33. Little Earthquakes, Jennifer Weiner

414 páginas

"First comes love. Then comes marriage. And then things start to get really interesting... In Good in Bed, Cannie Shapiro conquered public heartbreak and shaky self-esteem. In In Her Shoes, Rose and Maggie Feller learned about family secrets and the ties that bind. Now, in Jennifer Weiner's richest, wittiest, most true-to-life novel yet, this highly acclaimed storyteller brings readers a tale of romance, friendship, forgiveness, and extreme sleep deprivation, as three very different women navigate one of life's most wonderful and perilous transitions: the journey of new motherhood. Rebecca Rothstein-Rabinowitz is a plump, sexy chef who has a wonderful husband, supportive friends, a restaurant that's received citywide acclaim, a beautiful baby girl...and the mother-in-law from hell. Kelly Day's life looks picture-perfect. But behind the doors of her largely empty apartment, she's struggling to balance work and motherhood and marriage, while entering Oliver's every move (and movement) on a spreadsheet, and dealing with an unemployed husband who seems content to channel-surf for eight hours a day. And Ayinde Towne is already on shaky ground, trying to live her life to the letter of a how-to guide called Baby Success, when her basketball superstar husband breaks her trust at the most vulnerable moment in her life, putting their marriage in peril -- and their new family even more in the public eye. Then there's Lia Frederick, a Philadelphia native who has just come home, leaving Los Angeles behind, along with her glamorous Hollywood career, her husband, and a tragic secret, to start her life all over again. With her trademark warmth and humor, Weiner tells the story of what happens after happily ever after...and how an eight-pound bundle of joy can shake up every woman's sense of herself in the world around her. From prenatal yoga to postbirth sex, from sisters and husbands to mothers and mothers-in-law, Little Earthquakes is a frank, funny, fiercely perceptive Diaper Genie-eye view of the comedies and tragedies of love and marriage."

32. A Mulher do Piloto, Anita Shreve

251 páginas

"Uma variante mais moderna da obra Vol de Nuit, de Saint-Exupéry, contada do ponto de vista da mulher, o novo romance de Anita Shreve explora numa prosa calma e clara o desejo autodestrutivo de um homem por um mundo para lá do quotidiano... Como o avião da história de Saint-Exupéry a alma deste piloto parece ter terminado a correr sobre o vazio.Anita Shreve alterna cenas do passado e do presente, à medida que Kathryn tenta resolver o mistério da morte de Jack, enquanto é perseguida pelo escrutínio público. O suspense da narrativa aumenta ao vermos a curiosidade urgente de Kathryn contrapor-se ao seu instinto protector. Ler este romance é como desenrolar uma meada. É essencialmente um mistério. O tratamento dado pela autora ao dilema de Kathryn, juntamente com as intrigantes personagens secundárias e um enredo magistralmente ritmado, fazem com que a Mulher do Piloto consiga de facto levantar voo."

31. The Husband, Dean Koontz

400 páginas

"It's another boring day in paradise for gardener Mitch Rafferty, planting impatiens on a rich client's lawn. Then his cell rings. It's Holly, his wife, and she doesn't sound good. Someone slaps her, she screams, and a man comes on to tell Mitch that he has 60 hours to raise $2 million to ransom her. Just so Mitch knows they mean business, the man says, see the guy walking a dog across the street? Mitch looks and blam! A bullet to the head kills the dog walker. Let this be a warning, too, that the kidnapper-killers will know if Mitch says word one to the cops about his predicament, and Holly will suffer. Where is a gardener supposed to get $2 million? The sinister caller says he'll let Mitch know; just be a good machine and follow instructions. Despite his terror, Mitch does until . . . But uh-uh-uh, nothing should be given away about this sinuous nail-biter's developments. Suffice it to say that Mitch's intensely warped family, managed according to his rigidly materialistic psychologist-father's theories; two betrayals, one of Mitch, the other of the kidnappers; a slick child pornography entrepreneur; a humane but persistent police detective; and a New Ager psychopath all help ratchet up the suspense and the violence. But Koontz focuses relentlessly on Mitch and, in chapters scattered judiciously throughout the latter 230 pages, Holly. Not for him the flirtation with evil thinking that an Elmore Leonard does so well or the temptation to sympathize with evildoers that an Alfred Hitchcock offers. And yet Koontz is no less an artist for his championing of the good and his determination to have readers identify with it, as this hair-raising thriller attests."

30. A Lição de Italiano, Maeve Binchy

328 páginas

"O curso nocturno de italiano da Escola de Mountainview em Dublin assemelha-se a centenas de outros que estão a ter início por toda a cidade. Mas aquele é especial no que respeita às várias esperanças e sonhos que tanto professores como estudantes acalentam. Todos eles estão ansiosos por uma vida nova e quando o grupo parte para a viagem de fim de curso a Itália, um surpreendente número dessas esperanças e sonhos concretiza-se de modo estranho e inesperado... e as suas vidas sofrem uma transformação definitiva."

29. The Carousel, Rosamunde Pilcher

184 páginas

"Prue is intelligent, artistic, independent - and bored. Pressurized by her mother to make a conventional and dull marriage, she is delighted to escape London and seek retreat with her eccentric and bohemian aunt in Cornwall.
A chance encounter with an attractive young artist on the sea shore leads to day after idyllic summer's day of exploring the Cornish countryside and coast. But there is something troubling Daniel and Prue, now deeply entangled, feels compelled to discover what it is."

28. The Conspiracy Club, Jonathan Kellerman

374 páginas

"When psychologist Dr. Jeremy Carrier's romance with nurse Jocelyn Banks is cut short by her kidnapping and brutal murder, he is left emotionally devastated and being watched by police seeking a prime suspect in the unsolved killing. To escape the pain, he buries himself in his work. But when more women turn up murdered in the same gruesome fashion, the suspicion surrounding Jeremy intensifies and the only way for him to prove his innocence is to follow the trail of a cunning psychopath. Spurring on Jeremy's investigation is Dr. Arthur Chess, an enigmatic pathologist who draws Jeremy into the confidence of a cryptic society devoted to matters unknown and unspoken. But when Arthur suddenly slips away, Jeremy is left to contend with an onslaught of anonymous clues - and the growing realization that a harrowing game of cat and mouse has been started."

27. Manual de Infidelidade para Jovens Pais, Mark Barrowcliffe

335 páginas

"Do autor de A Namorada 44, chega-nos agora este Manual de Infidelidade para Jovens Pais, um inteligente e divertido olhar sobre os desafios sexuais e a angústia emocional de um trintão londrino a braços com as escolhas da vida adulta.Algo está errado na vida de Stewart Dagman. O mundo à sua volta avança e Dag quer avançar com ele. Afinal, os seus sonhos são até bastante concretizáveis: ele quer alguém a quem amar, constituir uma família e ter uma vida sexual indecorosamente estimulante. Quer, em suma, dar um sentido à sua existência. O que acontece então quando os seus sonhos se realizam? E no prazo de uma semana?Uma obra que nos mostra inequívoca e despudoradamente a maneira como o homem moderno lida com as namoradas, a paternidade, a amizade, o casamento, os pais… e outros personagens nem sempre desejados, tais como gangsters com nomes tipo Dave, o Lésbico. "