Lydia is the favourite child of Marilyn and James Lee; a girl who inherited her mother's bright blue eyes and her father's jet-black hair. When Lydia's body is found in the local lake, James is consumed by guilt, and Marilyn, devastated and vengeful, is determined to hold someone accountable. But it's the youngest in the family - Hannah - who may be the only one who knows what really happened.

In "Family Life," Russell Banks first novel, he transforms the dramas of domesticity into the story of a royal family in a mythical contemporary kingdom. Life inside this kingdom includes the king (dubbed the Hearty or the Bluff ), who squeals angrily as is his wont; the queen, who, while pondering the mirror in her chambers, decides to write a book; and three adolescent princes who are, respectively, a superb wrestler, a fanatical sports car driver, and a sullen drunk.

Then there are the mysterious Green Man with a thing for princes; the Loon, who lives in a tree house designed by Christopher Wren; and a whole slew of murders, mayhem, coups, debauches, world tours, and love and loss and laughter.

Here is Dr. Traver's mind-expanding, waistline-slimming system for getting into shapeand staying that way. With simple instructions, she tells listeners how to outsmart their own brain by rewiring it to acceptand embracehealthy lifestyle habits.