National Network for Equitable Library Service

Meghan is the popular host of America's top-rated morning talk show--until she shatters her seemingly perfect life by letting two profane words slip from her lips just before a commercial break. Suddenly, she is shamed--something she's not equipped to handle. Her sister Bridget, a social worker who has long lived in Meghan's shadow, feels the effects of the on-air gaffe, too. They may be different, but the Fitzmaurice sisters share a deep connection that helps them challenge the world when faced with disgrace.

After she runs away from her abusive husband, Fran Benedetto lives in fear of discovery, yet also with increasing confidence, freedom, and hope, as she struggles to create a new life for herself and her son.

Two men from opposite ends of the social spectrum - a wealthy self-indulgent industrialist and a disgraced sea captain - are brought together in a harrowing adventure: an attempt to guide a luxurious but ill-equipped yacht through the perilous polar waters.

During the Great Depression, three lost souls meet one another at Boulder Dam, a massive engineering project in the midst of the Nevada desert. The story begins with Filius Poe, an engineer coping with a grave personal loss. Lew Beck is an angry man who hhas lived a rough life and is ready to explode. Lena McCardell is travelling with her young son, and is hoping for a better future for the two of them. Each is drawn to the dam for different reasons, but they have all been haunted by tragedy.

After losing her grandmother, her home, and all her worldly posessions in Hurricane Katrina, Monique Deveraux has all but given up on life. Then at an evacuee shelter, a wealthy woman takes her in and introduces her to a billionaire businessman. But something is lurking in the shadows that could take it all away again.

America is a barren landscape of smoldering ashes, devoid of life except for those people still struggling to scratch out some type of existence. Amidst the destruction, a father and his young son walk, always toward the coast, but with no real understanding that circumstances will improve once they arrive. Still they persevere, and their relationship comes to represent goodness in a world that is utterly devastated.

Mr. Putter is convinced to run in a senior marathon with his neighbor, Mrs. Teaberry, when he learns that second prize is a train set.

When Mr. Putter cannot sleep after eating too many of Mrs. Teaberry's pineapple jelly rolls, he and Tabby take a moonlit stroll that ends with the perfect neighborly gathering.

His birth ended his mother's life in Tennessee. Scrawny and wiry, he runs away at the age of 14. As he makes his way westward, the impoverished and illiterate youth finds trouble at every turn. Then he's recruited by Army irregulars, lured by the promise of spoils and bound for Mexico. Churning a dusty path toward destiny, he witnesses unknown horrors and suffering--and yet, as if shielded by the almighty hand of God, he survives to breathe another day.

Aspiring Hollywood screenwriter Chick Goodnight--descendant of the legendary cowboy Jimmy Goodnight--strives to make his mark in a world that seems completely alien to his down-home sensibilities.