Nice Recovery

March 20, 2010

In this memoir (which she privately refers to as “Drinky Pants: A Quitter’s Story”), Susan Juby writes about the problems she had with alcohol when she was a teenager and about the painful and sometimes funny experiences of trying to be clean and sober at the time when most young adults are just starting to drink. Through a series of interviews she also looks into what recovery is like for adolescents and twenty-somethings washing up on the shores of addiction today.

Chris Crutcher, author of Deadline, Whale Talk and Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes

I’m embarrassed that I lack words to describe the raw elegance of Susan Juby’s Nice Recovery. It is smart, funny, lyrical, desperately candid and astonishingly generous; and it is courageous. It speaks to the very heart of the loneliness and despair that leads to the destruction of so many kids’ dreams. And then it gives us hope. This is not a young adult book; it is not an adult book. It is a human book with the power to literally save lives. I am honoured to blurb it.   read more

Getting the Girl: A Guide to Private Investigation, Surveillance and Cookery

September 30, 2008

Sunglasses. Check.
Binoculars. Check.
Notepad. Check.
Mom's pink bike. Check. Check?

Meet Sherman Mack. Short. Nerdy. Amateur P.I. and prepared to do anything for Dini Trioli.

Nobody knows who began it or when it became a tradition, but every girl at Harewood Tech fears being D-listed, a ritual that wipes her off the social map forever. When Sherman believes Dini is in danger of being D-listed, he snatches up his surveillance gear and launches a full-scale investigation to uncover who is responsible.

Could it be the captain of the lacrosse team?

The hottest girls in school, the Trophy Wives?

Or maybe their boyfriends?

One thing is for sure: Sherman Mack is on the case. And he's not giving up.

Part comedy, part mystery, and with all of Juby's trademark tongue-in-cheek humor, Getting the Girl takes on one of the cruelest aspects of high school: how easy it is for an entire school to turn on someone, and how hard it can be to be the only one willing to fight back. read more

Another Kind of Cowboy

For Alex Ford, dressage is an oasis. In the stable, he can slip into his riding pants, shed the macho cowboy image, and feel like himself for a change. For Cleo O'Shea dressage is a fresh start. She's got a new boarding school, absentee parents, and best of all: no one to remember her past... They're an unlikely pair, but sometimes the last person you'd ever think of as a friend ends up being the one you need the most. Susan Juby's trademark humor brings life and laughter to this remarkable story of relationships, mixed signals, and the soul-searching that sometimes takes two. read more

Alice, I Think

After her first therapist has a meltdown, Alice MacLeod and her new therapist decide that Alice's horizons should be expanded. Enter Alice's Life Goals List. It's time to grow up, act her age, maybe even go back to high school after years of being taught at home. Alice is on the hunt for a look, a social life, a job, a boyfriend, and most importantly, a half decent haircut. But getting those things in Smithers, B.C., isn't easy. Particularly if Irma of Irma's Salon is in charge of the new look. read more

Miss Smithers

Six months have gone by since Alice, I Think and Alice MacLeod is making progress. She's got a friend, a boyfriend and, suddenly, a beauty pageant to win and 'zines to write. Join Alice as she experiments with fashion, religion, celibacy, house parties, drinking, martial arts and along the way, investigates what it means to be a good girl. read more

Alice MacLeod: Realist at Last

Alice MacLeod has officially graduated from the ranks of the weirdly marginal into the realm of the practically normal. Except for the fact that it's been one romantic setback after another and her family life has finally fallen apart, everything's going just great for Alice this summer. Fortunately, these misfortunes are giving Alice plenty of material for the screenplay she's writing (populated by Very Attractive People), which is going to make her rich, famous and fabulous. read more