Set in a working-class Brooklyn neighborhood in 1947, this poignant tale revolves around two of the most endearing characters in recent fiction: an 11-year-old Irish Catholic boy named Michael Devlin and Rabbi Judah Hirsch, a refugee from Prague.

In this unlikely friendship, Michael and Rabbi Hirsch find a connection that transcends their cultural and religious differences. The rabbi opens a window to ancient learning and lore that rival anything in Captain Marvel, while Michael illuminates the everyday mysteries of America, including the strange language of baseball.

But like their hero Jackie Robinson, neither can entirely escape from the swirling prejudices of the time. Terrorized by a local gang of anti-Semitic Irish toughs, Michael and the rabbi are caught in an escalating spiral of hate for which there's only one way out—a miracle.

Deeply affecting and wonderfully evocative of old New York, Snow in August is a brilliant fable for our time and all time—a testament to the power of friendship and understanding.

Vivian Gandillon relishes the change, the sweet, fierce ache that carries her from girl to wolf. At sixteen, she is beautiful and strong, and all the young wolves are on her tail. But Vivian still grieves for her dead father; her pack remains leaderless and in disarray, and she feels lost in the suburbs of Maryland. She longs for a normal life. But what is normal for a werewolf?

Then Vivian falls in love with a human, a meat-boy. Aiden is kind and gentle, a welcome relief from the squabbling pack. He’s fascinated by magic, and Vivian longs to reveal herself to him. Surely he would understand her and delight in the wonder of her dual nature, not fear her as an ordinary human would.

Vivian’s divided loyalties are strained further when a brutal murder threatens to expose the pack. Moving between two worlds, she does not seem to belong in either. What is she really—human or beast? Which tastes sweeter—blood or chocolate?

Keeping the Moon by Sarah Dessen is an uplifting tale of friendship, self-discovery, and the power of transformation. When Colie spends the summer at the beach, she doesn't have high expectations. Yet, she didn't anticipate meeting Morgan and Isabel.

Through these new friendships, Colie learns about the true essence of connection and starts to see her own potential. This journey may even lead her to her first experience of love, showcasing that it's never too late for personal growth or to find where you truly belong.

A heartwarming story, Keeping the Moon captures the special feeling of discovering oneself and the undeniable strength of friendship. It's a down-to-earth Cinderella story that reminds readers to never underestimate the power of opening up and letting others in.

With her gift of weaving silk thread and creating light, Sandry is brought to the Winding Circle community. There she meets Briar, a former thief who has a way with plants; Daja, an outcast gifted at metalcraft; and Tris, whose connection with the weather unsettles everyone, including herself. At Winding Circle, the four misfits are taught how to use their magic - and to trust one another. But then disaster strikes their new home. Can Sandry weave together four kinds of magical power and save herself, her friends, and the one place where they've ever been accepted?

"She was a brazen hussy.""She wasn't. And she was pretty, wasn't she?""I didn't look ... And tell your girls, my son, that when they're running after you, they're not to come and ask your mother for you - tell them that - brazen baggages you meet at dancing classes"

The marriage of Gertrude and Walter Morel has become a battleground. Repelled by her uneducated and sometimes violent husband, delicate Gertrude devotes her life to her children, especially to her sons, William and Paul - determined they will not follow their father into working down the coal mines. But conflict is evitable when Paul seeks to escape his mother's suffocating grasp through relationships with women his own age. Set in Lawrence's native Nottinghamshire, Sons and Lovers is a highly autobiographical and compelling portrayal of childhood, adolescence and the clash of generations.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban finds Harry, along with his best friends, Ron and Hermione, embarking on his third year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. After a summer with the Dursleys, Harry is eager to return to school. However, the mood at Hogwarts is grim. An escaped mass murderer is on the run, and the foreboding prison guards of Azkaban have been summoned to ensure the safety of the school.

The atmosphere is tense, and danger lurks around every corner, but Harry is determined to uncover the truth and confront the very wizard responsible for his parents' demise.

White Oleander is a novel that has been everywhere hailed as a work of rare beauty and power. It tells the unforgettable story of Ingrid, a brilliant poet imprisoned for murder, and her daughter, Astrid. Astrid's odyssey through a series of Los Angeles foster homes becomes a redeeming and surprising journey of self-discovery. Each home is its own universe, with its own laws, its own dangers, and its own hard lessons to be learned.

Antonio Marez is six years old when Ultima enters his life. She is a curandera, one who heals with herbs and magic. "We cannot let her live her last days in loneliness," says Antonio's mother. "It is not the way of our people," agrees his father. And so Ultima comes to live with Antonio's family in New Mexico.

Soon, Tony will journey to the threshold of manhood. Always, Ultima watches over him. She graces him with the courage to face childhood bigotry, diabolical possession, the moral collapse of his brother, and too many violent deaths. Under her wise guidance, Tony will probe the family ties that bind him, and he will find in himself the magical secrets of the pagan past—a mythic legacy equally as palpable as the Catholicism of Latin America in which he has been schooled. At each turn in his life, there is Ultima who will nurture the birth of his soul.

Josephine Alibrandi is seventeen, illegitimate, and in her final year at a wealthy Catholic school. This is the year her father comes back into her life, the year she falls in love, the year she discovers the secrets of her family's past and the year she sets herself free.

'I'll run one day. Run from my life. To be free and think for myself. Not as an Australia and not as an Italian and not as an in between. I'll run to be emancipated.'

From Mordecai Richler, one of our greatest satirists, comes one of literature's most delightful characters, Duddy Kravitz — in a novel that belongs in the pantheon of seminal twentieth-century books.

Duddy — the third generation of a Jewish immigrant family in Montreal — is combative, amoral, scheming, a liar, and totally hilarious. From his street days tormenting teachers at the Jewish academy to his time hustling four jobs at once in a grand plan to "be somebody," Duddy learns about living — and the lesson is an outrageous roller-coaster ride through the human comedy.

As Richler turns his blistering commentary on love, money, and politics, The Apprenticeship Of Duddy Kravitz becomes a lesson for us all... in laughter and in life.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a young adult coming-of-age novel by American writer Stephen Chbosky. Set in the early 1990s, the novel follows Charlie, an introverted observing teenager, through his freshman year of high school in a Pittsburgh suburb. The novel details Charlie's unconventional style of thinking as he navigates between the worlds of adolescence and adulthood, and attempts to deal with poignant questions spurred by his interactions with both his friends and family.

The story is presented in a series of letters that Charlie writes to an unnamed friend, and these documents chronicle his trials, tribulations, and triumphs as he goes through his first year of high school. Charlie's journey is one of self-discovery and growth, and the book deftly explores themes of mental health, romance, and the intense emotions associated with the teenage years. Through Charlie's experiences, the reader is drawn into the tumultuous world of first dates, family dramas, and new friendships, as well as the more serious issues of sex, drugs, and personal loss.

Lily's Crossing is a touching story set during the summer of 1944, a time when World War II has changed the lives of many. Every summer, Lily and her father spend their days at their family’s house in Rockaway, near the Atlantic Ocean. But this summer is different.

With her father called overseas and her best friend Margaret moving to a wartime factory town, Lily is left to navigate this new world with her grandmother. Enter Albert, a refugee from Hungary who has lost much of his family to the war. Together, Lily and Albert form a special friendship, sharing secrets and building trust.

However, the lies they've told could have serious consequences—especially one lie that may cost Albert his life. This beautifully woven narrative explores themes of friendship, trust, and the realities of war.

From the author of the beloved classic Where the Red Fern Grows comes a timeless adventure about a boy who discovers a tree full of monkeys. The last thing fourteen-year-old Jay Berry Lee expects to find while trekking through the Ozark Mountains of Oklahoma is a tree full of monkeys. But then Jay learns from his grandpa that the monkeys have escaped from a traveling circus, and there’s a big reward for the person who finds and returns them. His family could really use the money, so Jay sets off, determined to catch them.

But by the end of the summer, Jay will have learned a lot more than he bargained for—and not just about monkeys. From the beloved author of Where the Red Fern Grows comes another memorable adventure novel filled with heart, humor, and excitement.

Entre la narrativa detectivesca, la novela «de carretera», el relato biográfico y la crónica, Los detectives salvajes está considerada por la crítica y el público de todo el mundo como una de las mejores y más originales ficciones escritas en las últimas décadas.

Dos jóvenes poetas latinoamericanos, Arturo Belano y Ulises Lima, emprenden una aventura que transcurrirá durante varias décadas y cruzará distintos países. Símbolo de la rebeldía y la necesidad de ruptura con la realidad establecida, sus vidas representan los anhelos de toda una generación. La búsqueda en 1975 de la misteriosa escritora mexicana Cesárea Tinajero, desaparecida y olvidada en los años posteriores a la revolución, sirve de inicio a un viaje sin descanso marcado por el amor, la muerte, el deseo de libertad, el humor y la literatura.

En esta novela está esbozado, como si de un juego de cajas chinas se tratara, todo el deslumbrante universo literario y personal de Roberto Bolaño.

Nos quedamos un rato en silencio, envueltos en el perfume de las hierbas. Hasta que le pregunté:

-¿Por qué nunca hablamos de Ezequiel?

Apoyó las cosas en el piso con mucha calma. Estiró su mano como para acariciarme. Me miró. Bajó la mano. Luego la vista y dijo en un susurro:

- Hay cosas de las que es mejor no hablar.

Little Altars Everywhere is a national best-seller and a companion to Rebecca Wells' celebrated novel Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. Originally published in 1992, this novel introduces Sidda, Vivi, the rest of the spirited Walker clan, and the indomitable Ya-Yas.

Told in alternating voices of Vivi and her husband, Big Shep, along with Sidda, her siblings Little Shep, Lulu, Baylor, and Cheney, and Willetta — the black couple who impact the Walkers' lives in ways they never fully comprehend — Little Altars embraces nearly thirty years of life on the plantation in Thorton, Louisiana. The cloying air of the bayou and a web of family secrets at once shelter, trap, and define an utterly original community of souls.

Who can resist the cadences of Sidda Walker and her flamboyant, secretive mother, Vivi? Here, the young Sidda — a precocious reader and an eloquent observer of the fault lines that divide her family — leads us on mischievous adventures at Our Lady of Divine Compassion parochial school and beyond. A Catholic girl of pristine manners, devotion, and provocative ideas, Sidda embodies the very essence of childhood joy and sorrow.

In a series of luminous reminiscences, we also hear Little Shep's stories of his eccentric grandmother, Lulu's account of her shoplifting skills, and Baylor's memories of Vivi and her friends, the Ya-Yas. Beneath the humor and tight-knit bonds of family and friendship lie the undercurrents of alcoholism, abuse, and violence. The overlapping recollections of how the Walkers' charming life uncoils convey their heart-breaking confusion, which is at once unsettling and familiar.

Wells creates an unforgettable portrait of the eccentric cast of characters and exposes their poignant and funny attempts to keep reality at arm's length. Through our laughter, we feel their inevitable pain, with a glimmer of hope for forgiveness and healing.

An arresting combination of colloquialism, poetry, and grace, Little Altars Everywhere is an insightful, piercing, and unflinching evocation of childhood, a loving tribute to the transformative power of faith, and a thoroughly fresh chronicle of a family that is as haunted as it is blessed.

Apprenticed to a venerable wizard when his hunter and trapper parents disappear into the forest never to be seen again, Darian is strong-willed and difficult—much to the dismay of his kindly master.

But a sudden twist of fate will change his life forever, when the ransacking of his village forces him to flee into the great mystical forest. It is here in the dark forest that he meets his destiny, as the terrifying and mysterious Hawkbrothers lead him on the path to maturity.

Now they must lead the assault on his besieged home in a desperate attempt to save his people from certain death!

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is the beloved American classic about a young girl's coming-of-age at the turn of the century. This poignant and moving tale is filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache. It's crowded with life, people, and vivid incidents.

The story follows the young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg. The daily experiences of the unforgettable Nolans are portrayed with raw honesty and are tenderly threaded with family connectedness. Betty Smith's work is a brilliant literary piece that captures a unique time and place as well as incredibly rich moments of universal experience.

Stanley Yelnats is under a curse—a curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnats. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys’ detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the boys build character by spending all day, every day digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep. There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. But there are an awful lot of holes.

It doesn’t take long for Stanley to realize there’s more than character improvement going on at Camp Green Lake. The boys are digging holes because the warden is looking for something. But what could be buried under a dried-up lake? Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment—and redemption.

The award-winning poet Anne Carson reinvents a genre in Autobiography of Red, a stunning work that is both a novel and a poem, both an unconventional re-creation of an ancient Greek myth and a wholly original coming-of-age story set in the present. Geryon, a young boy who is also a winged red monster, reveals the volcanic terrain of his fragile, tormented soul in an autobiography he begins at the age of five. As he grows older, Geryon escapes his abusive brother and affectionate but ineffectual mother, finding solace behind the lens of his camera and in the arms of a young man named Herakles, a cavalier drifter who leaves him at the peak of infatuation. When Herakles reappears years later, Geryon confronts again the pain of his desire and embarks on a journey that will unleash his creative imagination to its fullest extent.

By turns whimsical and haunting, erudite and accessible, richly layered and deceptively simple, Autobiography of Red is a profoundly moving portrait of an artist coming to terms with the fantastic accident of who he is.

Harry Potter's summer has included the worst birthday ever, doomy warnings from a house-elf called Dobby, and rescue from the Dursleys by his friend Ron Weasley in a magical flying car! Back at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for his second year, Harry hears strange whispers echo through empty corridors - and then the attacks start. Students are found as though turned to stone... Dobby's sinister predictions seem to be coming true.

With a plot to make most terrible things happen at Hogwarts this year, Harry's adventures include an outrageously stuck-up new professor and a spirit who haunts the girls' bathroom. More torments and horrors arise, leading to the question: Could it be Draco Malfoy, a more poisonous rival than ever? Could it possibly be Hagrid, whose mysterious past is finally told? Or could it be the one everyone at Hogwarts most suspects... Harry Potter himself?

As part of a series that has become a classic of our time, the story of the Boy Who Lived continues to bring comfort and escapism. With their message of hope, belonging, and the enduring power of truth and love, the adventures of Harry Potter delight generations of new readers.

In the Celtic land of Eileanan, witches and magic have been outlawed, and those caught for practicing witchcraft are put to death! It is a land ruled by an evil Queen, where sea-dwelling Fairgean stir, and children vanish in the night.

But in a valley deep in the mountains, young Isabeau grows to womanhood under the guidance of an elderly witch, and must set out on a quest, carrying the last hopes of the persecuted witches.

Named Best First Novel by Locus, 'Twas a time when dragons left their lair and evil shadowed the land... On the Day of Reckoning, the witches of Eileanan were outlawed—and violations of the new order were punishable by death. Eileanan's Great Towers, once meccas of magic and learning, were left in ruins. And now, the entire land trembles in fear...

Yet deep in the mountains, in the shadow of Dragonclaw, a young girl is being tutored in the old ways. Ignorant of her past, uncertain of her future, the foundling Isabeau will soon be forced down a dangerous path of prophecy, conspiracy, and magic. It is a world where dragons possess the key to ancient mysteries...where a lost prince will discover a strange and wondrous destiny...and where the ultimate battle between good and evil will be waged. A new Day of Reckoning is at hand...

Great Expectations is the thirteenth novel by Charles Dickens and his penultimate completed novel. It depicts the education of an orphan nicknamed Pip (the book is a bildungsroman; a coming-of-age story). It is Dickens' second novel, after David Copperfield, to be fully narrated in the first person. The novel was first published as a serial in Dickens's weekly periodical All the Year Round, from 1 December 1860 to August 1861.

The novel is set in Kent and London in the early to mid-19th century and contains some of Dickens's most celebrated scenes, starting in a graveyard, where the young Pip is accosted by the escaped convict Abel Magwitch. Great Expectations is full of extreme imagery – poverty, prison ships and chains, and fights to the death – and has a colorful cast of characters who have entered popular culture. These include the eccentric Miss Havisham, the beautiful but cold Estella, and Joe, the unsophisticated and kind blacksmith. Dickens's themes include wealth and poverty, love and rejection, and the eventual triumph of good over evil. Great Expectations, which is popular both with readers and literary critics, has been translated into many languages and adapted numerous times into various media.

In this extraordinary coming-of-age odyssey, Wally Lamb invites us to hitch a wild ride on a journey of love, pain, and renewal with the most heartbreakingly comical heroine to come along in years.

Meet Dolores Price. She's 13, wise-mouthed but wounded, having bid her childhood goodbye. Stranded in front of her bedroom TV, she spends the next few years nourishing herself with the Mallomars, potato chips, and Pepsi her anxious mother supplies. When she finally orbits into young womanhood at 257 pounds, Dolores is no stronger and life is no kinder. But this time she's determined to rise to the occasion and give herself one more chance before she really goes under.

In the summer of 1977, Victoria Leonard's world changed forever—when Caitlin Somers chose her as a friend. Dazzling, reckless Caitlin welcomed Vix into the heart of her sprawling, eccentric family, opening doors to a world of unimaginable privilege, sweeping her away to vacations on Martha's Vineyard, a magical, wind-blown island where two friends became summer sisters...Now, years later, Vix is working in New York City. Caitlin is getting married on the Vineyard. And the early magic of their long, complicated friendship has faded. But Caitlin has begged Vix to come to her wedding, to be her maid of honor. And Vix knows that she will go—for the friend whose casual betrayals she remembers all too well. Because Vix wants to understand what happened during that last shattering summer. And, after all these years, she needs to know why her best friend—her summer sister—still has the power to break her heart...

Someone Like You explores the deep and complex dynamics of friendship during times of crisis. The story centers around Halley, who has always been in the shadow of her best friend, Scarlett. However, when Scarlett's boyfriend dies in a tragic accident and she discovers she's pregnant, Halley finds herself in a new role. For the first time, Scarlett is the one in need of support, and Halley must step up to be there for her friend.

The narrative delves into how their friendship is tested but ultimately proves to be unbreakable. It's a testament to the enduring power of friendship and the lengths we go to for the people we love. This book captures the essence of being a teenager, dealing with love, loss, and the complexities of growing up.

Does growing up have to mean growing apart? Since childhood, Bryon and Mark have been as close as brothers. Now things are changing. Bryon's growing up, spending a lot of time with girls, and thinking seriously about who he wants to be. Mark still just lives for the thrill of the moment. The two are growing apart - until Bryon makes a shocking discovery about Mark. Then Bryon faces a terrible decision - one that will change both of their lives forever.

Another classic from the author of the internationally bestselling The Outsiders Continue celebrating 50 years of The Outsiders by reading this companion novel. That Was Then, This is Now is S. E. Hinton's moving portrait of the bond between best friends Bryon and Mark and the tensions that develop between them as they begin to grow up and grow apart. "A mature, disciplined novel which excites a response in the reader . . . Hard to forget."—The New York Times

Stylish, suburban Katherine is eighteen when she is propelled into the heart of Professor Jacob Goldman's rambling home and his large eccentric family. As his enchanting yet sharp-tongued wife Jane gives birth to her sixth child, Katherine meets the beautiful, sulky Roger and his volatile younger brother, Jonathan.

Inevitable heartbreak sends her fleeing to Rome, but ten years later, older and wiser, she returns to find the Goldmans again. A little wiser and a lot more grown-up, Katherine faces her future.

Through six turbulent months of 1934, 17-year-old Cassandra Mortmain keeps a journal, filling three notebooks with sharply funny yet poignant entries about her home, a ruined Suffolk castle, and her eccentric and penniless family. By the time the last diary shuts, there have been great changes in the Mortmain household, not the least of which is that Cassandra is deeply, hopelessly, in love.

In America, it is soccer. But in Great Britain, it is the real football. No pads, no prayers, no prisoners. And that's before the players even take the field.

Nick Hornby has been a football fan since the moment he was conceived. Call it predestiny. Or call it preschool. Fever Pitch is his tribute to a lifelong obsession. Part autobiography, part comedy, part incisive analysis of insanity, Hornby's memoir captures the fever pitch of fandom — its agony and ecstasy, its community, its defining role in thousands of young men's coming-of-age stories.

Fever Pitch is one for the home team. But above all, it is one for everyone who knows what it really means to have a losing season.

Cat's Eye is the story of Elaine Risley, a controversial painter who returns to Toronto, the city of her youth, for a retrospective of her art. Engulfed by vivid images of the past, she reminisces about a trio of girls who initiated her into the fierce politics of childhood and its secret world of friendship, longing, and betrayal. Elaine must come to terms with her own identity as a daughter, a lover, an artist, and a woman—but above all she must seek release from her haunting memories.

Disturbing, humorous, and compassionate, Cat's Eye is a breathtaking novel of a woman grappling with the tangled knots of her life.

An extraordinary and startlingly original sequel to Ishmael.

When Ishmael places an advertisement for pupils with “an earnest desire to save the world,” he does not expect a child to answer him. But twelve-year-old Julie Gerchak is undaunted by Ishmael’s reluctance to teach someone so young, and convinces him to take her on as his next student.

Ishmael knows he can't apply the same strategies with Julie that he used with his first pupil, Alan Lomax—nor can he hope for the same outcome. But young Julie proves that she is ready to forge her own spiritual path and arrive at her own destination.

And when the time comes to choose a pupil to carry out his greatest mission yet, Ishmael makes a daring decision—a choice that just might change the world.

Swallowing Stones begins with a free and joyful act, but from then on, Michael finds it impossible even to remember what it felt like to be free and joyful. When he fires his new rifle into the air on his seventeenth birthday, he never imagines that the bullet will end up killing someone.

But a mile away, a man is killed by that bullet as he innocently repairs his roof. And Michael keeps desperately silent while he watches his world crumble.

Meanwhile, Jenna, the dead man's daughter, copes with desperation of her own. Through her grief, she tries to understand why she no longer feels comfortable with her boyfriend and why a near stranger named Michael keeps appearing in her dreams.

Suspenseful and powerfully moving, this is the unforgettable story of an accidental crime and its haunting web of repercussions.

Running with the Demon is a novel that weaves together family drama, fading innocence, cataclysm, and enlightenment. It will forever change the way you think about the fantasy novel.

On the hottest Fourth of July weekend in decades, two men have come to Hopewell, Illinois, the site of a lengthy, bitter steel strike. One is a demon, dark servant of the Void, who will use the anger and frustration of the community to attain a terrible secret goal. The other is John Ross, a Knight of the Word, a man who, while he sleeps, lives in the hell the world will become if he fails to change its course on waking.

Ross has been given the ability to see the future. But does he have the power to change it? At stake is the soul of a fourteen-year-old girl mysteriously linked to both men, the lives of the people of Hopewell, and the future of the country.

While friends and families picnic in Sinnissippi Park and fireworks explode in celebration of freedom and independence, the fate of Humanity will be decided. As believable as it is imaginative, as wondrous as it is frightening, it is a rich, exquisitely-written tale to be savored long after the last page is turned.

Harry Potter has never even heard of Hogwarts when the letters start dropping on the doormat at number four, Privet Drive. Addressed in green ink on yellowish parchment with a purple seal, they are swiftly confiscated by his grisly aunt and uncle. Then, on Harry's eleventh birthday, a great beetle-eyed giant of a man called Rubeus Hagrid bursts in with some astonishing news: Harry Potter is a wizard, and he has a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. An incredible adventure is about to begin!

With their message of hope, belonging and the enduring power of truth and love, the story of the Boy Who Lived continues to delight generations of new readers.

She was just a little girl, with a tiny horn in the center of her forehead, funny-looking feet, beautiful silver hair, and several curious powers: the ability to purify air and water, make plants grow, and heal scars and broken bones.

A trio of grizzled prospectors found her drifting in an escape pod amid the asteroids, adopted her, and took her to the bandit planet Kezdet, a place where no questions are asked and the girl might grow up free.

But Kezdet has its own dark secret. The prosperity of the planet is based on a hideous trade in child slave labor, administered by "The Piper"—a mystery man with special plans for Acorna and her powers.

But free little girls have a way of growing into freedom-loving young women, and Acorna has special plans all her own...

Ruby Lennox begins narrating her life at the moment of conception, and from there takes us on a whirlwind tour of the twentieth century as seen through the eyes of an English girl determined to learn about her family and its secrets. Ruby tells the story of The Family, from the day at the end of the nineteenth century when a traveling French photographer catches frail beautiful Alice and her children, like flowers in amber, to the startling, witty, and memorable events of Ruby's own life.

Dream Boy is a stunning and heartbreaking novel by Jim Grimsley that recounts the story of a painful first love between two adolescent boys who bravely sustain each other in a world of domestic disintegration.

In a small, rural Southern town, Nathan secretly yearns for a life free from his father's oppressive presence. His father is abusive, and his mother remains distant, leaving Nathan to fend for himself in a world filled with secrets and fears.

Enter Roy, the boy next door. Despite the challenges they face, Nathan and Roy form a bond that grows into a covert, yet powerful relationship. Together, they navigate their fears, desires, and the societal pressures that threaten to tear them apart.

As their relationship intensifies, Nathan's home becomes increasingly unsafe, forcing him to make a daring escape with Roy to the haunting ruins of a plantation. Through lyrical and evocative writing, Grimsley explores themes of violence, tenderness, trauma, religion, and queer love against the backdrop of the 1950s rural South.

Brian is on his way to Canada to visit his estranged father when the pilot of his small prop plane suffers a heart attack. Brian is forced to crash-land the plane in a lake--and finds himself stranded in the remote Canadian wilderness with only his clothing and the hatchet his mother gave him as a present before his departure. Brian had been distraught over his parents' impending divorce and the secret he carries about his mother, but now he is truly desolate and alone. Exhausted, terrified, and hungry, Brian struggles to find food and make a shelter for himself. He has no special knowledge of the woods, and he must find a new kind of awareness and patience as he meets each day's challenges. Is the water safe to drink? Are the berries he finds poisonous? Slowly, Brian learns to turn adversity to his advantage--an invading porcupine unexpectedly shows him how to make fire, a devastating tornado shows him how to retrieve supplies from the submerged airplane. Most of all, Brian leaves behind the self-pity he has felt about his predicament as he summons the courage to stay alive. A story of survival and of transformation, this riveting book has sparked many a reader's interest in venturing into the wild.

Love, death, coming of age, and Native American spiritual beliefs flow together with the forces of nature in this engrossing novel. It is a story of loss and redemption, family and community, the western panorama, and the landscape of the heart.

This is a moving family portrait etched in the rugged terrain of a small town in Oregon. The lives of young Culver, his twice-married mother, and his charismatic uncle Jake have always been overshadowed by the death of Culver's father in a fishing accident. When a suspicious fire destroys the town mill and three murders occur, Culver is engulfed by the dangers he finds lurking in the place he'd come to call home.

Taken from the poverty of her parents' home in Portsmouth, Fanny Price is brought up with her rich cousins at Mansfield Park, acutely aware of her humble rank and with her cousin Edmund as her sole ally. During her uncle's absence in Antigua, the Crawford's arrive in the neighbourhood bringing with them the glamour of London life and a reckless taste for flirtation.

Mansfield Park is considered Jane Austen's first mature work and, with its quiet heroine and subtle examination of social position and moral integrity, one of her most profound.

Microserfs is a novel by Douglas Coupland that takes readers into the world of overworked coders at Microsoft in the early 1990s. The story is narrated by Dan Underwood, a computer programmer who documents his life and the lives of his friends in the form of a Powerbook entry.

These six "microserfs" are code-crunching computer whizzes, spending upward of 16 hours a day "coding" and eating "flat" foods, such as Kraft singles, passed under doors. They live in constant anticipation of the great Bill's emails, fearing whether he might "flame" one of them.

Seizing a chance to become innovators instead of just cogs in the Microsoft machine, they strike out on their own to form a high-tech start-up named Oop! in Silicon Valley. Living together in a digital flophouse—"Our House of Wayward Mobility"—they strive to cultivate well-rounded lives and find love amid the digital chaos.

Funny, illuminating, and ultimately touching, Microserfs is the story of one generation's strange and claustrophobic coming of age in a tech-driven world.

In the tradition of Huckleberry Finn and The Catcher in the Rye, Russell Banks’s quintessential novel tells the story of a disaffected homeless youth living on the edge of society. Rule of the Bone introduces us to Chappie, a punked-out teenager navigating a harsh world.

Chappie lives with his mother and abusive stepfather in an upstate New York trailer park. As he slips into drugs and petty crime, he becomes a permanent outsider, adopting a new identity as "Bone" and marking his transformation with a crossed-bones tattoo.

His journey takes him from dangerous biker-thieves to the refuge of an abandoned school bus, where he meets Rose, a child he rescues, and I-Man, an exiled Rastafarian. Together, they embark on a remarkable adventure from Middle America to the ganja-growing mountains of Jamaica—a journey of self-discovery through a world of magic, violence, betrayal, and redemption.

With a compelling and off-beat protagonist, evocative of Holden Caulfield and Quentin Coldwater, and a narrative voice that masterfully captures modern vernacular, Rule of the Bone is a haunting and powerful novel, an indisputable and unforgettable modern classic.

My name is Avocet Abigail Jackson. But because Mama couldn't find anyone who thought Avocet was a fine name for a child, she called me Bird. Which is okay by me. She named both her children after birds, her logic being that if we were named for something with wings then maybe we'd be able to fly above the challenges in our lives.

So says Bird Jackson, the mesmerizing narrator of Connie May Fowler's vivid and brilliantly written, Before Women Had Wings. Starstruck by a dime-store picture of Jesus, Bird fancies herself "His girlfriend" and embarks upon a spiritual quest for salvation, even as the chaos of her home life plunges her into a stony silence.

In stark and honest language, she tells the tragic life of her father, a sweet-talking wanna-be country music star, tracks her older sister's perilous journey into womanhood, and witnesses her mother make a courageous and ultimately devastating decision.

Yet most profound is Bird's own story—her struggle to sift through the ashes of her parents' lives, her meeting with Miss Zora, a healer whose prayers over the bones of winged creatures are meant to guide their souls to heaven, and her will to make sense of a world where fear is more plentiful than hope, retribution more valued than love.

Youth in Revolt is the journals of Nick Twisp, California's most precocious diarist. Over the course of six months, Nick faces the trials and tribulations of teenage life, including high school struggles, divorced parents, and the quest to lose his virginity.

Nick's transformation from an unassuming fourteen-year-old to a modern youth in open revolt is both hilarious and poignant. As his family splinters and worlds collide, Nick must navigate economic deprivation, homelessness, and the challenges of public school. With a competitive Type-A father and murderous canines (in triplicate), his life is anything but ordinary.

All the while, Nick ardently vies for the affections of the beautiful Sheeni Saunders, a teenage goddess and ultimate intellectual goad. This rollercoaster of teenage angst is a satirical take on adolescence, filled with witty humor and unexpected adventures.

In a faraway land where members of the royal family are named for the virtues they embody, one young boy will become a walking enigma. Born on the wrong side of the sheets, Fitz, son of Chivalry Farseer, is a royal bastard, cast out into the world, friendless and lonely. Only his magical link with animals - the old art known as the Wit - gives him solace and companionship. But the Wit, if used too often, is a perilous magic, and one abhorred by the nobility.

So when Fitz is finally adopted into the royal household, he must give up his old ways and embrace a new life of weaponry, scribing, courtly manners; and how to kill a man secretly, as he trains to become a royal assassin.

For her birthday, Vicky receives the gift of a trip to the Antarctic, where her friend Adam Eddington is working as a marine biologist. But as Vicky meets her fellow travelers, it quickly becomes clear that some of them are not what they seem. Vicki's trip into adventure becomes a journey into icy danger.

In book five of the Austin Family Chronicles, Vicky Austin experiences the difficulties and joys of growing up. After a year in New York City and a summer with her grandfather, Vicky Austin returns to the rural Connecticut village she grew up in—and feels totally out of place. Then, she meets Adam Eddington's Great Aunt Serena, who reminds her of her beloved grandfather, and she begins to find a comfortable, if not exciting, routine to her days.

At Christmas, Serena gives Vicky a trip to Antarctica, to visit Adam. Vicky can't believe her luck. But the trip is not what Vicky imagined it would be. First of all, she doesn't know where she stands with Adam. He's pulled back, saying they are just friends. But weren't they more than that, Vicky thinks. And Vicky's fellow passengers are not what they seem or they are more than she knows. Finally, even Aunt Serena's motives are suspect, as Vicky discovers a journal that belonged to Adam's famous uncle who disappeared many years earlier.

As Vicky becomes more and more caught up in a mystery involving drugs, nuclear waste, and international espionage, she discovers that her assumptions about the world are hopelessly naive and that life, hers included, is as fragile as the ecosystem of Antarctica, the world's most remote continent.

Why is the land so important to Cassie's family? It takes the events of one turbulent year—the year of the night riders and the burnings, the year a white girl humiliates Cassie in public simply because she's black—to show Cassie that having a place of their own is the Logan family's lifeblood. It is the land that gives the Logans their courage and pride—no matter how others may degrade them, the Logans possess something no one can take away.