.

In My TBR Stack:

College Beyond the States: European Schools That Will Change Your Life Without Breaking the Bank
by Jennifer Viemont
Global Ed Press
Trade Paperback

From the organization website:

Are you worried about how to pay for college? 

Are admissions requirements dictating your family’s lives? 

Are you concerned about your child’s job prospects after graduation?

If any of these questions resonate with you, it’s time to consider college in Europe.  

As a mother confronted by these issues, Jennifer Viemont took it upon herself to meticulously research, personally visit, and carefully consider the alternatives in continental Europe.

She found over 300 accredited universities offering high-quality bachelor’s degree programs taught entirely in English—no foreign language skills needed—for a fraction of what American schools charge.You’ll be amazed to find that, in many cases, the cost of earning an entire bachelor’s degree (including travel costs) is less than just one year of tuition at an American university. 

College Beyond the States details the top 13 European schools that offer:

• Reasonable tuition fees well below any US option
• Transparent and attainable admissions criteria
• An exceptional international student environment

Informative, empowering, and hopeful, College Beyond the States is an invaluable resource for both parents and students alike, and offers an appealing way to opt out of a system that no longer works for most families.