Managing a failed seafood restaurant in a run-down New England mall just before Christmas, Manny DeLeon coordinates a challenging final shift of mutinous staff members, an effort that is complicated by his love for a waitress, a pregnant girlfriend, and an elusive holiday gift.

Joe Jones is Anne Lamott's raucous novel of lives gathered around Jessie's Caf, the sort of broken-down waterfront dive one might expect to find in Steinbeck. Jessie, thin, stooped and gorgeous at seventy-nine, inherited the caf years before and it has become home to a remarkable family of characters: Louise, the cook and vortex, Joe, devoted and unfaithful; Willie, Jessies gay grandson; Georgia, an empress dowager who never speaks; and a dozen others...

"You are invited to Butterbean's Caf�e! Meet Butterbean and the rest of her fairy friends from Nickelodeon's ... animated show"--Provided by publisher.

Pig enjoys making just the right pizza to delight each of his customers, so when Turtle will not eat he must figure out why.

The diner dogs who work at the Bow Wow diner fetch tea and coffee and love belly rubs as they serve all the hungry customers.

"Just as Gladys Gatsby prepares to enter the complicated world of middle school, her secret gig as the New York Standard's youngest restaurant critic won't be a secret much longer--and Gladys must enlist the help of her Parisian aunt to be true to herself, and honest with her friends and family"--publisher.

When Fly Guy is not allowed in the restaurant with Buzz's family he follows his nose and ends up in the soup.

"During a busy restaurant rush, the orders get all mixed up. Can the food get sorted out so that 'yuks' change to 'yums?' Fully decodable text features high-frequency words, and words with the short u sound combined with selected consonant letters"--

Single dad Hogan Guthrie is getting his life back on track, and working as the "barbecue master" at a local diner is just a temporary detour. He and restaurant owner Violet Shaw constantly butt heads…until one night they end up mingling other parts instead. Hogan thought he had the recipe for happiness all figured out. But loyal, carefree Violet is daring him to trust his impulses…and see just how sweet small-town living—and loving—can be....