A laugh-out-loud collection of original stories, written by the erstwhile New York Times columnist and author of The Town on Beaver Creek.

For over a decade, Michelle Slatalla wrote drolly about everything from online shopping to gorilla shoes, in the Style pages of the New York Times. Equal parts Erma Bombeck and Jean Kerr, with just a dash of Shirley Jackson, she peered into every corner of her life - then investigated her three daughters, husband and and her dogs, mainly because she needed the money. Now the editor and founder of the immensely popular blog, Gardenista, she needs the money more than ever. Hence this compendium of never-told anecdotes about her life in Northern California.

In Wife, Mother, Worker, Spy, you'll learn:

• Dirty tricks to help your kid become class president in fifth grade.
• What to do when your child says she wants a tattoo for her 16th birthday.
• How to get out of it if your food hospitalizes an allergic dinner party guest.
• How to stop your daughters from stealing your clothes.
• What it was like being the world's worst cheerleader.
• What to do when a live rat crashes your elegant cocktail party.
• How to fight your own neighborhood association.
• How to beat an octogenarian at tennis.

And that's just in the intro.