Lamar Public Library

In the winter of 1919, a young mother named Mathilda Neumann drowns beneath the ice of a rural Wisconsin lake. The shock of her death dramatically changes the lives of her daughter, troubled sister, and husband. Told in the voices of several of the main characters and skipping back and forth in time, the narrative gradually and tantalizingly reveals the dark family secrets and the unsettling discoveries that lead to the truth of what actually happened...

Ingrid, a smart, free-spirited, and somewhat narcissistic artist kills her deceitful lover in a crime of passion. Even while serving a prison sentence, she exerts control over her adoring teenage daughter, Astrid, who's forced to spend her teenage years in a series of foster homes before becoming her own person. Explores the strange relationship of Ingrid and Astrid, and includes Astrid's relationship with her foster mothers. At first merely an appendage...

Mattie Ryder finds a small rubber blue shoe, the kind you might get from a gumball machine and a few other trifles that were left years ago in her father's car. They seem to hold the secrets to her messy upbringing, and as she and her brother follow these clues to uncover the mystery of their past, she begins to open her heart to her difficult, brittle mother and the father she thought she knew.

Set in Lough Glass, Ireland, The Glass Lake is an incandescent novel of family love, belonging, and secrets that flourish in the human heart. Lough Glass is the lake at the heart of the small Irish town that bears its name. Serene and dark, its waters harbor secrets as deep and unfathomable as Helen McMahon, the beautiful woman who roams the darkened shores night after night.

Years ago, Lyra Davis left behind a world of wealth and privilege and the people she loved most in the world, unable to reconcile the expectations of her celebrated family with the longings of her own wild heart. Now she lives quietly among a community of expatriates on the isle of Capri, slowly, carefully learning to live fully for the first time, flourishing in the friendship of a singular man who recognizes in her a kindred spirit.

Traces the rewards and pitfalls of a Chinese mother's exercise in extreme parenting, describing the exacting standards applied to grades, music lessons, and avoidance of Western cultural practices.

Cal Morrison was the best firefighter the town has deen, until a tragedy left him with a fear he couldn't shake. Whne Laurie Prelane arrives with two small children in tow, Cal's memories of love once lost are stirred, eventhough he's no longer the person she knew.

"Juniper Baker had just graduated from high school and was deep in the throes of a summer romance when Cal and Beth Murphy, a childless couple who lived on a neighboring farm, were brutally murdered. When her younger brother became the prime suspect, June's world collapsed and everything she loved that summer fell away. She left, promising never to return to tiny Jericho, Iowa. Until now. Officially, she's back in town to help an ill friend manage...

Weiner's sequel finds author Cannie Shapiro years after her debut novel, based on her own life, became an overnight success. Now she's turned to anonymously writing sci-fi, and is enjoying being a soccer mom and doctor's wife. But when 13-year-old daughter Joy finds her steamy novel, she has to answer some questions that will affect the entire family.

The 1930's were a decade of enormous uncertainty for the world, for America, and in particular for one struggling mother and son. When her husband leaves her for someone whose time isn't wrapped up in a silent, handicapped kid, Mary and little Jack are out on their own in a world that has no room for the poor and disabled. But then arrives The Gift...