Helen Ellis

Meet the women of American Housewife: they wear lipstick, pearls, and sunscreen, even when it's cloudy. They casserole. They pinwheel. They pump the salad spinner like it's a CPR dummy. And then they kill a party crasher, carefully stepping around the body to pull cookies out of the oven. These twelve irresistible stories take us from a haunted prewar Manhattan apartment building to the set of a rigged reality television show, from the unique initiation...

What is it truly like being a son or daughter who leaves home to live in an expat/migrant setting? How does it feel to be geographically separated from your parents, grandparents and other family members? Maybe you've left home for your studies, your career, a sense of adventure, for a challenge, for love. But how do you venture forth into your global world and still retain and nourish connections with 'home', always knowing "it was my choice to leave"?...

"Welcome to the Coral Lounge, a room in Helen Ellis's New York City apartment painted such an exuberant shade of Sherman Williams that a peeping Tom once left a sticky note with the doorman asking for the color. It is in the Coral Lounge that the magic of Helen's marriage unfolds: Shindigs where strangers swap clothing in the powder room, a party game called 'What's in the box?' makes its uproarious debut, the Puzzle Posse pounces on a 500-piece jigsaw...