it's not mary poppins!

My Hollywood by Mona Simpson

Claire--a composer and a new mother, comes to L.A. so her husband can follow his dream of writing TV comedy. Suddenly, the marriage changes, with Paul working all hours and Claire left with a baby, William, whom she adores but has no idea how to care for.

Lola-- a fifty-two-year-old mother of five who comes to work in America to pay for her own children’s higher education back in the Philippines. Lola stabilizes the rocky household, and soon other parents try to lure her away. What she sacrifices to stay with Claire and William remains her own closely guarded secret.

In a novel, at turns satirical and heartbreaking, where mothers’ modern ideas are given practical overhauls by nannies, we meet Lola’s vast network of fellow caregivers, each with her own story to tell. We see the upstairs competition for the best nanny and the downstairs competition for the best deal, and are forced to ask whether it’s possible to buy love for our children and what that transaction costs. We see the endangerment of a modern marriage despite the best of intentions. This tender, witty, and resonant novel provides the profound pleasures readers have come to expect from Mona Simpson, here writing at the height of her powers.

other nanny books:

Lucy by Jamaica Kincaid

Lucy, a teenage girl from the West Indies, comes to North America to work as an au pair for Lewis and Mariah and their four children. Lewis and Mariah are a thrice-blessed couple--handsome, rich, and seemingly happy. Yet, alomst at once, Lucy begins to notice cracks in their beautiful facade. With mingled anger and compassion, Lucy scrutinizes the assumptions and verities of her employers' world and compares them with the vivid realities of her native place. Lucy has no illusions about her own past, but neither is she prepared to be deceived about where she presently is.

The Nanny Diaries by Nicola Kraus and Emma McLaughlin

Struggling to graduate from NYU and afford her microscopic studio apartment, Nanny takes a position caring for the only son of the wealthy X family. She rapidly learns the insane amount of juggling involved to ensure that a Park Avenue wife who doesn't work, cook, clean, or raise her own child has a smooth day.When the Xs marriage begins to disintegrate, Nanny ends up involved way beyond the bounds of human decency or good taste. Her tenure with the X family becomes a nearly impossible mission to maintain the mental health of their four-year-old, her own integrity and, most importantly, her sense of humor. Over nine tense months Mrs. X and Nanny perform the age-old dance of decorum and power as they test the limits of modern-day servitude.

The Good Nanny by Benjamin Cheever

The new nanny is perfect. A natural with children, a whiz in the kitchen, and a talented painter, the only thing Miss Washington can't seem to do is make a mistake. But when Stuart Cross loses his editing job and decides to write the great American novel, the nanny's excellence quickly becomes a sore spot.

Stuart, paralyzed by writer's block, envies her impending artistic success; his wife Andie doesn't trust her and wishes she could stay home with their daughters; and on top of that, even a mention of the nanny's old boyfriend, ex-con Toussaint, makes the local police uneasy. The heightening jealousy and resentment that the parents feel toward their surrogate sets into motion a chain of unexpected events and surprising reversals that will end, less than a week later, in a suspected kidnapping, a half-million-dollar book deal, and the unpleasant question of just who, exactly, the guilty party is.

The Manny by Holly Peterson

A solid middle-class girl from Middle America, Jamie Whitfield isnt “one of them” but she lives in “the Grid,” the wealthiest acre of real estate in Manhattan, where big money and big media collide. And she has most everything they have–a big new apartment, full-time help with her three children, as well as her very own detached Master of the Universe attorney husband. What she doesnt have, however, is a full-time father figure for their struggling nine-year-old son, Dylan. But the rich havent yet encountered a problem they cant hire someone else to solve.

Enter the manny…. At first the idea of paying a man to provide a role model for Dylan sounds too crazy to be true. But one look at Peter Bailey is enough to convince Jamie that the idea may not be quite so insane after all. Peter is calm, cool, competent, and so charmingly down-to-earth, hes irresistible. And with the political sex scandal of the decade propelling her career as a news producer into overdrive, and her increasingly erratic husband locked in his study with suspicious files, Jamie is in serious need of some grounding.

Peter reminds her of everything she once was, still misses, and underneath all the high-society glitz, still is. But will the new manny in her life put the ground back beneath her feet, or sweep her off them?

Bad Marie by Marcy Dermansky (on order)

Bad Marieis the story of Marie, tall, voluptuous, beautiful, thirty years old, and fresh from six years in prison for being an accessory to murder and armed robbery. The only job Marie can get on the outside is as a nanny for her childhood friend Ellen Kendall, an upwardly mobile Manhattan executive whose mother employed Marie's mother as a housekeeper. After Marie moves in with Ellen, Ellen's angelic baby Caitlin, and Ellen's husband, a very attractive French novelist named Benoit Doniel, things get complicated, and almost before she knows what she's doing, Marie has absconded to Paris with both Caitlin and Benoit Doniel. On the run and out of her depth, Marie will travel to distant shores and experience the highs and lows of foreign culture, lawless living, and motherhood as she figures out how to be an adult; how deeply she can love; and what it truly means to be "bad".

Substitute Me by Lori Thorsen (on order)

Zora seems perfect. She's an enthusiastic caretaker, a competent house keeper, a great cook. And she wants the job, despite the fact that she won't let her African American parents and brother know anything about this new career move. They expect much more from her than to use all that good education to do what so many Blacks have dreamed of not doing: working for White folks. Working as an au pair in Paris, France no less, was one thing, they could accept that. Being a servant to a couple not much older nor more educated, is yet another. Every adult character involved in this tangled web is hiding something: the husband is hiding his desire to turn a passion for comic books into a business from his wife, the wife is hiding her professional ambitions from her husband, the nanny is hiding her job from her family and maybe her motivations for staying on her job from herself.

list from entertainment weekly 8.6.10

coming this fall!!

Mr. Toppit by Charles Elton
A book, in truth, has always been a shared experience between author and reader. The words construct characters which come alive inside our imaginations and, in the case of the very best books, impact the real world through us. Mr. Toppit is the story of Arthur Hayman, failed screenwriter turned children’s author, who dies before his books achieve success, leaving his family to experience the impact of sudden fame. As their father’s books, The Hayseed Chronicles, come to belong to the consciousness of the world, the family is subsumed by their legend. I imagine this is how Mrs. Rowling must feel about Harry Potter.

The King’s Mistress by Emma Campion
The King’s Mistress is an exciting historical romance from Emma Campion, a respected scholar on Alice Perrers whose life is at the center of this debut novel. Her life and loves are woven into a story that is full of adventure, history, crime, and romance. The King’s Mistress is a lengthy tome, but readers will find themselves so entranced in the story that the pages will simply fly by.

Room By Emma Donoghue
Told from the viewpoint of five year-old Jack, a boy imprisoned along with his mother in a one room shed, Room is one of the most disturbing, yet ultimately gratifying books I’ve ever read. After a perilous escape, mother and son are freed and must learn to cope with the outside world. This task proves harder than would be expected considering the freedom they now enjoy. As a reader you empathize with every move the characters make. Room is a book that may be difficult to read at times due to the subject matter, but it is one that you will never forget.

The Bells by Richard Harvell
Moses Froben is a prodigy, a connoisseur of sounds, whose extraordinary sense of hearing developed because he was born in a bell tower. When he is orphaned, he goes to live in a monastery where he learns to sing, though his exquisite voice draws the attention of those who wish to preserve it by castration. The Bells is a lush, passionate, heartbreaking novel that brings 18th-century Vienna and the world of the castrati vividly to life. Readers of historical fiction will enjoy it, but it’s a must read for aficionados of opera and classical music.

Outside the Ordinary World by Dori Ostermiller
Sylvia Sandon was determined to avoid the mistakes of her mother, whose infidelity years earlier destroyed their family. Despite her best intentions, when Sylvia experiences problems in her marriage, she slides into an affair with the father of one of her students. The narrative alternates between Sylvia as a preteen and as an adult, illustrating the source of her family’s dysfunction and how mistakes and secrets can have impact years later. Outside the Ordinary World is a compelling, emotionally complex novel that will appeal to readers of sophisticated women’s fiction.

Licensed for Trouble by Susan May Warren

Do you like female private investigators? Is a funny mystery your escape? Licensed for Trouble by Susan May Warren is a new novel in the PJ Sugar mystery series. PJ’s got a full case load when she inherits a rundown mansion, the site of many childhood dreams. She seeks the aid of handyman Max Smith and his canine companion “Dog” to fix up the mansion, but learns Max comes with a past he just can’t remember. PJ Sugar is a wholesome, enjoyable series and worthy of a first mention. Read Licensed for Trouble to discover if PJ finds her happy ending in the castle of her dreams.

You Lost Me There by Rosecrans Baldwin
Research scientists are not noted for their people skills; often cloistered for long hours in a lab or on a computer. Dr. Victor Aaron, Alzheimer’s researcher, was often absent from his family life, much to the dismay of his late wife, Sara. When Victor discovers note cards journaling their relationship, he learns just how much he missed and how far Sara moved on with her career as a screenwriter. Was Victor the perfect husband that Sara wrote about? You Lost Me There is often funny, sometimes sad and expresses a reality for relationships and marriage that hits home -- a poignant romance by an up and coming North Carolina novelist.

Juliet by Anne Fortier
Julie Jacobs’ aunt passes away and leaves her a key to a safe deposit box in Italy, along with a passport with her real name that she had never known, Giulietta Tolomei. She discovers that she is part of an old Italian family that had been feuding for centuries with another family, the Salimbenis, and the original Giulietta Tolomei was the inspiration for Shakespeare’s Juliet. The narrative switches between present-day Julie and 13th-century Giulietta in a tightly plotted, intelligent romantic suspense tale full of twists and turns. Highly recommended for readers craving an end-of-summer escape.

literary desintations

Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead

First stop: the Hamptons, affectionately dubbed "Out" in Colson Whitehead's coming-of-age tale, Sag Harbor. "Out" of New York City, teenager Benji and his brother spend a mostly parent-free summer getting into low-key mischief with BB guns, fake IDs and beer. The guys while away long afternoons swimming in the bay, lounging on the sand and prowling for the fabled stretch of nude beach. When Benji gets a part-time job in the tourist town's popular ice cream shop, his attention turns to girls — or rather his inability to attract the attention of girls. His adolescent fumblings make for funny and cringe-inducing moments. Who knew your elbow could be an erogenous zone?

The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais

In this delicious fairy-tale-like read, our young hero, Hassan Haji, journeys to the picturesque French countryside where he begins his quest to become an international celebrity chef. But first, author Robert Morais introduces us to the scents and sounds of Mumbai, where the Muslim Hassan — born in an apartment above the family's popular roadside restaurant — gets his first cooking lessons. Dishes like spicy fish curry and chicken tandoori with hints of cinnamon and cardamom seem destined to become the staples of his bourgeoning culinary skills. But then on one unforgettable day, Hassan's mother introduces him to fine French cuisine. Hassan knows then that his tastes have been forever altered.

The Spice Necklace by Ann Vanderhoof

Vanderhoof, along with her husband, sets sail to the Caribbean in search of spices and, as a result, finds a real spice for life among new friends and acquaintances who teach the couple how to live at a sweet, slower island pace. The couple travels by a boat — tellingly named Receta (which means "recipe") — visiting more than a dozen islands including Grenada, Trinidad, St. Martin and St. Lucia. The two spend their days market shopping, fishing, cooking, eating and most of all celebrating each island's specialties.

The Lovers by Vendela Vida

On her wedding anniversary, the recently widowed Yvonne travels solo to a beautiful coastal town in Turkey, where she honeymooned with her husband 28 years ago. Still numb from her husband's unexpected death, Yvonne hopes to bask in the memory of their newlywed days.

Picturing Hemingway’s Michigan by Michael R. Federspiel

In this hybrid coffee table/literary history book, Federspiel provides a rich history of the Lake area that first developed as a vacation destination in the late 1800s and served as the Hemingway family's summer getaway for many years starting when Hemingway was just 6 weeks old. With gorgeous illustrations, photographs, documents and brief narrative accounts from Hemingway's childhood scrapbooks, Federspiel offers a wonderful portrait of the area through Hemingway's eyes.

list compiled by NPR

swedish crime novels...

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO by Stieg Larsson

It's about Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently at the wrong end of a libel case, hired to get to the bottom of Harriet's disappearance...and about Lisbeth Salander, a twenty-four-year-old pierced and tattooed genius hacker possessed of the hard-earned wisdom of someone twice her age — and a terrifying capacity for ruthlessness to go with it — who assists Blomkvist with the investigation. This unlikely team discovers a vein of nearly unfathomable iniquity running through the Vanger family, astonishing corruption in the highest echelons of Swedish industrialism — and an unexpected connection between themselves.

THE GIRL WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE by Stieg Larsson

Mikael Blomkvist, crusading publisher of the magazine Millennium, has decided to run a story that will expose an extensive sex trafficking operation. On the eve of its publication, the two reporters responsible for the article are murdered, and the fingerprints found on the murder weapon belong to his friend, the troubled genius hacker Lisbeth Salander. Blomkvist, convinced of Salander's innocence, plunges into an investigation. Meanwhile, Salander herself is drawn into a murderous game of cat and mouse, which forces her to face her dark past.

THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST by Stieg Larsson

Lisbeth Salander — the heart of Larsson's two previous novels — lies in critical condition, a bullet wound to her head, in the intensive care unit of a Swedish city hospital. She's fighting for her life in more ways than one: if and when she recovers, she'll be taken back to Stockholm to stand trial for three murders. With the help of her friend, journalist Mikael Blomkvist, she will not only have to prove her innocence, but also identify and denounce those in authority who have allowed the vulnerable, like herself, to suffer abuse and violence. And, on her own, she will plot revenge — against the man who tried to kill her, and the corrupt government institutions that very nearly destroyed her life.

THE FIFTH WOMAN: A Kurt Wallander Mystery by Henning Mankell

In an African convent, four nuns and a unidentified fifth woman are brutally murdered — the death of the unknown woman covered up by the local police. A year later in Sweden, Inspector Kurt Wallander is baffled and appalled by two murders. Holger Eriksson, a retired car dealer and bird watcher, is impaled on sharpened bamboo poles in a ditch behind his secluded home, and the body of a missing florist is discovered — strangled and tied to a tree. The only clues Wallander has to go on are a skull, a diary, and a photo of three men. What ensues is a case that will test Wallander's strength and patience, because in order to discover the reason behind these murders, he will also need to uncover the elusive connection between these deaths and the earlier unsolved murder in Africa of the fifth woman.

BLACKWATER by Kerstin Ekman

On her way to a commune in northern Sweden, a woman and her young daughter discover two bodies in a tent, stabbed to death in their sleeping bags. Many years later she sees her now grown up daughter with the man she believes to be responsible, forcing events surrounding the crime to a dark and unexpected conclusion. Atmospheric literary thriller in the Barbara Vine/"Miss Smilla" mould. "The best novel I have read this year" Rose Tremaine. "No thriller was ever so hard-boiled as this, no city streets as mean as these sub-Arctic woodland rides... mesmerising in its glances into the psychic abyss" "Scotsman".

MISSING by Karin Alvtegen

Karin Alvtegen — without any training or thought of becoming a novelist — resolved to write her way out of some family tradedies: The result was her first novel, Guilt (Skuld), which was published in Sweden in 1998, to rave reviews. This was followed in 2000 by Missing (Saknad), which won Scandinavia's prestigious Glass Key award for Best Crime Novel of the Year, and went on to win an award for bestselling Scandinavian paperback. Her third novel, Betrayal (Svek) — coming next year from Felony & Mayhem — was shortlisted for the Glass Key award, and also for the Swedish Crime Writers Academy award for Best Swedish Crime Novel of the year. And Swedish reviewers have called Alvtegen's most recent novel, Shame (Skam) (also to come from Felony & Mayhem) her finest novel to date — the work, in the words of one critic, of a modern-day Strindberg. Karin Alvtegen is the great-niece of Astrid Lundgren, author of the ever-popular Pippi Longstocking books.