Berg, Elizabeth. Last Time I Saw You.
Attending a fortieth high school reunion at the sides of former classmates, Dorothy reconnects with old friends with whom she reevaluates her life, choices, and relationships.
Berg, Elizabeth. Talk Before Sleep.
Cautious, conventional Anne shares a deep bond of friendship with the outspoken
and eccentric Ruth, building an honest, open relationship that evolves into
something deeper when Ruth is diagnosed with cancer.
Byatt, A.S. The Children’s Book.
A tale spanning the end of the Victorian era through World War I finds famous
children's book author Olive Wellwood taking in a runaway and exposing the
boy to dark truths about her family's summer bacchanals at their rambling country
house.
Cleave, Chris. Little Bee.
Presents a tale of a precarious friendship between an illegal Nigerian refugee
and a recent widow from suburban London, a story told from the alternating
and disparate perspectives of both women.
Dallas, Sandra. The Persian Pickle Club.
A ladies' quilting club in Kansas is invaded by a new member with ambitions.
She is Rita, a big city girl who wants to be a journalist. When a member's
husband is murdered and Rita begins probing, the group must band to keep safe
the club's secrets.
Edwards, Kim. Memory Keepers's Daughter.
In a tale spanning twenty-five years, a doctor delivers his newborn twins
during a snowstorm and, rashly deciding to protect his wife from their baby
daughter's affliction with Down Syndrome, turns her over to a nurse, who secretly
raises the child.
Foer, Jonathan. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.
Oskar Schell, the nine-year-old son of a man killed in the World Trade Center
attacks, searches the five boroughs of New York City for a lock that fits a
black key his father left behind.
Gutterson, David. Snow Falling on Cedars.
A murder trial has upset the quiet community of San Piedro, and now this tranquil
village has become the center of controversy. For a local reporter the trial
strikes home when he finds his ex-lover is linked to the case.
Haddon, Mark. Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time.
Despite his overwhelming fear of interacting with people, Christopher, a mathematically-gifted,
autistic fifteen-year-old boy, decides to investigate the murder of a neighbor's
dog and uncovers secret information about his mother.
Harris, Joanne. Chocolat.
A single mother and her young daughter move to rural France and open a chocolate
shop across the street from the local church with Sunday hours during Lent.
Hoffman, Alice. The River King.
People tend to stay in their place in the town of Haddan. The students at the
prestigious prep school don't mix with locals; even within the school, hierarchy
rules, as freshman and faculty members find out where they fit in and what
is expected of them. But when a body is found in the river behind the school,
a local policeman will walk into this enclosed world and upset it entirely.
Hosseini, Khaled. The Kite Runner.
Traces the unlikely friendship of a wealthy Afghan youth and a servant's son
in a tale that spans the final days of Afghanistan's monarchy through the
atrocities of the present day.
Hosseini, Khaled. A Thousand Splendid Suns.
Two women born a generation apart witness the destruction of their home and
family in wartorn Kabul, losses incurred over the course of thirty years that
test the limits of their strength and courage.
Joern, Pamela Carter. The Floor of the Sky.
The inner worlds of characters isolated by geography and habit are revealed
in a novel, set in the Nebraska Sandhills, about an aging widow on the verge
of losing her family's ranch and her sixteen-year old pregnant granddaughter
who visits her for the summer.
Lahiri, Jhumpa. Unaccustomed Earth.
Exploring the secrets and complexities lying at the heart of family life and
relationships, a collection of eight stories includes the title work, about
a young mother in a new city whose father tends her garden while hiding a secret
love affair.
Lamb, Wally. The Hour I First Believed.
Relocating to a family farm in Connecticut after surviving the Columbine school
shootings, Caelum and Maureen discover a cache of family memorabilia dating
back five generations, which reveals to Caelum unexpected truths about painful
past events.
Lamb, Wally. Wishn’ and Hopin’: a Christmas Story.
Set in the fictional town of Three Rivers, Connecticut, the story of fifth grader Felix Funicello in the months leading up to Christmas 1964.
McGregor, Jon. If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things.
Journeys into the private lives of the residents of a small urban street in
England as it chronicles the events that transpire over the course of a single
day, as the peace and tranquility of an ordinary day are shattered by a tragic
accident at the end of the day.
Morton, Kate. Forgotten Garden.
Abandoned on a 1913 voyage to Australia, Nell is raised by a dock master and
his wife who do not tell her until she is an adult that she is not their child,
leading Nell to return to England and eventually hand down her quest for answers
to her granddaughter.
Patchett, Ann. Run.
Struggling with single parenthood and a scandal that cost him his political
career, Bernard Doyle fights his disappointment with his adopted sons' career
choices before a violent event forces the members of his family to reconsider
their priorities.
Picoult, Jodi. Handle With Care.
Struggling to care for their daughter Willow, who was born with brittle bone
disease, Charlotte and Sean O'Keefe add additional strain to their overburdened
family life when they file a lawsuit against Charlotte's obstetrician.
Picoult, Jodi. My Sister's Keeper.
Anna is not sick, but she might as well be. By age thirteen, she has undergone
countless surgeries, transfusions, and shots so that her older sister, Kate,
can somehow fight the leukemia that has plagued her since childhood. The product
of preimplantation genetic diagnosis, Anna was conceived as a bone marrow
match for Kate -- a life and a role that she has never challenged ... until
now.
Picoult, Jodi. Nineteen Minutes.
In the aftermath of a small-town school shooting, lawyer Jordan McAfee finds
himself defending a youth who desperately needs someone on his side, while
detective Patrick Ducharme works with a primary witness of the daughter of
the judge assigned to the case.
Picoult, Jodi. Vanishing Acts.
Working with the Search and Rescue bloodhound team to find missing people,
single mother Delia Hopkins anticipates her upcoming nuptials, until a series
of unsettling flashbacks threatens to devastate her life and the lives of
those she loves.
Robinson, Marilynne. Home.
Returning to Gilead to care for her dying father, Glory Boughton is joined by
her long-absent brother, with whom she bonds throughout his struggles with
alcoholism, unemployment, and their father's traditionalist values.
Russo, Richard. Bridge of Sighs.
After sixty years of living in the upstate New York town of Thomaston, Louis
Charles and his wife of forty years, Sarah, prepare for a trip to Italy to
visit Louis' childhood friend, an artist who had fled his hometown many years
earlier.
Russo, Richard. Empire Falls.
The proprietor of a local diner struggles to raise his teenage daughter in
a small town in Maine long after the logging and textile industries that provided
its citizens with their livelihood shut down.
Setterfield, Diane. The Thirteenth Tale.
When her health begins failing, the mysterious author Vida Winter decides
to let Margaret Lea, a biographer, write the truth about her life, but Margaret
needs to verify the facts since Vida has a history of telling outlandish tales.
Stegner, Wallace. Crossing to Safety.
Tracing the lives, loves, and aspirations of two couples who move between
Vermont and Wisconsin, it is a work of quiet majesty, deep compassion, and
powerful insight into the alchemy of friendship and marriage.
Stockett, Kathryn. The Help.
Limited and persecuted by racial divides in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi, three
women, including an African-American maid, her sassy and chronically unemployed
friend, and a recently graduated white woman, team up for a clandestine project.
Toibin, Colm. Brooklyn.
Leaving her home in post-World War II Ireland to work as a bookkeeper in Brooklyn,
Eilis Lacey discovers a new romance in America with a charming blond Italian
man before devastating news threatens her happiness.
Tyler, Anne. Digging to America.
Two families awaiting the arrival of their adopted infant daughters from Korea
meet at the airport. The families lives become interwined after the Donaldsons,
a young American couple invite the Yazdan's, Maryam, her son and his Iranian
American wife to an arrival party, which becomes an annual event. Maryam,
who came to this country thirty-five years earlier, feels her values threatened
when she is courted by a newly widowed Donaldson. A penetrating light on the
American way as seen from two perspectives, those who are born here and those
who are still struggling to fit in.
Vlautin, Willy. Lean on Pete.
Left homeless by the death of his father, fifteen-year-old Charley Thompson sets off with a racehorse, Lean on Pete, on a perilous treck from Portland, Oregon to Wyoming to find a distant aunt, hoping to regain stability in his life.
Wroblewski, David. Story of Edgar Sawtelle.
A tale reminiscent of "Hamlet" that also celebrates the alliance between
humans and dogs follows speech-disabled Wisconsin youth Edgar, who bonds with
three yearling canines and struggles to prove that his sinister uncle is responsible
for his father's death.
Zusak, Markus. The Book Thief.
Trying to make sense of the horrors
of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel--a young German girl whose
book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish
man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors.