Be Frank With Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson

Be Frank With Me

Reclusive literary legend M. M. “Mimi” Banning has been holed up in her Bel Air mansion for years. But after falling prey to a Bernie Madoff-style ponzi scheme, she’s flat broke. Now Mimi must write a new book for the first time in decades, and to ensure the timely delivery of her manuscript, her New York publisher sends an assistant to monitor her progress. The prickly Mimi reluctantly complies—with a few stipulations: No Ivy-Leaguers or English majors. Must drive, cook, tidy. Computer whiz. Good with kids. Quiet, discreet, sane.

When Alice Whitley arrives at the Banning mansion, she’s put to work right away—as a full-time companion to Frank, the writer’s eccentric nine-year-old, a boy with the wit of Noel Coward, the wardrobe of a 1930s movie star, and very little in common with his fellow fourth-graders.

As she slowly gets to know Frank, Alice becomes consumed with finding out who Frank’s father is, how his gorgeous “piano teacher and itinerant male role model” Xander fits into the Banning family equation—and whether Mimi will ever finish that book.

Readers Guide -Harper Collins

The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing Mira Jacob

The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing 

When brain surgeon Thomas Eapen decides to cut short a visit to his mother’s home in India, he sets into motion a series of events that will forever haunt him and his wife, Kamala, their intellectually furious son, Akhil, and their watchful daughter, Amina. Now, twenty years later, in the heat of a New Mexican summer, Thomas seems to be derailing, and it’s up to Amina—a photographer in the midst of her own career crisis—to figure out what is really going on. But getting to the truth is far harder than it seems. From Thomas’ unwillingness to talk, to Kamala’s Born Again convictions, to run-ins with hospital staff that seem to know much more than they let on, Amina finds herself at the center of a mystery so tangled that to make any headway, she has to unravel her family’s painful past.

KAMALA’S CHAI 

From mirajacob.com

3 cups water
1 cup milk (see note below if lactose intolerant)*
8 tsp loose black Red Label tea leaves
1 tsp grated ginger
5 whole cardamom cloves, cracked a bit
5 regular clove-cloves
1 inch cinnamon bark, broken into a few pieces (see note below if you don’t have)**
Sugar to taste

Directions:Heat water and milk with all spices. Right as it boils, turn off the heat. Make sure to do this on time or it will taste like old socks! Let steep for 2 minutes. Pour into cup through sieve to strain out all spices. Add sugar.

*Shut up! Milk is good for you.

**Use a little ground cinnamon, but it won’t taste as good. Not my fault.