Lamar Public Library

Feeling like she does not fit in with the other members of her family, who are all thin, brilliant, and good-looking, fifteen-year-old Virginia tries to deal with her self-image, her first physical relationship, and her disillusionment with some of the people closest to her.

A series of tragedies, including the death of her baby brother, her parent's divorce, her mother's nervous breakdown, and her own rape at the age of thirteen, leaves Dolores Price wounded both mentally and physically, but she miraculously finds the strength to give herself one more chance at life and love.

Thirteen-year-old Anastasia acquires poise and self-confidence, a new friend, and advice on becoming a bookstore owner when she commutes to Boston to take a modeling course.

Eight-year-old Clementine, convinced that she has no talents, tries to find a way to avoid participating in the class talent show.

Despite her scabby knees and dirty fingernails, Geraldine knows that she is a princess inside and shows it through her behavior at home and in school.

"The world treats Twinky like a dinky dog. The only problem is that Twinky doesn't feel dinky. What can a little dog do to prove the age-old adage that size doesn't matter?"--

Beck Davitch looks back on her thirty-year marriage to Joe and her role as a mother and manager of the Open Arms, wondering if she is living the life she was meant to live and reconsidering her dedication to the family business.

Miriam Elizabeth Swanson's life is one big pity party. Her husband of 20-plus years has traded her in for a newer model, her grown sons avoid her like the plague, and, likewise, her so-called society friends treat her like she's the poster girl for the Ebola virus. If all that weren't bad enough, her once-deluxe Manhattan town house has been carved up into apartments because she needs the rent to make ends meet, and her mother has morphed into a pot-smoking,...

When Ben Bailey, an adjunct history professor and part-time bartender mildly dissatisfied with his life and engagement to occasionally shrewish Sara, finds the badly beaten body of a young Native American on his lawn, he's driven to find out what happened. His quest takes on a new dimension once the young man dies and his death goes all but unnoticed. Ben soon meets the victim's sister, Shadi, and falls for her while they investigate her brother's...

As the tragedy of a missing girl enfolds in her small town, fifteen-year-old Samara, who feels emotionally abandoned by her parents, begins to question her faith.