Catalog Search Results
Author
Language
English
Description
A fictionalized autobiography, covering his youth in Algeria. It is filled with details of the white working class to which he belonged and there is the undercurrent of a boy's search for a father figure, his own killed in World War I. He describes the intervention of a school teacher who obtained for him a scholarship, first step on the road to the 1957 Nobel Prize for literature.
Author
Series
Umbrella series volume 1
Language
English
Description
"Left on the train platform of some strange village, eight-year-old Saffron Faith Anders is certain her father will return shortly, just like he promised. She holds out hope as the hour grows late and the station sets to close. She clings to her suitcase like a life raft. When a peculiar old woman carrying a large umbrella approaches and inquires about her situation, Saffron doesn't immediately trust the imposing do-gooder, but eventually does agree...
Author
Language
English
Appears on these lists
Description
Abel and Vera Paisley are a working-class Jamaican couple, striving to build a better life for their children. Abel travels to London in the early 1960s in search of fortune. Instead, he sees an opportunity to escape the drudgery of his life by faking his death and assuming a new identity. Vera, now a widow, is racked with guilt over her husband's "death" and takes out her grief on her children, Irene and Vincent. The effects of Abel's decision reverberate...
Author
Language
English
Description
"As an Explosive Ordnance Disposal Specialist, Dillon Slater had one of the most dangerous jobs in the military. Now, he's enjoying the pace of life in Shelter Bay, where he teaches high school physics. He still gets to blow things up, but as the school basketball coach he also gets to impart leadership skills. His latest minefield: fifteen-year-old Matt Templeton; and Matt's irresistible mother. Claire Templeton moved her troubled teenage son to...
Author
Language
English
Description
"God-Shaped Hole will change you as a reader, writer and human. It is rare books like this one that remind me why I fell in love with the written word."—Colleen Hoover
When I was twelve, a fortune teller told me that my one true love would die young and leave me all alone...
It's a dark prediction, but Beatrice Jordan never really believed in true love anyway. So, no harm done. She's accepted her
...Author
Language
English
Description
Sylvie Bates-McAllister finds her life upended by a late-night phone call from the headmaster of the prestigious private school where her adopted son Scott teaches. Allegations of Scott's involvement in a hazing scandal cause a ripple effect, throwing the entire family into chaos. For Charles, Sylvie's biological son, it dredges up a ghost from the past who is suddenly painfully present.
Author
Language
English
Description
The place is Albany, New York. The year is 1936. Six-year-old Jean-Luc LaPointe, his little sister, and their spirited but vulnerable young mother have been abandoned--again--by his father, a charmer and a con artist. With no money and no family willing to take them in, the LaPointes manage to create a fragile nest at 238 North Pearl Street. For the next eight years, through the Great Depression and Second World War, they live in the heart of the...
10) Family blessings
Author
Language
English
Description
Her four stepchildren are thrilled when they learn an ice cream shop will be opening in their small Amish community. But widow Pleasant Obermeier isn't so pleased. Spending time with handsome shop owner Jeremiah Troyer is too much for a woman who's only ever been wounded by love. And now he wants to use her baking skills in his shop? Out of the question! A harsh childhood left Jeremiah convinced that family life wasn't for him. Yet something about...
11) The chisellers
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
The Mrs. Browne trilogy became an instant bestselling success in author Brendan O'Carroll's native Ireland. Similarly, when Plume introduced The Mammy (the first book in the series, May 1999) in the United States, it was greeted with overwhelming enthusiasm from American readers. Fans of Agnes Browne craving further hilarious and heartwarming adventures will be delighted with The Chisellers. Agnes, the lovable and determined...
Author
Language
English
Description
At twelve, Lucy Marie McGowan already knows she’ll be a psychologist when she grows up. And her quirky and conflicted family provides plenty of opportunity for her to practice her calling. Now Lucy, her “profoundly gifted” twin brother, Milo, her commitment-phobic mother, and her New Age grandmother are leaving Chicago for Timber Falls, Wisconsin, to care for her dying grandfather—a complex and difficult man whose failure as...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
Major Quinn Camden is a man of honor. But working with Clairy McKinnon on her father's memorial tests every chivalrous code! Clairy is feisty, beautiful -- and still hurt that General McKinnon mentored Quinn over his own adoring daughter. When their yearslong rivalry is replaced by undeniable attraction, Quinn wonders if the general's dying wish is the magic they both need... or if the man's secrets will tear them apart for good.
15) A shining light
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
West Amana, Iowa, 1890. After Andrea Wilson receives the devastating news that her husband has been lost at sea, she returns home to Iowa with her young son, Lukas. But what she finds there causes more heartache: The family farm has burned and her father has died, leaving Andrea with nothing. Andrea must rely on the kindness of the people from the nearby Amana village who invite her to stay with them for a time. She discovers much generosity and contentment...
Author
Language
English
Description
Emma Raber has refused to remarry since her daughter Katie's daett died soon after she was born. And in an effort to keep Katie home, she has forbidden her from participating in the rumspringa tradition. When widower Jesse Mast calls for Mamm's hand in marriage, Katie hopes to move into a new phase of life and leave the old "Emma Raber's daughter" behind. But sparks fly when Jesse's children object fiercely to the attentions their daett is paying...
Author
Language
English
Appears on list
Description
At the center of winter, in Motley, Minnesota, Arnold Schiller gives in to the oppressive season that reigns outside and also to his own inner demons -- he commits suicide, leaving a devastated family in his wake.
Claire Schiller, wife and mother, takes shelter from the emotional storm with her husband's parents but must ultimately emerge from her grief and help her two young children to recover. Esau, her oldest, is haunted by the same darkness...
18) Uses for boys
Author
Language
English
Description
Anna remembers a time before boys, when she was little and everything made sense. When she and her mom were a family, it was just the two of them against the world. But now her mom's gone most of the time, chasing the next marriage, the next stepfather. Anna gets used to being alone, until she discovers that she can make boys her family, from Desmond to Joey to Todd. But filling the void comes at a price.
Author
Language
English
Description
The devastating discovery that "Daddy" is not her real father opens a great chasm in Neecey's world and leads to Neecey's abusive mother bringing a succession of no-good men into the home. Nevertheless, as she grows into a woman, the resilient Neecey strives to overcome despair and forge a new life for herself.
20) The wish maker
Author
Language
English
Description
Growing up together in the same Pakistani household, cousins Zaki Shirazi and Samar Api are the best of friends until adolescence drives the boy and girl apart. After years of separation, Zaki is forced to confront the true nature of happiness, selfhood, and commitment to those he loves most.








