Akron Public Library

Thirty-four years ago, Violet Sullivan put on her party finery and left for the annual Fourth of July fireworks. She was never seen again. For the not-quite-seven-year-old daughter Daisy she left behind, Violet's absence has never been explained or forgotten. Now, thirty-four years later, she wants the solace of closure.

"Parable of the Sower is the Butlerian odyssey of one woman who is twice as feeling in a world that has become doubly dehumanized. The time is 2025. The place is California, where small walled communities must protect themselves from hordes of desperate scavengers and roaming bands of people addicted to a drug that activates an orgasmic desire to burn, rape, and murder. When one small community is overrun, Lauren Olamina, an 18 year old black woman...

"Thirty years ago, a teenage Vincent King was sent to prison. But now, he's served his sentence and is returning to his hometown. The hometown where his childhood best friend, Walk, is now the chief of police. The town where his childhood sweetheart, Star Radley, still lives. The same Star Radley whose sister he killed. Duchess, Star's daughter, is a self-proclaimed outlaw. She needs to be. Who else is going to take care of her and her five-year-old...

Esperanza believed her life would be wonderful forever. She would always live on her family's ranch in Mexico. She would always have fancy dresses and a beautiful home filled with servants. Papa and Abuelita would always be with her. Esperanza and her mother are forced to leave their life of wealth and privilege in Mexico to go work in the labor camps of Southern California, where they must adapt to the harsh circumstances facing Mexican farm workers...

A seemingly straightforward assignment to "babysit" Reba Lafferty, a wealthy and spoiled young woman just out of prison on probation from the California Institution for Women for embezzlement, turns unexpectedly dangerous for Kinsey Milhone when one of Reba's former associates is suddenly very much back in the picture.

When the mother of a friend unexpectedly dies in the hospital after her condition had been stabilized, and it is discovered that this has happened several times before, Lieutenant Lindsay Boxer and the Women's Murder Club investigate for themselves. Is there a maniac at work, playing God with people's lives? And has Lindsay somehow made him - or her - even worse?

Returning home from Afghanistan after being wounded, Jack Morgan is called into California State Prison to visit his father, Tom, who is serving a life sentence for extortion and murder. Before being incarcerated, Tom ran a private investigation firm called 'Private'. Tom wants Jack to re-start the company, to make it great again, and gives him access to a $15 million dollar account in the Cayman Islands to do it with. Five years later, Jack has set...

A sixteen-year-old boy relates his discovery of the Pearl of Heaven and his near-fatal encounter with the feared sea monster, Manta Diablo.

Ten-year-old Leo loves being a newsboy in San Francisco -- not only does he get to make some money to help his family, he's free to explore the amazing, hilly city as it changes and grows with the new century. Horse-drawn carriages share the streets with shiny new automobiles, new businesses and families move in every day from everywhere, and anything seems possible. But early one spring morning, everything changes. Leo's world is shaken -- literally...

"Chronicles the deeds of paisanos, their multiple loves, wonderful brawls, Rabelaisian wine drinking as they fiercely resist the corrupting tide of honest toil in the surrounding ocean of civil rectitude"--Cover.