Farmer Brown has a problem. His cows like to type. All day long he hears:

Click, clack, MOO.
Click, clack, MOO.
Clickety, clack, MOO.

But Farmer Brown's problems REALLY begin when his cows start leaving him notes...

Doreen Cronin's understated text and Betsy Lewin's expressive illustrations make the most of this hilarious situation. Come join the fun as a bunch of literate cows turn Farmer Brown's farm upside down.

Rocket Boys is an extraordinary memoir by Homer "Sonny" Hickam Jr., detailing his life in the hard-scrabble mining town of Coalwood, West Virginia. Until he began to build and launch rockets, he was unaware of the town's silent war against its own future and the unspoken conflict between his parents about his and his brother's lives.

In 1957, inspired by the sight of the Soviet satellite Sputnik crossing the Appalachian sky, Sonny and his friends, Roy Lee Cook, Sherman O'Dell, and Quentin Wilson, embarked on a journey to design and launch homemade rockets. Their journey was not just about rocket science; it was about daring to dream beyond the borders of their town.

With a cast of unforgettable characters, the boys learned to transform scrap into sophisticated rockets, sustaining their dreams in a town left behind by the postwar boom. Hickam's memoir is a powerful story of growing up, getting out, a mother's love, and a father's fears.

This uniquely endearing book captures universal themes of class, family, coming of age, and the thrill of discovery, all wrapped in vivid storytelling. Rocket Boys is evocative, magical, and a testament to the power of dreams.

সমগ্র শিশুসাহিত্য is a delightful collection that showcases the complete children's literature of the renowned Bengali author, Sukumar Ray. Known for his whimsical and imaginative tales, this collection is a treasure trove of stories that have enchanted readers for generations.

Filled with humor and fantasy, these stories transport readers into a world of wonder and joy. It is a perfect read for both children and adults alike, offering a glimpse into the rich cultural heritage of Bengal.

Whether you're revisiting your childhood favorites or discovering them for the first time, this collection promises to captivate and delight.

The Life of Our Lord is a heartwarming and simple retelling of the life of Jesus Christ, adapted from the Gospel of St. Luke. In this delightful narrative, Charles Dickens shares the story of Jesus with his young children, aiming to instill in them the values of religion and faith.

Written during the years 1846 to 1849, this work remained a cherished family secret for over eighty-five years, passed down through generations. Dickens refused its publication during his lifetime, intending it solely for his children's understanding and spiritual growth.

Eventually published in 1934, this narrative captures the essence of Dickens's storytelling, blending faith and family in a unique portrayal of Jesus's teachings and background.

Just about everything in Endora, Iowa (pop. 1,091 and dwindling) is eating Gilbert Grape, a twenty-four-year-old grocery clerk who dreams only of leaving. His enormous mother, once the town sweetheart, has been eating nonstop ever since her husband's suicide, and the floor beneath her TV chair is threatening to cave in.

Gilbert's long-suffering older sister, Amy, still mourns the death of Elvis, and his knockout younger sister has become hooked on makeup, boys, and Jesus--in that order. But the biggest event on the horizon for all the Grapes is the eighteenth birthday of Gilbert's younger brother, Arnie, who is a living miracle just for having survived so long.

As the Grapes gather in Endora, a mysterious beauty glides through town on a bicycle and rides circles around Gilbert, until he begins to see a new vision of his family and himself.

Arnes Nachlaß is a tale woven with a cool, calm narrative flow that takes its time, embodying the essence of North German tranquility. This novel by Siegfried Lenz is a testament to the art of storytelling, rewarding those who appreciate simple, yet profound narratives.

The story revolves around Arne Hellmer, the sole survivor of a family tragedy, who finds refuge with the family of a former captain, a friend of his deceased father. Arne forms a deep bond with Hans, the narrator, who becomes his spiritual brother. However, Hans suspects that beneath Arne's reticence and the trauma of his family's tragic demise lies a deeper, more enigmatic secret.

Set in a shipbreaking yard in the remote corners of the Hamburg harbor, Lenz crafts a masterful tapestry of wanderlust and adventure, conjuring long-forgotten maritime artifacts from his linguistic treasure chest. In the nocturnal room where ocean giants glide past, Hans comes to understand his enigmatic friend Arne, this seeker and despairing soul, only to lose him again.

Now, it is time to organize Arne's legacy. In this sad collection, Hans discovers the truth about his lost friend. Who, if not I, should now tell your story, Arne?

It's 1936, in Flint, Michigan. Times may be hard, and ten-year-old Bud may be a motherless boy on the run, but Bud's got a few things going for him:

• He has his own suitcase full of special things.
• He's the author of Bud Caldwell's Rules and Things for Having a Funner Life and Making a Better Liar Out of Yourself.
• His momma never told him who his father was, but she left a clue: flyers advertising Herman E. Calloway and his famous band, the Dusky Devastators of the Depression!

Bud's got an idea that those flyers will lead him to his father. Once he decides to hit the road and find this mystery man, nothing can stop him—not hunger, not fear, not vampires, not even Herman E. Calloway himself.

Join Bud on this unforgettable journey filled with laughter, adventure, and the soulful sounds of jazz.

"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.

No play in the modern theatre has so captured the imagination and heart of the American public as Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie. As Williams's first popular success, it launched the brilliant, if somewhat controversial, career of our pre-eminent lyric playwright. Since its premiere in Chicago in 1944, with the legendary Laurette Taylor in the role of Amanda, Menagerie has been the bravura piece for great actresses from Jessica Tandy to Joanne Woodward, and is studied and performed in classrooms and theatres around the world. The Glass Menagerie (in the reading text the author preferred) is now available only in its New Directions Paperbook edition. A new introduction by the editor of The Tennessee Williams Annual Review, Robert Bray, reappraises the play more than half a century after it won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award.

This edition of The Glass Menagerie also includes Williams's essay on the impact of sudden fame on a struggling writer, The Catastrophe of Success, as well as a short section of Williams's own Production Notes.

Capturing all the rueful irony and racial ambivalence of small-town Mississippi in the late 1950s, Melinda Haynes' celebrated novel is a wholly unforgettable exploration of family, identity, and redemption.

Mother of Pearl revolves around twenty-eight-year-old Even Grade, a black man who grew up an orphan, and Valuable Korner, the fifteen-year-old white daughter of the town whore and an unknown father. Both are passionately determined to discover the precious things neither experienced as children: human connection, enduring commitment, and, above all, unconditional love.

A startlingly accomplished mixture of beauty, mystery, and tragedy, Mother of Pearl marks the debut of an extraordinary literary talent.

Who is going to marry Eugénie Grandet? This is the question that fills the minds of the inhabitants of Saumur, the setting for Eugénie Grandet (1833), one of the earliest and most famous novels in Balzac's Comédie Humaine.

The Grandet household, oppressed by the exacting miserliness of Grandet himself, is jerked violently out of routine by the sudden arrival of Eugénie's cousin Charles, recently orphaned and penniless. Eugénie's emotional awakening, stimulated by her love for her cousin, brings her into direct conflict with her father, whose cunning and financial success are matched against her determination to rebel.

Eugénie's moving story is set against the backdrop of provincial oppression, the vicissitudes of the wine trade, and the workings of the financial system in the aftermath of the French Revolution. It is both a poignant portrayal of private life and a vigorous fictional document of its age.

On the night of October 23/24, 1995 in Prairie Village, Kansas, a fierce, wind-driven fire devastated the luxurious mansion of Dr. Debora Green and her husband, Dr. Michael Farrar. Trapped and burned to death in the flames were twelve-year-old Tim and his six-year-old sister Kelly. Lissa, ten, was barely able to leap to safety from the garage roof into the arms of her mother, who was standing outside the house.

When Michael Farrar returned to the scene, he had lost more than his children and his home. His entire life was in ruins. The fire was the climactic event of Michael and Debora's lives. Until that summer, they seemed to have it all — a happy marriage, successful medical practices, three bright and beautiful children. Then they went on a trip to Peru with their son. There, they met attractive, blonde Celeste Walker, whose husband, John was also a successful doctor. But after that trip, nothing was the same again for either couple, and all the dark hidden places in Debora and Michael's marriage bubbled to the surface in a series of almost unbelievable horrors.

"Bitter Harvest" is the chronicle of this tragedy in the heartland of America, the true story of the disintegration of a marriage and its horrifying consequences. Rule takes us deep into the psyche of a killer whose behavior was so twisted and so evil that it defies belief. Gripping, powerful, and ultimately terrifying, "Bitter Harvest" is a vivid recreation of an unthinkable crime — and a depiction of the unimagined depths of darkness within the human spirit.

Anju is the daughter of an upper-caste Calcutta family; her cousin Sudha is the daughter of the black sheep of the family. Sudha is as beautiful, tenderhearted, and serious as Anju is plain, whip-smart, and defiant. Yet since the day they were born, Sudha and Anju have been bonded in ways even their mothers cannot comprehend.

The cousins' bond is shattered, however, when Sudha learns a dark family secret. Urged into arranged marriages, their lives take sudden, opposite turns: Sudha becomes the dutiful daughter-in-law of a rigid small-town household, while Anju goes to America with her new husband and learns to live her own life of secrets.

Then tragedy strikes them both, and the women discover that, despite the distance that has grown between them, they have only each other to turn to. Set in the two worlds of India and America, this is an exceptionally moving novel of love, friendship, and compelling courage.

Inner Harbor is the third book in the sweeping Chesapeake Bay Saga, a tale about three brothers who unite in a time of need. They honor their father's wish to raise young Seth as their own, and with all the brothers home again, the Quinn family has never been so strong. But, in the months to come, their strength is tested once again.

Phillip Quinn has done everything to make his life seem perfect. With his career on the fast track and a condo overlooking the Harbor, his life on the street is firmly in the past. But one look at Seth, and he's reminded of the boy he once was.

Phillip intends to fulfill his father's dying request and considers Seth to be a duty. However, he never expected he would grow to love Seth, and soon his promise to his father becomes more than just an obligation. Seth's future as a Quinn seems assured—until a stranger arrives in town. She claims to be researching St. Christopher's for her new book, but the true objects of study are the Quinns. Her cool reserve intrigues Phillip, and he is determined to uncover her motives. But she holds a secret that has the power to threaten the life the brothers have made for Seth—a secret that could tear the family apart forever.

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.

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.

This poem first appeared in a newspaper in Troy, New York, USA, on December 23, 1823, as A Visit From St. Nicholas. No one claimed authorship until 13 years later. Clement Clarke Moore, a professor and poet, said that he wrote the piece for his children. Unbeknownst to him, his housekeeper had sent it to the newspaper to be published. However, the family of Henry Livingston Jr. contended that their father had been reciting A Visit from St. Nicholas for 15 years prior to publication. Regardless of the true author, the poem is now a Christmas classic.

Ethan Quinn shares his late father's passion for the ocean, and he's determined to make the family boat-building business a success. But as well as looking out for his young brother Seth, the strong but guarded Quinn is also battling some difficult home truths.

Grace Monroe, the woman Ethan has always loved but never believed he could have, is learning that appearances can be deceptive. For beneath Ethan's still, dark waters lies a shocking past. With Grace's help, can he overcome the shadows that haunt him and finally accept who he is?

This is the second novel in #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts' stunning Chesapeake Bay Saga, where the Quinn brothers must return to their family home on the Maryland shore, to honor their father's last request. Ethan Quinn is a waterman. He wasn’t born to the tradition but has embraced it. He’s a quiet man whose heart runs as deep as the waters he loves. And now, with his father gone, Ethan is determined to make the family boatbuilding business a success. But amidst his achievements lie the most important challenges of his life… There’s a young boy who needs him, and a woman and child he loves but never believed he could have. To shape his life around them, Ethan must face his own dark past—and accept not only who he is but what he hopes to become.

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.

Little Critter is trying his best to be a help to his mother in this classic, funny, and heartwarming book. Whether he's trying to make breakfast, mow the lawn, or carry the groceries, both parents and children alike will relate to this beloved story.

This silly and sweet picture book about the mayhem that results from trying to help mom is a perfect gift any time of year!

The crime-infested intersection of West Fayette and Monroe Streets is well-known—and cautiously avoided—by most of Baltimore. But this notorious corner's 24-hour open-air drug market provides the economic fuel for a dying neighborhood.

David Simon, an award-winning author and crime reporter, and Edward Burns, a 20-year veteran of the urban drug war, tell the chilling story of this desolate crossroad. Through the eyes of one broken family—two drug-addicted adults and their smart, vulnerable 15-year-old son, DeAndre McCollough, Simon and Burns examine the sinister realities of inner cities across the country and unflinchingly assess why law enforcement policies, moral crusades, and the welfare system have accomplished so little.

This extraordinary book is a crucial look at the price of the drug culture and the poignant scenes of hope, caring, and love that astonishingly rise in the midst of a place America has abandoned.

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.

For eighteen years, Fran Benedetto kept her secret and hid her bruises. She stayed with Bobby because she wanted her son to have a father, and because, in spite of everything, she loved him. Then one night, when she saw the look on her ten-year-old son's face, Fran finally made a choice—and ran for both their lives.

Now she is starting over in a city far from home, far from Bobby. In this place, she uses a name that isn't hers, cradles her son in her arms, and tries to forget. For the woman who now calls herself Beth, every day is a chance to heal, to put together the pieces of her shattered self. And every day she waits for Bobby to catch up to her. Because Bobby always said he would never let her go. Despite the flawlessness of her escape, Fran Benedetto is certain of one thing: It is only a matter of time...

Sea Swept is the first novel in #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts' stunning Chesapeake Bay Saga, where the Quinn brothers must return to their family home on the Maryland shore to honor their father's last request.

A champion boat racer, Cameron Quinn traveled the world, spending his winnings on champagne and women. But when his dying father calls him home to care for Seth, a troubled young boy not unlike Cameron once was, his life changes overnight.

After years of independence, Cameron has to learn to live with his brothers again, while he struggles with cooking, cleaning, and caring for a difficult boy. Old rivalries and new resentments flare between Cameron and his brothers, but they try to put aside their differences for Seth’s sake.

In the end, a social worker will decide Seth’s fate, and as tough as she is beautiful, she has the power to bring the Quinns together—or tear them apart.

Sabine—twenty years a magician's assistant to her handsome, charming husband—is suddenly a widow. In the wake of his death, she finds he has left a final trick; a false identity and a family allegedly lost in a tragic accident but now revealed as very much alive and well. Named as heirs in his will, they enter Sabine's life and set her on an adventure of unraveling his secrets, from sunny Los Angeles to the windswept plains of Nebraska, that will work its own sort of magic on her.

From the bestselling author of The Dutch House, this enchanting book is something of a magic trick in itself. Sabine's extraordinary tale, with its big dreams, vast spaces, and disparate realities lying side by side, captures the hearts of its readers and proves to be the perfect place for miraculous transformations.

The Mulvaneys of High Point Farm in Mt. Ephraim, New York, are a large and fortunate clan, blessed with good looks, abundant charisma, and boundless promise. But over the twenty-five year span of this ambitious novel, the Mulvaneys will slide, almost imperceptibly at first, from the pinnacle of happiness, transformed by the vagaries of fate into a scattered collection of lost and lonely souls.

It is the youngest son, Judd, now an adult, who attempts to piece together the fragments of the Mulvaneys' former glory, seeking to uncover and understand the secret violation that occasioned the family's tragic downfall. Each of the Mulvaneys endures some form of exile- physical or spiritual - but in the end they find a way to bridge the chasms that have opened up among them, reuniting in the spirit of love and healing.

Iphigenia in Aulis is a play by the ancient Greek playwright Euripides. It tells the story of Agamemnon's sacrifice of his daughter, Iphigenia, in order to ensure the good fortune of his forces in the Trojan War. Despite its heroic background, it is, in many respects, a domestic tragedy.

This new translation by Mr. Rudall retains the poetic beauty of Euripides while fashioning a playable dialogue. It beautifully captures the emotional depth and complexity of the characters involved.

Roanna Davenport was raised a wealthy orphan on her grandmother's magnificent Alabama estate, Davencourt. Here, she developed a passion for horses, a genius for trouble, and a deep love for her cousin, Webb. But everyone expected Webb to marry their ravishing cousin, Jessie. When he did, Roanna's desire became no more than the stuff of dreams—until the night Jessie was found bludgeoned to death.

After the shocking murder of his wife, Webb left for Arizona, abandoning the legacy that he had once believed was all he wanted. But then an all-grown-up Roanna walked into a dingy bar in Nogales to bring him home; the mischievous sprite he had known ten years earlier was no more. Gone, too, was her fire. In its place was ice that melted at his touch. Webb is drawn back to Davencourt, to Roanna, and to the killer that once destroyed his life and waits only for the chance to finish the job....

Turtle Moon tells the captivating story of a divorced woman and her disillusioned teenage son. When Keith Rosen unexpectedly runs away from his Florida home, taking along a motherless baby, his mother finds herself perplexed and terrified.

Embarking on her own journey to find him, this suspenseful tale explores the events that change their lives in both simple and extraordinary ways. Alice Hoffman beautifully crafts a narrative filled with emotional depth and rich character development, confirming her exquisite talent once again.

My Dark Places is an intense journey into the life of James Ellroy, one of America's most uncompromising crime writers. This riveting memoir delves into the unresolved mystery of his mother's murder in 1958, when her body was found in a seedy suburb of L.A.

Ellroy was only ten years old when his mother died, and he spent the next thirty-six years haunted by her ghost and attempting to exorcize it through crime fiction. In 1994, he decided to confront his past and uncover the truth about his mother—and himself.

Teaming up with a brilliant homicide detective, Ellroy embarks on an epic quest for redemption, exploring themes of loss, fixation, and the dark underbelly of American society. This book is not only a personal journey but also a vivid exploration of the American way of violence.

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.

William Henry Devereaux, Jr. is the reluctant chairman of the English department at a badly underfunded college in the Pennsylvania rust belt. Over the course of a single convoluted week, he threatens to execute a duck, has his nose slashed by a feminist poet, discovers that his secretary writes better fiction than he does, and suspects his wife of having an affair with his dean.

Devereaux's reluctance is partly rooted in his character—he is a born anarchist—and partly in the fact that his department is more savagely divided than the Balkans. In the course of this week, he imagines his wife is having an affair, wonders if a curvaceous adjunct is trying to seduce him with peach pits, and threatens to execute a goose on local television.

All this while coming to terms with his philandering father, the dereliction of his youthful promise, and the ominous failure of certain vital body functions. In short, Straight Man is classic Russo—side-splitting, poignant, compassionate, and unforgettable.

Emma McAvoy is beautiful, intelligent, and radiantly talented. She lives in a star-studded world of wealth and privilege, but she is about to discover that fame is no protection at all when someone wants you dead.

All she has to do is close her eyes and she remembers the magical day her father came into her life. She was a frightened, lonely toddler, hiding from her mother's wrath, when Brian McAvoy swept in and took her away. She didn't know then that she was his illegitimate daughter or that she had just been rescued by pop music's rising new star. All she knew was that suddenly she felt safe.

Brian's new wife became Emma's loving stepmother, his band members her surrogate uncles, and soon Emma even had a new baby brother to care for. Then, just when everything seemed perfect, a horrifying event shattered all their lives: a botched kidnapping attempt, shocking the world, traumatizing Emma, leaving her bereft of her newfound happiness.

Yet now, after so many years of pain and guilt, of being overprotected and hounded by the press, Emma finally feels as if she's put the tragedy behind her. A determined, self-sufficient young woman, she has carved out a thrilling career and even dared to fall rapturously in love. But the man who will become her husband isn't all that he seems. And Emma is about to awaken to the chilling knowledge that the darkest secret of all is the one buried in her mind—a secret that someone may kill to keep.

Baltimore woman disappears during family vacation. This headline marks the beginning of a transformative journey for forty-year-old Delia Grinstead. Last seen strolling down the Delaware shore in nothing but a bathing suit, Delia carries only a beach tote with five hundred dollars tucked inside. To her family, she has vanished without a trace or reason. But for Delia, who feels like a tiny gnat buzzing around her family's edges, walking away from it all is an impulse that leads her into a new, exciting, and unimagined life.

Anne Tyler details Delia's adventure with great skill, creating distinct characters caught in poignantly funny situations. As Delia reinvents herself, she discovers feelings of passion and wonder she'd long since forgotten. The thrill of walking away from it all leads to a newfound sense of self and the feeling that she is, finally, the star of her own life story.

The Atonement Child by Francine Rivers is a powerful novel that explores the deeply personal and controversial topic of abortion. In a single, terrifying moment, Dynah Carey's seemingly perfect life is shattered by a rape that results in an unwanted pregnancy. Her future is irrevocably altered, and her devoted family is torn apart.

Dynah's rock-solid faith is tested to its limits as she faces the most momentous choice of her life: to embrace or to end the untimely life within her. This is ultimately a tale of three women, as Dynah’s plight forces both her mother and her grandmother to confront the choices they made.

Written with balance and compassion, The Atonement Child brings a new perspective to a widely debated topic, offering a heart-wrenching yet uplifting story.

Solar Storms by Pulitzer Prize finalist Linda Hogan tells the moving story of Angela Jenson, a troubled Native American girl coming of age in the foster system in Oklahoma, who decides to reunite with her family.

At seventeen, Angela returns to the place where she was raised—a stunning island town that lies at the border of Canada and Minnesota. Here, she discovers that an eager developer is planning a hydroelectric dam that will leave sacred land flooded and abandoned.

Joining forces with three other concerned residents, Angela fights the project, reconnecting with her ancestral roots as she does so. This harrowing, lyrical, and boldly incisive novel is a powerful examination of the clashes between cultures and the traumatic repercussions that have shaped American history.

The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother touches readers of all colors as a vivid portrait of growing up, a haunting meditation on race and identity, and a lyrical valentine to a mother from her son.

Who is Ruth McBride Jordan? A self-declared "light-skinned" woman evasive about her ethnicity, yet steadfast in her love for her twelve black children. James McBride, journalist, musician and son, explores his mother's past, as well as his own upbringing and heritage, in a poignant and powerful debut. The son of a black minister and a woman who would not admit she was white, James McBride grew up in "orchestrated chaos" with his eleven siblings in the poor, all-black projects of Red Hook, Brooklyn. "Mommy," a fiercely protective woman with "dark eyes full of pep and fire," herded her brood to Manhattan's free cultural events, sent them off on buses to the best (and mainly Jewish) schools, demanded good grades and commanded respect. As a young man, McBride saw his mother as a source of embarrassment, worry, and confusion--and reached thirty before he began to discover the truth about her early life and long-buried pain.

In The Color of Water, McBride retraces his mother's footsteps and, through her searing and spirited voice, recreates her remarkable story. The daughter of a failed itinerant Orthodox rabbi, she was born Rachel Shilsky (actually Ruchel Dwara Zylska) in Poland on April 1, 1921. Fleeing pogroms, her family emigrated to America and ultimately settled in Suffolk, Virginia, a small town where anti-Semitism and racial tensions ran high. With candor and immediacy, Ruth describes her parents' loveless marriage; her fragile, handicapped mother; her cruel, sexually-abusive father; and the rest of the family and life she abandoned. At seventeen, after fleeing Virginia and settling in New York City, Ruth married a black minister and founded the all-black New Brown Memorial Baptist Church in her Red Hook living room. "God is the color of water," Ruth McBride taught her children, firmly convinced that life's blessings and life's values transcend race. Twice widowed, and continually confronting overwhelming adversity and racism, Ruth's determination, drive and discipline saw her dozen children through college--and most through graduate school. At age 65, she herself received a degree in social work from Temple University. Interspersed throughout his mother's compelling narrative, McBride shares candid recollections of his own experiences as a mixed-race child of poverty, his flirtations with drugs and violence, and his eventual self-realization and professional success.

The Complete Maus, a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel by Art Spiegelman, is a profound narrative that recounts the chilling experiences of the author's father, Vladek Spiegelman, a Jewish survivor of Hitler's Europe. This volume includes both Maus I: A Survivor's Tale and Maus II, presenting the complete story.

Through the unique medium of cartoons—with Nazis depicted as cats and Jews as mice—Spiegelman captures the everyday reality of fear and survival during the Holocaust. This artistic choice not only shocks readers out of any sense of familiarity but also draws them closer to the harrowing heart of the Holocaust.

More than just a tale of survival, Maus is also an exploration of the author's complex relationship with his father. The narrative weaves together Vladek's harrowing story with the author's own struggles, framing a life of small arguments and unhappy visits against the backdrop of a larger historical atrocity. It is a story that extends beyond Vladek to all the children who bear the legacy of their parents' traumas.

Maus is not only a personal account of survival but also a broader examination of the impact of history on subsequent generations. It is an essential work that studies the traces of history and its enduring significance.

A power revered by presidents and kings, a fortune unsurpassed by few people on earth: all that ended for Harry Stanford the day he mysteriously—and fatally—plunged from his luxury yacht into the Mediterranean Sea.

Then, back home in Boston, as the family gathers to grieve for his memory and to war over his legacy, a stunningly beautiful young woman appears. She claims to be Stanford's long-lost daughter and entitled to her share of his estate.

Now, flaming with intrigue and passion through the glamorous preserves of the world's super rich, the ultimate game of wits begins, for stakes too dazzling and deadly to imagine.

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.

Bobby Griffith was an all-American boy... and he was gay. Faced with an irresolvable conflict—for both his family and his religion taught him that being gay was "wrong"—Bobby chose to take his own life.

Prayers for Bobby is the story of the emotional journey that led Bobby to this tragic conclusion. But it is also the story of Bobby's mother, a fearful churchgoer who first prayed that her son would be "healed," then anguished over his suicide, and ultimately transformed herself into a national crusader for gay and lesbian youth.

As told through Bobby's poignant journal entries and his mother's reminiscences, Prayers for Bobby is at once a moving personal story, a true profile in courage, and a call to arms to parents everywhere.

One night, Melanie walks through the garden in her mother's wedding dress. The next morning, her world is shattered. Forced to leave the comfortable home of her childhood, she is sent to London to live with relatives she has never met: Aunt Margaret, beautiful and speechless, and her brothers, Francie, whose graceful music belies his clumsy nature, and the volatile Finn, who kisses Melanie in the ruins of the pleasure garden.

Brooding Uncle Philip loves only the life-sized wooden puppets he creates in his toyshop. This classic gothic novel established Angela Carter as one of our most imaginative writers and augurs the themes of her later creative works.

Fred Scully is eagerly waiting at the airport to reunite with his wife and daughter after two years of traveling through Europe. He envisions a new life for them, filled with stability and hope, in a cottage that he has lovingly renovated in the Irish countryside.

However, as the flight lands and the airport doors hiss open, only his seven-year-old daughter, Billie, steps out. Scully's world shatters as he discovers his wife is missing, leaving behind no note or explanation. This unexpected turn of events thrusts him into a desperate search across Europe, trying to unravel the mystery of her disappearance.

The Riders is a haunting and beautifully written tale that delves into the complexities of love, marriage, and the bonds between a father and his daughter. It explores the deep-rooted fears and challenges in relationships, and the resilience needed to move forward despite life's uncertainties.

Join Scully on this gripping odyssey, as he navigates through emotional turmoil and the shadows of his past, in a poignant story that captures the essence of human resilience and the enduring power of family ties.

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.

The Deep End of the Ocean is a powerful story that imagines every mother's worst nightmare—the disappearance of a child. This nationwide bestseller and critical success was the first title chosen for Oprah's Book Club.

The novel is both highly suspenseful and deeply moving, exploring a family's struggle to endure even against extraordinary odds. It is filled with compassion, humor, and brilliant observations about the texture of real life.

Here is a story of rare power, one that will touch readers' hearts and make them celebrate the emotions that make us all one.