National Network for Equitable Library Service

Alison loves her husband and their three children. But the emptiness she feels is tied to her decision to run away with Marc, her best friend's man. On the verge of divorce, Catherine loves her children as well, yet still pines for Marc, the love of her life. Alison and Catherine have kept their distance for 15 years, but now that Alison is moving back home, things will come to a head--for better or worse.

Dr. Wood McIlmore is the leading citizen of Paris, Arkansas. Married to his high school sweetheart Milan, Wood has it all. But everything changes dramatically when his daughter Elizabeth announces plance to marry Luke, her college classmate. Luke happens to be the son of Duff, Wood's other high school girlfriend and Milan's bitter rival. Forced back together by their children, Duff and Wood rekindle their passion--while Milan, her world crumbling around her, tries to plan her daughter's wedding.

When Aaron Maciver's beautiful young wife, Madeline, suffers brain damage in a bike accident, she is left with the intellectual powers of a seven-year-old. In the years that follow, Aaron and his second wife care for Madeline with deep tenderness and devotion as they raise two children of their own.

Three black women from one neighborhood take different paths to better themselves. It's in her small Virginia hometown where Zakia experiences the success she's always wanted--and the change that threatens it. For her friend Nikki, this close-knit village inspires a new life where a younger man and unexpected conflicts test her mettle. And for young LaKishsa--fresh from the hood--here is where she grapples with her past and plans her future.

Warren Spooner is a troubled boy whose father dies shortly after he's born. When his mother marries Calmer Ottosson, a decorated Navy officer fallen from grace, Warren is saved by Calmer's inexhaustible patience. As Warren grows up, the two men forge a bond that will carry them both through the hard times ahead.

Father John O'Malley and Vicky Holden investigate the murder of an Arapaho Indian from the Wind River Reservation, who was in Hollywood trying to uncover the mystery of his great-grandfather's disappearance while filming a 1923 Western.

Fifteen years ago Vida Avery arrived alone and pregnant at elite Fayer Academy. By living on campus, on an island off the New England coast, Vida has cocooned herself and her son, Peter, from the outside world and from an inside secret. For years she has lived largely through the books she teaches, but when she accepts the impulsive marriage proposal of ardent widower Tom Belou, the prescribed life Vida has constructed is swiftly dismantled.

Tab and Tina, relatives of a founder of Ku Klux Klan, are whisked away to an interracial Civil Rights school one summer. There, they befriend both a black polio patient and the biracial daughter of a Yankee and a Civil Rights leader. Can the girls be saved from the racist traditions of their Alabama family?

The strkingly beautiful and daringly bold Siena McMahon wants to be a movie star like her legendary grandfather. Her bigshot producer father, however, wants her to be a doctor. But Siena is her own woman, and she's determined to live life on her own terms. So she strikes a chord for independence, finding success as a model, exploring her decadent taste for the opposite sex, and striving to become the biggest starlet in tinseltown.

Under the sprawling branches of the ancient man-fig tree in the town square, the gossiby men of Thornham relax and spin colorful yarns for each other's amusements. There, reputations are established or sullied, and local rumors of all kinds are passed on and contested. Though they don't show it, they are effectively weaving a folk history of their own town and of the Old South.