AustLit

'What do you do when you’re told you’ve got terminal cancer at 50? Take up crochet, get religion and bow out gracefully? Or upend your life and spend every remaining minute exploring new pleasures?

'Ruby has always been the generous mediator among her friends, family and colleagues, which is why they have all turned up to celebrate her 50th birthday. But after a few too many glasses of champers, Ruby’s speech doesn’t exactly go to plan. Instead of delivering the witty and warm words her guests are expecting, Ruby takes her moment in the spotlight to reveal what she really thinks of every one of them. She also accuses her husband, Harry, of having an affair.

'Saving the best till last, Ruby lambasts her octogenarian mother for a lifetime of playing her three daughters against each other. It’s blisteringly brutal. As the stunned gathering gawks at Ruby, the birthday girl concludes her bravura monologue with the throwaway comment that she has terminal cancer. She has cashed in her life savings and plans on taking her two sisters cruising into the sunset for a dose of Husband Replacement Therapy. Courageous? Or ruthlessly selfish?

'But, do they even want to go with her now that she's cast herself off into social Siberia?' (Publication summary)

'Now an adult on L-plates, Debbie and her girlfriends reveal what women talk about when there are no men around. Prepare yourself for full-frontal comedic camaraderie.

'After breaking off with both her best friend and boyfriend, Debbie runs away to the inner-city world of punk rock, dodgy jobs, new mates and R-rated adventures.

'It’s the kaleidoscopic 1980s, a time of perms, shoulder pads, Blondie and Bowie, prawn cocktails, fondue parties and mistaking promiscuity for feminism. The blokes are laughing all the way to the sperm bank – of course they’re for ‘free love’ as they don’t have to pay for it.

'Preyed upon by married men and misogynistic bosses, girlfriends are the only people you can rely on. Debbie’s female pals are her human Wonderbras – uplifting and supportive. But it’s not until the girls’ night out that these friends really peel off to their emotional undies … And it’s a psychological striptease which reveals some jaw-dropping truths.

'With equal parts humour and pathos, Kathy Lette, one of the pioneering voices of contemporary feminism, exposes all the fun and foolish things girls do when scrabbling to find their high-heeled feet in the world.' (Publication summary)

'Uproariously funny and provocative, tender and life-affirming, this is Kathy Lette at her very best.

'TO DO LIST

1) Buy hummus

2) Pay Pilates teacher

3) Find prostitute for son...

'When it comes to sex, even the best laid plans come unstuck – in the stickiest way possible

'As a crossword-addicted English teacher, Lucy never expected to be arrested for kerb-crawling. But her autistic twenty-year-old son Merlin is desperate to lose his virginity, and a prostitute seems like the only option . . . only Lucy picks up an undercover policewoman instead.

'Let off with a suspended sentence, Lucy resigns herself to the fact that her son will never have sex, let alone find love… until the morning she miraculously discovers Merlin in bed with a girl.

'But is tough, tattooed Kayleigh just taking Merlin for a ride? If so, why? And what has brought Lucy’s snake of an ex-husband wriggling back into their lives?

'As all her best laid plans for Merlin’s happiness chaotically unravel, will Lucy ever be able to cut her son’s psychological umbilical cord and start to live her own life? And will the funny, quirky and marvellously magical Merlin ever find real love?

'With plenty of comic twists and emotional turns, Kathy Lette’s riotous yet heartrending novel tackles the taboo subject of sex for the ‘differently abled’ – and shows us that when it comes to sex, we all have special needs …' (Publication summary)

'Tilly has the day from hell when she's sacked from her barristers' chambers in the morning, then finds her husband in bed with her former best friend in the afternoon. She escapes to her mother, Roxy - a sassy solicitor whose outrageous take on men, work and family life is the despair of her more conventional daughter. Roxy comes up with a radical plan for their future - they'll set up a new-style, all female law firm which will champion women. Before long they are rescuing women who have been cheated, put upon, attacked, ripped off or ruined by the men in their lives. When a gun-toting Grandma bursts upon the scene having shot off the testicles of the men who raped her grand daughter, Tilly finds herself at legal logger heads with Jack Cassidy, the smooth-talking, politically incorrect, legal love god who broke her heart at law school. Jack is fluent in three languages - English, sarcasm and flirtation, and his specialist area is emotional break and enter. But if the man is so loathsome, then why is she committing Acute Lust in the 3rd degree? As Tilly struggles to keep her client out of jail and her own cravings under lock and key, will the rapists walk free?

'When Tilly's 13-year old daughter goes missing, she faces the biggest moral dilemma of her life. Should she betray her beliefs and take the law into her own hands?' (Publication summary)

'Meet Merlin. He's Lucy's bright, beautiful son - who just happens to be autistic. Since Merlin's father, the reserved, cerebral workaholic Jeremy, left them in the lurch shortly after Merlin's diagnosis, Lucy has made Merlin the centre of her world. Struggling with the joys and tribulations of raising her adorable yet challenging son, Lucy doesn't have room for any other man in her life... so why bother trying to find one?

'When Lucy realises she's becoming increasingly cynical about life in general, she finally resolves to dip a toe back into the world of dating. Things don't go quite to plan, yet just as Lucy is resolved to a life of singledom once more, the most imperfectly perfect man for her and her son lands on her doorstep. But then, so does Jeremy, begging for forgiveness and a second chance...' (From the publisher's website.)