'Everyone has a little dirty laundry.' The darkly comic series about the secret lives of the ladies living on Wisteria Lane became an instant breakthrough hit for ABC. 21 million viewers tuned in for the first episode and this figure has steadily grown as audiences from around the globe have switched on to the shenanigans in suburbia. "Desperate Housewives" was subject to a backlash in America, where advertisers on the ABC network were lobbied by Christian groups and Parents' Associations. But the sponsorship withdrawal that resulted did little to dampen the enthusiasm of its legions of fans. Recipient of several awards including the People's Choice Award and Golden Globe for Best Television - Musical or Comedy, "Desperate Housewives" is a hit. "Reading Desperate Housewives" offers a critical response to one of the most talked about shows on contemporary television. Leading scholars and writers dissect the appeal of "Desperate Housewives", tapping into early reactions and controversy. They consider the American sex wars, contemporary feminism, Republican politics and the rise of the Right, gender and femininity, motherhood and marriage - and that Vanity Fair shoot. The book includes an episode guide tracing all those goings-on beyond that white picket fence.

Everyone has a little dirty laundry. Especially the delectable divas who live on Wisteria Lane... With its darkly comedic take on suburban life, and its unconventional heroines, Desperate Housewives has got the world buzzing. Audiences have been captivated by ill-fated Susan Mayer, ever-perfect Bree Van De Kamp, harried mother-of-four Lynette Scavo, and beautiful but unhappy Gabriela Solis. And in DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES: BEHIND CLOSED DOORS, we go behind-the-scenes to get the dish and dirt on everyone's favourite homemakers. Inside you'll discover: hundreds of revealing photographs; in-depth interviews and profiles of the cast; the original pilot script, including unaired scenes; the inspiration behind the housewives' fashions; sizzling quotes from the show; how guest stars are chosen; delicious recipes from each housewife; a comprehensive episode guide to Season One; an exclusive look at the plot lines abandoned in Season One, including some that might still make it to Season Two or Three...; a foreword by the show's creator Marc Cherry; and so much more!

The internationally bestselling novel by the author of A Kiss Before Dying, The Boys from Brazil, and Rosemary's Baby With an Introduction by Peter Straub For Joanna, her husband, Walter, and their children, the move to beautiful Stepford seems almost too good to be true. It is. For behind the town's idyllic facade lies a terrible secret -- a secret so shattering that no one who encounters it will ever be the same. At once a masterpiece of psychological suspense and a savage commentary on a media-driven society that values the pursuit of youth and beauty at all costs, The Stepford Wives is a novel so frightening in its final implications that the title itself has earned a place in the American lexicon.

Since it premiered in the fall of 2004, the hit televisions show has seduced viewers with its outrageous humour, absorbing mystery and deliciously naughty image of Suburbia. Here, favourite chick-lit authors, parenting gurus and experts on the clandestine underside of suburban life take on the phenomenon to answer the question on everyone's minds: just what is it about the show that is so enthralling? Welcome to Wisteria Lane is a light, insightful romp through the world of Desperate Housewives that no Desperate fan will want to be without.

Although the figure of the ‘desperate housewife’ is familiar to us, Haggett suggests that many women in the 1950s and ’60s led satisfying lives and that gender roles, while very different, were often seen as equal.

Have you struggled to reconcile God's vision of virtuous womanhood with worldly myths that marginalize and mock the role of the homemaker? Do you wrestle with cultural messages that demean the homemaker's calling and exalt instead the emotionally androgynous power-woman---the wife whose worth is measured only by the degree of her self-ambition, the shape of her body, or her money-making skills? Delightfully fresh and honest, "Passionate Housewives Desperate for God" debunks the modern "desperate housewife" myth and provides fresh vision for the homemaker. Hear a former "Christian" feminist share how she went from a die-hard homemaker-in-training to a dedicated career woman, and then back again---after God gripped her heart. See the hollow counterfeit of whitewashed feminism and "me-ology" destroyed. And consider the beautiful picture painted in Scripture of the truly fulfilled homemaker who glories in the hopeful calling God created for her.