Books by Abby Mendelson

Scotch and Oranges, is a contemporary novel about Ned Humber, a 25-year-old advertising executive who has affairs with seven women, from 19 to 53, including a teenage flirt, Eastern European refugee, African-American writer, actress/stripper, middle-aged burnout, 53-year-old virgin/Irish patriot, and a lesbian. Telling the heartbreaking story of each woman, Scotch and Oranges also chronicles Ned's growth from callow and selfish to caring and sensitive. After seven very different and affecting experiences, Ned not only becomes a kinder, gentler leader, asserting himself for the good of the agency, but also expresses profound regret for the way that he has not sufficiently appreciated all his incredibly diverse women.

Paradise Boys is narrated by JoJo Arnold, a violent, angry 16-year-old boy who is spending a summer in a minimum-security institution for emotionally disturbed adolescents. In a racially mixed dormitory wing, he lives with nine other troubled teens who have a variety of problems. The Paradise Boys live in a place which takes its name from its location, Paradise Hill, on the city's North Side. Surrounded by hostile neighbors, who call the boys criminals and retards, and on set a hill above an urban jungle called the War Streets, the Paradise Boys grapple with the confusions of life. Playing softball, going canoeing, traveling to amusement parks, the boys also take drugs, fight, and cope with parents, guilt, and their own troubled pasts. Facing an endless struggle with each other --and within themselves-- the Paradise Boys fight with the world until the novel's violent and shocking conclusion.