Akron Public Library

"The sun beamed down on Melissa Henderson's shining dark hair, pinned up on her head in a loose knot, as sweat ran down her face, and the muscles in her long, lithe arms were taut with effort as she worked. She was lost in concentration, sanding a door of the house in the Berkshire Mountains in Massachusetts that had been her salvation. She had bought it four years before. It had been weather-beaten, shabby and in serious need of repair when she found...

Finding herself pulled in every direction with no room for her own dreams and goals, Cape Light mayor Emily Warwick struggles to balance town conflicts, the local election, and a family feud between her mother and sister.

"With her promotion to news anchor and the plum assignment of covering a sensational murder trial for her network, Delaney Wright should be celebrating, but her urgent need to locate her birth mother consumes her thoughts. On trial is Betsy Grant, who claims she loved her husband and would never have put him out of the misery of early onset Alzheimer's disease. As the trial unfolds and the evidence against Betsy piles up, Delaney's pursuit of the...

Jake Carlson, a top tabloid journalist and correspondent for the TV news show "American Outrage", is used to dragging himself into the dirt to get to the truth. Then his adopted son, Sam, asks him to use his investigative talents to find Sam's birth mother. Jake is stunned by the ugly secrets he uncovers, including a corrupt politician, the Albanian mafia, and a child-trafficking ring. Jake is galvanized by the career-making story--until he and...

Normally, Wes Grayson would be attracted to the striking woman with the camera. But this woman has clearly been stalking Amy, his adopted daughter and the center of his life. And a threat to Amy is a threat to Wes. Laney Fields has no intention of threatening anyone- Just a longing to see the child she brought into the world six years ago and then was forced to release for adoption. But when she learns that Amy's adoptive mother has died, Laney becomes...

"Abigail's Amish life has always followed a certain path ... until an Englisch woman disrupts all she's known to be true. Growing up Amish, Abigail Bontrager often felt like a square peg in a round hole. Her pie crusts always turned out tough. Her stitches always ran crooked. She was clumsy. Not ideal for an aspiring Amish wife and mother, but her faith and love of her family, which are so much more important, are solid. Plus, her relationship with...

"Based on the 2009 investigative book by BBC correspondent Martin Sixsmith, The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, PHILOMENA focuses on the efforts of Philomena Lee (Dench), mother to a boy conceived out of wedlock--something her Irish-Catholic community didn't have the highest opinion of--and given away for adoption in the United States. In following church doctrine, she was forced to sign a contract that wouldn't allow for any sort of inquiry into the...

The painful and courageous journey toward adoption made by several of her clients forces Maya Lange, founder of The Red Thread, an adoption agency that specializes in placing baby girls from China with American families, to confront the lost daughter of her past.

"In this work, Ann Fessler brings out into the open for the first time the astonishing untold history of the million and a half women who surrendered children for adoption due to enormous family and social pressure in the several decades before Roe v. Wade. This is the true story of "sex and the single girl" in the post-World War II years - a story not of carefree sexual liberation, but rather of a devastating double standard that had punishing long-term...

Twelve-year-old orphan Logan and his superhero friends embark on an adventure to stop the evil supervillain Necros and find the true identity of Logan's birth mom.