Alice McDermott's powerful novel is a vivid portrait of an American family in the middle decades of the twentieth century. Witty, compassionate, and wry, it captures the social, political, and spiritual upheavals of those decades through the experiences of a middle-class couple, their four children, and the changing worlds in which they live. While Michael and Annie Keane taste the alternately intoxicating and bitter first fruits of the sexual revolution,...

In desperate need of clear skies as she starts a new school, Madalyn has days filled with clouds that lead to serious storms until she learns the power of community and family after disaster strikes.

The narrator of this story studies a murder which takes place shortly after a wedding and explores the mass community complicity that allowed it to happen.

"Morning is a busy time on Maisy's farm. There are chickens and pigs to feed, and the cow to milk. Moo! After the chores are finished, there's just one more thing to do--eat a ymmmy breakfast."

When the creative residents of Elm Creek gather the week after Thanksgiving to work on quilts for Project Linus, they respond to Sylvia's provocative questions to alleviate respective personal challenges and learn helpful lessons about the strength of human connections.

"Nora and Ben's younger sister Birdy loves to keep secrets ... One day Birdy watches her mother spit into a tube, ready to send it off to find out more about herself ... Birdy spits into a tube, too, when no one sees her. But when the test results come back, they are a surprise. Birdy is seemingly not related to Nora and Ben's parents. But if she is adopted, how could that have happened without the children knowing?"--

An unabridged republication of Joyce's early twentieth-century vignettes of Irish life.

It is 1936 and Kate Merritt works hard to keep her family together. Her father slowly slips into alcoholism and his business suffers during the Great Depression. As her mother tries to come to grips with their situation and her sisters seem to remain blissfully oblivious to it, it is Kate who must shoulder the emotional load. Who could imagine that a dirty, abandoned little girl named Lorena Birdsong would be just what the Merritts need?

Told from multiple points of view, Ardith and Hollis Blackwood's lives are upended when their great-grandmother, legendary actress Blossom Blackwood, passes away, and family secrets emerge.

Twelve-year-old Wren, who is learning special effects makeup, is thrilled to be makeup artist for her new school's production of Wicked, but her parents' divorce is seriously affecting her mother.--