Akron Public Library

"Meredith White was one of Hollywood's most recognizable faces. But a personal tragedy cut her acting career short and alienated her from her family. For the last fifteen years, Meredith has been living alone in San Francisco with two trusted caretakers. Then, on a muggy late summer day, a massive earthquake strikes Northern California, plunging the Bay Area into chaos. Without a moment's hesitation, Meredith invites her stunned and shaken neighbors...

"Adrift in a raft after a deadly ship explosion, nine people struggle for survival at sea. Three days pass. Short on water, food and hope, they spot a man floating in the waves. They pull him in. 'Thank the Lord we found you,' a passenger says. 'I am the Lord,' the man whispers....In The Stranger in the Lifeboat, Albom keeps us guessing until the end: Is this strange and quiet man really who he claims to be? What actually happened to cause the explosion?...

He's their judge, jury and executioner. In death, they are purified. Holding his victims under water, he washes away their sins as they struggle for their last breath. Then he stakes their bodies to the ground, exposing them for what they really are: witches, sent to tempt and to corrupt.

It is 1923. Evangeline (Eva) English and her sister, Lizzie, are missionaries heading for the ancient city of Kashgar on the Silk Road. Though Lizzie is on fire with her religious calling, Eva's motives are not quite as noble, but with her green bicycle and a commission from a publisher to write "A Lady cyclist's guide to Kashgar," she is ready for adventure.

With his 'Grail Quest', 'Warlord' and 'Sharpe' series Bernard Cornwell has cemented his position as a virtuoso of historical fiction. 'The Pale Horseman' is a novel of heroic deeds, bloody battles and the struggle to unite Britain in the face of a common enemy.

Rural Wisconsin, 1907. In the bitter cold, wealthy businessman Ralph Truitt stands alone on a train platform waiting for the woman who has answered his advertisement for "a reliable wife." But when Catherine Land steps off the train from Chicago, she's not the "simple, honest woman" Ralph is expecting. She is both complex and devious, but her plan is simple: she will win this man's devotion, then slowly poison him and leave Wisconsin a wealthy widow....

James Shelby has been unjustly convicted of his wife's murder. In order to save him from prison or death, Jane orchestrates his escape from the heavily guarded criminal court building in downtown Los Angeles. But the price of Shelby's freedom is higher than Jane ever could have imagined. Within minutes, imposters posing as police officers shoot Jane, take her away, and tie her to a mattress in a small, dark room. Jane's captors are employees of the...

A breathtaking house on the hills above a crashing seascape brings together two modern-day women whose lives become entangled as they share camaraderie along with heartbreak and despair as both learn the true nature of love and its capacity to repair and restore anything.

IF AT FIRST YOU DONT SUCCEEDIts been seven years since the Seattle Strangler terrorized the city. His victims were all young, pretty, their lifeless bodies found wrapped in a home-sewn white dress. But there was one who miraculously escaped death, just before the Strangler disappeared . . . KILLLara Church has only hazy memories of her long-ago attack. What she does have is a home in Austin, a job, and a chance at a normal life at last. Then Texas...

Connie Thrum of Scribbly Gum Island is the chief decision-maker of a rather unconventional family and her word is law, especially when it comes to the important things in life. It's been over seventy years since Connie and her sister visited their neighbours and found the kettle boiling and a baby waking for her feed, but no sign of her parents.