Making Bread: The Real Way to
Start Up & Stay Up in Business
By Brody Sweeney
Liberties Press

Many people have long harboured a secret ambition to set up their own business – and there is a viewpoint that smart business ideas are the way out of the current economic mess – but few people actually get around to it.
After all, it's not as simple as having a good idea, or a passion for a particular service or product. There are a million and one other niggly little things to factor in: business plans, funding, PR, staffing and so on.
Sweeney admits that his sole ambition in going the entrepreneur route was to become a millionaire by the age of 30.
Having reached that magical age, and finding himself in debt to the tune of almost a cool million, he moved the goalposts and aimed to make enough money by 40 to spend the rest of his working life doing what he wanted, rather than what he had to.
In hindsight, he may not be the best person in the world to be advising on a new business start-up: unfortunately his hugely-successful O'Brien's Sandwich Bars chain ended up in liquidation last year, before being rescued by a new owner. He now works as a motivational speaker and has his fingers in a few other pies in the business world.

The Man Who Disappeared
By Clare Morrall
Sceptre
Kate knows that her husband Felix has his little idiosyncrasies, but she has gotten used to them over time. He has always been fascinated with the idea of the family, and back when they were dating he would often stand outside houses belonging to complete strangers and observe the goings-on inside in much the same way others would watch a play unfold.
Kate reckons it's because Felix lost his parents when he was very young. Now he is completely devoted to their three children – the family of his own he has always longed for.
But when Felix vanishes, leaving a complex financial mess and allegations of fraud in his wake, Kate is forced to accept that she may never have truly known her husband.
Being forced to leave their house and their comfortable middle-class lifestyle is a rude awakening for the now fatherless family, but Kate discovers a strong inner core that makes her determined to salvage some kind of family life from the wreckage. An intriguing read.

Fly Away Home
By Jennifer Weiner
Simon & Schuster
After 32 years of marriage, 14 of them during her husband's exalted status as a New York senator, Sylvie Woodruff knows how to make things work – whether it's her marriage, motherhood, political campaigning or committee responsibilities.
She even waits in line in hotel dining rooms to collect her busy husband's breakfast, as he can't spare the five minutes it takes an omelette to cook. It wasn't always this way.
Once upon a time, back when they got together at law school, Sylvie had her own ambitions and her own dreams of a glittering future. Her mother is disgusted at what she has become, and when she lets herself think about it, Sylvie isn't best pleased either. Introduce the ubiquitous political sex scandal into the mix, and things begin to liven up.
A tense press conference later, two daughters with their own problems and Sylvie is forced to face the disturbing fact that she seems to have grown up to be a "57-year-old professional dieter whose only real job ... was staying 20 pounds thinner than she'd been in law school."