Sometimes you need to take a few hours and step away from the every day world, prop your feet up and grab a book for some laughs and a little sexual thrill. I was hoping to do just that when I read Charade by M.E. Ellis, but unfortunately I was disappointed.

Charade is a novella of the chick-lit variety that introduces us to Shirley Langford, mother of four and longtime wife. Shirley is a very unhappy homemaker. She spends her days playing internet quiz games, avoiding her gossiping neighbors and occasionally having sex with her husband.

I love spending time at bed and breakfasts (B&B's). Staying in someone's home adds the personal touch the big chain hotels are lacking, and a home cooked breakfast is just the icing on the cake, so to speak. The most interesting B&B I stayed in was actually only a B--bed, no breakfast, located over the local pub in a small town in Wales. The beds were comfy, and we enjoyed the music coming up through the floorboards as we fell asleep.

Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, first published in 1958, is the ultimate classic of African fiction introducing the reader to the life of the Igbo people, from whom the Nigerian writer Achebe descended.

The main character is Okonkwo, a hard-working man and a respected fighter, who, from a poor boy, becomes one of the most important men of the community in his homeland, Umuofia. One day the uncompromising leader accidentally kills a clansman, a young boy, and he must leave the village and cannot return for seven years.

When the subject of abuse comes up in normal conversation, most people feel ill at ease, become uncomfortable, and will attempt to change the subject. It is easier for most to ignore the horrible things human beings do to each other than to actually face them. Everyday someone notices something not quite right about a child and yet does nothing. Maybe the person is a teacher who sees the child's not quite covered bruises or notices that the child wears the same soiled shirt more than one day in a row . . . and says nothing. Or perhaps it is the next door neighbor who notices the child never goes out to play or even hears the unmistakable sounds of abuse and yet draws the curtains...doing nothing.

In a world of obscene women, perfect crimes, and a man with just a little too much time on his hands, one wrong move can send him reeling over the edge-very quickly. Just don't miscalculate the "rubbing out" of a little mistake and the labyrinth of secret thoughts.

James Thurber's The Catbird Seat focused on the quintessential mundane man-soft-spoken and lifelong devotee to "wearing a look of studious concentration" and to, of course, nothing other than filing cabinets. Mr. Martin's the man with nary a vice to his name, the one person people thought they had all figured out. But how much about him did anyone really know? Never underestimate the lengths a man like Mr. Martin would take to preserve the quiet monotony that had been managed for so long. For when Mrs. Barrows, a loud, "braying" woman-just the kind that would upset the delicate balance of a commonplace existence-nosed her way into the picture, the quiet man furtively plotted his revenge; but it's not quite what you thought. Instead, echoing the futile cries of Mrs. Barrow, it's really too perfect!

In 1963, Angelica "Jelly" Ryan was in her senior year of high school in Love, Oklahoma. She lived in the age of bobby socks, the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, and college being considered "wasted on women, who'll just up and get married." Jelly's father, Jake Ryan, was the town sheriff, and he did his best to raise his daughter alone. He wanted only for her to get married so that he wouldn't have to worry about her "running around"-and so that he could marry his long-time lover, the friendly beautician Velta. College for Jelly appeared to be out of the question from the beginning.

Anthea James, national talk show host and political activist, appeared to have it all. Underneath her surface perfection, however, lay a past fraught with scandal and heartbreak.

After the death of her mother, Lenore Hamlyn was sexually abused by her drunken father. After his death, Lenore was taken in by her kindly Irish landlady, Nan Reilly who, unbeknownst to Lenore, ran the most notorious brothel in Sydney. Nan came to love Lenore as her own daughter, but while never asked to prostitute herself, Lenore became an unwilling accomplice to the sex trade through helping Nan run the business. Despite the protective shell built up against any man, Lenore fell in love with wheelchair bound David Kershaw who broke her heart. In a fit of shame over his disability, David left Sydney without saying goodbye. After losing David's baby, Lenore was sent overseas by Nan to become educated, networked and empowered. So she did-and became the beautiful, successful and powerful Anthea James.