Warning: Social Climbing May Be Hazardous to Your Health
Three satirical novels drive home an age-old point--and they're funny too.
By Anne Fisher

(FORTUNE Magazine) – WHO MOVED MY BLACKBERRY?, a U.K. bestseller by FT columnist Lucy Kellaway, traces a tumultuous year in the life of Martin Lukes, a striving and conniving executive in a global enterprise. He's obnoxious, but Martin's delusions are so unmistakably real that they'll make you laugh till your eyes water and your BlackBerry blinks.

"LEAVE THREE ENGLISHMEN in a room, and they will invent a rule that prevents a fourth joining them." So writes Julian Fellowes in Snobs, a tale of a middle-class friend's misguided marriage to a landed aristocrat, just published in paperback. The ensuing calamities bear out the truth about marrying for money: You'll earn every penny.

IN RATTLED, by Debra Galant, a rattlesnake breeding ground threatens to turn a pricey housing development into no-man's land. But who's really the most reptilian here--the snooty suburbanites, the sneaky animal-rights activists, the slick real estate developer, or the status-obsessed heroine, Heather?

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.