Before Linwood Barclay became a best-selling thriller writer, he was a columnist with the Toronto Star. He wrote three times a week about everyday life and current events, sort of like Dave Barry except without as many references to exploding toilets. This is a collection of family-life columns and they are quite amusing. I particularly liked the one where saying goodbye to one's guests is more of a process than an act -- he could have been writing about my family! I also liked the ones where Linwood and his wife, Neetha, hung out with other parents, and the ones where their kids, Spencer and Paige, got the upper hand in a given situation. (Being closer to the kids' ages, I was bound to like those columns best.) And because these were written in the 1990s, reading them is like opening a time capsule. The cover art in particular had me giggling because the phone that Paige is holding is SO old. It's amazing how quickly technology has evolved. This is a fun collection, easy to read in bits and pieces before bed. ( )