National Network for Equitable Library Service

Emmy Quinn is West Texas through and through. She loves her community, but she knows that when she comes out as a lesbian, she may not be able to call Steinbeck--which is steeped in the Southern Baptist tradition--home anymore. Her father is offered a dream job coaching high school football, but the school board says that he can't accept the position if he's got any skeletons in his closet. Steve is still wrestling with Emmy's coming-out: he loves his daughter, but he's a man of faith, raised in the Baptist community.

Phoebe Adams and her mother Ruth both need a safe haven, so they head for Summer Island where Grandma Alice still rules the roost from the big New England beach house Phoebe and Ruth once called home. Phoebe's plan for a peaceful retreat is quickly hijacked when globe-trotting Great Aunt Vera makes an unannounced pit stop. Soon they're all enjoying things they used to do and discovering new ones. Each adventure opens a part of themselves they've neglected for too long and brings them closer together.

KJ and Becka, cousins but strangers, have no idea why their grandfather's will makes them team up to complete a bucket list. But the bigger question is, can they work together to earn the inheritance?

Edward Bennett does not understand his Italian immigrant mother's overprotectiveness, and, while studying abroad, he vows to solve the puzzle by finding her native town in southern Italy that she has refused to revisit.

"A tender ensemble novel about coming home to oneself and one's family through the beauty and soulfulness of Earth, even in an age of unravelling. Brothers Justin and Oliver have never been close. Justin owns an iconic Toronto restaurant and lives with his wife and daughter in Baby Point. Oliver, a former environmental reporter, does admin for a local gym and rents an attic apartment. Yet both men know their worlds stand on the brink. With their mother's abrupt death, each sets out to set things right: Oliver to reclaim a beloved home, Justin to save one that's falling apart.

When 47-year-old high school teacher Caelum Quirk and his younger wife, Maureen, a school nurse, move to Littleton, Colorado, they both get jobs at Columbine High School. In April 1999, Maureen finds herself in the school library at Columbine, cowering in a cabinet and expecting to be killed, as two vengeful students go on a murderous rampage. Miraculously she survives, but at a cost: she is unable to recover from the trauma.

Rival stepsisters put aside their differences for their common younger sister. But when their fragile truce is threatened, will they turn their backs on each other, or could they learn to forgive?

Reena refuses to marry anyone who works for her father. She won't be attracted to Nadim's sweet charm or gorgeous lopsided smile. That is, until the baking opportunity of a lifetime presents itself: a couples' cooking competition with the prize of her dreams. Reena will do anything to win, even asking Nadim to pretend they're engaged. But when it comes to love, baking your bread doesn't always mean you get to eat it too.

A community in the Piedmont of North Carolina rises in outrage as a county initiative draws students from the largely Black east side of town into predominantly white high schools on the west. When Gee and Noelle join the school play meant to bridge the divide between new and old students, their paths collide, and their two seemingly disconnected families begin to form deeply knotted, messy ties that will shape the trajectory of their adult lives. And their mothers, each determined to see her child inherit a better life, will make choices that will haunt them for decades to come.

After being reunited with her identical twin, Anna wants to believe that life with her new-found sister will be perfect. Then Amelia reveals the true reason for their reunion: her kidneys are failing.