ArcaMax

'CAUGHT STEALING'

Rated R for strong violent content, pervasive language, some sexuality/nudity and brief drug use.

What it’s about: A Manhattan bartender gets caught up in a drug deal/money grab and suffers the consequences.

The kid attractor factor: This is an adult crime caper, not much appeal for kids.

Good lessons/bad lessons: If you ...Read more

A woman once emailed to invite me to join her book club for lunch at a country club in Malibu. She offered to reserve a parking spot for me near the front door. It was a lovely gesture, but it would have been a 2,100-mile drive.

The trip would have taken four days, maybe five. I stop a lot for Diet Cokes.

Another reader wrote expressing ...Read more

Q. My mother butt called me last night and I overheard her badmouthing my wife. She was having a drink with her best friend and going off. At first, I didn’t know what was happening, but then I heard my wife’s name, recognized my mother’s voice and I was ticked off. My mother loves my ex and hates my wife, and this was obvious on the call....Read more

Joelle Babula’s debut novel "Infidelity Rules" is — yes! — a captivating read and a delicious, upbeat escape, but it is even more. Its engaging and iconoclastic protagonist breaks the rules with her unexpected depth of interiority that expands the sometimes-breezy genre of romance novels. Well-drawn characters, lots of humor, and insights ...Read more

Some scars don’t fade and some threats don’t disappear. They evolve, adapt and burrow into the cracks of modern life, waiting …

These thrillers don’t just tell stories, but rather dig up what we thought was buried — ideologies dressed in new skin, Cold War ghosts whispering through modern politics, conspiracies that fester until ...Read more

It’s 1944 in Nazi-occupied France, and Resistance operative Charlotte Denneau is quite literally a woman on the run. Pursued by the Gestapo through moonlit fields and sleepy villages, Charlotte carries critical secrets that could influence the impending Allied invasion. Across the English Channel, Lieutenant Philippe Gerard – a French pilot ...Read more

Next time your teenagers have a craving for the ultra-spicy Buldak ramen or the fierce-looking Labubu toy, don’t scratch your head and question their taste. Rather, consider yourself lucky, because they are helping you spot the next billion-dollar brand before it gets on global investors’ radar.

With birth rates falling around the world, ...Read more

'HONEY DON'T!'

Rated R for strong sexual content, graphic nudity, some strong violence, and language.

What it’s about: A Bakersfield, California, private investigator looking into the suspicious death of a potential client turns up church corruption and police malfeasance during her investigation.

The kid attractor factor: Not much — this...Read more

Our primary care doctor announced he is joining a concierge practice and invited us to follow him. We were excited, thinking this meant luxurious fluffy white robes in the exam room and 500-thread-count cotton sheets on the table instead of that crinkly deli wrap paper.

Visions of coffee bars danced in our heads. The concierge practice could ...Read more

Q. My 14-year-old son refuses to come to my home and I have no idea why. I’m supposed to see him a night or two during the week and every other weekend, but he just won’t come over. I don’t talk to his mother much and when we do, it’s not pretty. She tells me there’s nothing she can do. I think she’s probably badmouthing me and is ...Read more