Trying to evade intelligence agencies out to assassinate him, the Cerebellum, an Egyptian scientist with a past association with the Iraqi nuclear program, rents a room on the roof of a brothel in a Cairo slum. His interaction with the other residents is limited; instead he spends most of his time in the virtual world, where he has a love affair with Candy Girl, a gorgeous avatar. On the other side of the planet, an ex-NSA agent has joined a secret organization whose mission is to assassinate Iraqi scientists. He does not allow his doubts about the legality-or the ethics-of his mission to interfere with his work. He chases his victim relentlessly, but when his top-of-the-line equipment fails to locate the Cerebellum in Cairo's slums, he takes the chase to the virtual world.

Decreed by David Letterman (tongue in cheek) on CBS TV’s The Late Show to be the pick of “Dave’s Book Club 2006,” Candy Girl is the story of a young writer who dared to bare it all as a stripper. At the age of twenty-four, Diablo Cody decided there had to be more to life than typing copy at an ad agency. She soon managed to find inspiration from a most unlikely source— amateur night at the seedy Skyway Lounge. While she doesn’t take home the prize that night, Diablo discovers to her surprise the act of stripping is an absolute thrill. This is Diablo’s captivating fish-out-of-water story of her yearlong walk on the wild side, from quiet gentlemen’s clubs to multilevel sex palaces and glassed-in peep shows. In witty prose she gives readers a behind-the-scenes look at this industry through a writer’s keen eye, chronicling her descent into the skin trade and the effect it had on her self-image and her relationship with her now husband.

Stunning! This is the word to describe Candy Girl. She is girl independence and compassionate do-gooder all rolled into one. She teaches housewife Marion Sanders how to empower herself. She tells Marion that it is okay to feel lowly and under appreciated sometimes because we all have to start some place. Our dear Marion leads a bleak life but things are about to turn around for her when she is asked to speak in a lecture circuit. She begins to earn money for her profound computer concepts knowledge. Despite Marion’s homely facade, inside beats the heart of a warrior – fierce and ready to face the world. Candy Girl brings these once locked away features out of Marion. In the persona of Marion, we bear witness to a shy girl spreading her wings and becoming the beautiful and wonderous butterfly that all her new friends already recognized her to be.

A gorgeous new look for the warm and witty tale from Karen McCombie.

Are you like I was? You often eat more than you intend to. Once you start eating sweets, you can't stop. Food is the most frequent and constant pleasure in your life. If you don't have the foods you love, you feel panicky. Sugar and food addiction had me in its grip for decades. Then I discovered that food wasn't the problem. How I was living my life was the problem. So I learned to build a sweeter life between meals, lost a lot of weight, and put food in its proper place. Part memoir, part how-to book, Candy Girl describes how I got off the merry-go-round of food compulsion and obsession and how you can too.