Akron Public Library

"Welcome to Cold Mountain Penitentiary, home to the Depression-worn men of E Block. Convicted killers all, each awaits his turn to walk the Green Mile, keeping a date with "Old Sparky," Cold Mountain's electric chair. Prison Guard Paul Edgecombe has seen his share of oddities in his years working the Mile, but he's never seen anything like John Coffey--a man with the body of a giant and the mind of a child, condemned for a crime terrifying in its...

"Homecoming" takes us back to Ford County, the fictional setting of many of John Grisham's unforgettable stories. Jake Brigance is back, but he's not in the courtroom. He's called upon to help an old friend, Mack Stafford, a former lawyer in Clanton, who three years earlier became a local legend when he stole money from his clients, divorced his wife, filed for bankruptcy, and left his family in the middle of the night, never to be heard from again--until...

In his Chicago law firm a young lawyer named Adam Hall asks to work on the case of Sam Cayhall, Klan member sentenced to death for a 1967 bombing in which two people were killed. Adam's firm has handled the case on a pro bono basis for years, but the case is all but lost and time is running out: within weeks Sam will finally go to the gas chamber. Why in the world would Adam want to get involved?

When Travis Boyette is paroled because of an inoperable brain tumor, for the first time in his life he decides to do the right thing and tell police about a crime he committed that another man is about to be executed for.

Sashi Burgette vanished three years ago on her way to school. The night after the teenager's disappearance, ex-con Dylan Kyle was stopped for drunk driving. An article of Sashi's clothing was found in his truck, and a police videotape of his drunken explanation under interrogation sealed his fate at trial. Now, just days from Kyle's execution, Sashi's mother visits Jack Swyteck, doing pro bono work at the Freedom Institute, and delivers shocking news:...

"He was a college All-American who became the youngest player in the NFL and later a Super Bowl veteran. He was a star tight end on the league-dominant New England Patriots, who extended his contract for a record $40 million. Aaron Hernandez's every move as a professional athlete played out in the headlines, yet he led a secret life--one that ended in a maximum security prison ... Drawing on original and in-depth reporting, this is an explosive true...

Born into poverty in San Francisco in 1876, Jack London is one of the most well-known and beloved of all American authors, as well as one of the first Americans to become world famous and wealthy from his literary career. London lived a colorful and adventurous life as a young man, working as a sailor and then living as a hobo, all before starting high school. First published in 1915 "The Star Rover" also published as "The Jacket" is the tale of Darrell...

When the body of eleven-year-old Thuy Sen is found in the San Francisco Bay, the police swiftly charge brothers Rennell and Payton Price with her grisly murder. A twelve-person jury, abetted by an incompetent lawyer for the defense, is quick to find the men guilty and to sentence them both to die for their crimes. Fifteen years later, Rennell is days from his execution, and overworked pro-bono lawyer Teresa Peralta Paget, her husband Chris, and stepson...

In June 2010, police found Michael Ballard drenched in blood, fleeing a crime scene. In the home of Ballard's ex-girlfriend, police make a gruesome discovery: Denise Merhi and three others had been repeatedly stabbed.

In what is arguably his greatest book--written in 1979 and reissued here in trade paperback--America's most heroically ambitious writer follows the short, blighted career of Gary Gilmore, an intractably violent product of America's prisons who---after robbing two men and killing them in cold blood--insisted on dying for his crime.