Through Thick and Thin

Life hasn't been easy for Julius Harris since he walked out on his wife and three sons twenty-five years ago. He may be blessed with the love of a wonderful new woman and a beautiful home in California, but not a moment passes that he isn't filled with regret for the fateful choice he made so many years ago. What's worse, he's now fighting for his life against an illness that leaves him with little hope of ever rebuilding the family lost to him. Julius has learned the hard way that there's nothing more precious than family -- and nothing more painful than being estranged from those you love.

But suddenly Julius receives news that gives him fresh hope of making his family whole again: his cancer has gone into remission. Overjoyed, Julius is grateful for this miracle and the time it affords him to make up for his past mistakes. Fulfilling his dream won't be easy, however.

Across the country in Chicago, life isn't exactly simple for his three grown sons -- now in their thirties and busy with families and romantic entanglements of their own. The oldest son, Austin, a handsome and successful attorney, struggles to be a good father to his two children despite his ex-wife's determination to turn them against him. Marcus, the middle son, a self-employed graphic designer, wrestles with a fear of commitment that leads him to drive away the woman he loves. And Caleb, the youngest, just released from prison for armed robbery, tries desperately to rebuild his life and win back the wife and son lost to him as a result of his past mistakes. Between the struggles of romance and career, these three brothers have a difficult enough time being there for one another -- let alone a father they haven't seen in so many years. Nor are they so sure they're ready to let him back into their lives.

In a stark, troubling, yet ultimately triumphant celebration of self-determination, award-winning author A. Manette Ansay re-creates a stifling world of guilty and pain, and the tormented souls who inhabit it. It is 1972 when circumstance carries Ellen Grier and her family back to Holly's Field, Wisconsin. Dutifully accompanying her newly unemployed husband, Ellen has brought her two children into the home of her in-laws on Vinegar Hill--a loveless house suffused with the settling dust of bitterness and routine--where calculated cruelty is a way of life preserved and perpetuated in the service of a rigid, exacting and angry God. Behind a facade of false piety, there are sins and secrets in this place that could crush a vibrant young woman's passionate spirit. And here Ellen must find the straight to endure, change, and grow in the all-pervading darkness that threatens to destroy everything she is and everyone she loves.

In the instant number one New York Times bestseller Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, Steve Harvey gave millions of women around the globe insight into what men really think about love, intimacy, and commitment. In his new book he zeros in on what motivates men and provides tips on how women can use that knowledge to get more of what they need out of their relationships, whether it's more help around the house, more of the right kind of attention in the bedroom, more money in the joint bank account, or more truth when it comes to the hard questions, such as: Are you committed to building a future together? Does my success intimidate you? Have you cheated on me?

In Straight Talk, No Chaser: How to Find, Keep, and Understand a Man, Steve Harvey shares information on:

How to Get the Truth Out of Your Man
Tired of answers that are deceptive? Harvey lays out a three-tier, CIA-style of questioning that will leave your man no choice but to cut to the chase and deliver the truth.

Dating Tips, Decade by Decade
Whether you're in your twenties and just starting to date seriously, in your thirties and feeling the tick of the biological clock, or in your forties and beyond, Steve provides insight into what a man, in each decade of his life, is looking for in a mate.

How to Minimize Nagging and Maximize Harmony at Home
He said he'd cut the lawn on Saturday, and you may have been within reason to think that that meant Saturday before ten in the evening, but exploding at him is only going to ruin the mood for everyone, which means no romance. Steve shows you how to talk to your man in a way that moves him to action and keeps the peace.

And there's much more, including Steve's candid answers to questions you've always wanted to ask men.

Drawing on a lifetime of experience and the feedback women have shared with him in reaction to Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, Harvey offers wisdom on a wealth of topics relevant to both sexes today. He also gets more personal, sharing anecdotes from his own family history. Always direct, often funny, and incredibly perceptive, media personality, comedian, philanthropist, and (finally) happily married husband, Steve Harvey proves once again that he is the king of relationships.

They're about as different as six women can be--haughty and humble, beautiful and plain, young and not-so-young, black, white, Latina, and origins unknown. But aside from a gift for laughing hardship in the face, they have one very important thing in common--Clyde Brooks. You might say that Clyde is their "manager." And you might say that Lula Mae, Ester, Megan, Rosalee, Helen, and Rockelle are colleagues--in the world's oldest profession. Clyde likes to refer to them as his "wives."

Maybe it's their love for the high life--and for each other--that makes the bond between Clyde's ladies so unbreakable. Maybe it's their private demons that keep them so loyal to Clyde--or so he thinks. For hard as they try to distract themselves, nothing can quell the women's longing for a life free from Clyde and what he represents--until one daring act of defiance changes everything. . .

"Reminiscent of Zora Neale Hurston." --Publishers Weekly

"Watch out Toni Morrison, there is a new sister in town." --Rapport