Kathleen Cheng has gone through a humiliating breakup, dropped out of her graduate program, and left everything behind. Now she's back in her childhood home in Oakland, wondering what's next. She finds her mother has been transformed by love: the new Marissa Cheng is sporty, perky, and planning a wedding to a Silicon Valley tech entrepreneur. Kathleen takes a job at a start-up that specializes in an unconventional form of therapy based on touch. An...

"Ro is stuck. She's just entered her thirties, she's estranged from her mother, and her boyfriend has just left her to join a mission to Mars. Her days are spent dragging herself to her menial job at a mall aquarium, and her nights are spent drinking sharktinis (mountain dew and copious amounts of gin, plus a hint of jalapeno). With her best friend pulling away to focus on her upcoming wedding, Ro's only companion is Dolores, a giant Pacific octopus...

A collection of writings in which parents of children with disabilities share their experiences and discuss how they coped with their children's problems.