If You Were Here

March 28, 2011
House-proud? For Mia and Mac, it's more like house-crazed after they're forced into a hunt for a better, safer, and more perfect home by a crazed landlady and a firebombing graffiti moron. So begins the laugh-out-loud travails of this smart if hapless Chicago coupleâshe a writer of John Hughesâinspired teenage angst set among the Amish, and he, an impossibly forgiving partner. Lancaster keeps the action fast and funny with a big, rollicking castâMia's grandma Babcia, who runs a Polish cleaning lady syndicate; best friends Tracey and Kara, who share Mia's adoration of all things John Hughes; neighbors from hell; and, of course, Hughes himself, who, when not cited, is spoken to by Mia as she struggles through home renovation, career maintenance, and regular ol' relationship stuff. It helps to know the oeuvre of the prolific Breakfast Club genius, but it's innocence that Lancaster is mostly concerned about in this rambunctiously related (it's footnoted) yarn about finding a home and making it your own.

May 15, 2011
Popular memoirist Lancaster turns to fiction with this humorous tale of one couples attempt to renovate their dream house. Mia and Mac decide to forsake the city of Chicago for upscale suburb Abington Cambs. Mia is over the moon when she learns that a house straight out of John Hughes movie Sixteen Candles is on the market. Sure, it needs some work, but Mia refuses to let that deter her. As soon as she and Mac move in, they find themselves in a war with termites, which threaten to bring their dream home down around them. To make matters worse, their vapid former landlord has blackballed them, making it impossible for the couple to find a contractor. Mia starts to visit Hughes grave, hoping that she isnt going to lose the house shes come to love, or her marriage, which is starting to collapse under the weight of the stress she and Mac are facing. Lancasters snappy debut will appeal to anyone who has ever fallen under the spell of a fixer-upper.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)