Akron Public Library

Skeeter returns home to Mississippi from college in 1962 and begins to write stories about the African-American women that are found working in white households, which includes Aibileen, who grieves for the loss of her son while caring for her seventeenth white child, and Minny, Aibileen's sassy friend, the hired cook for a secretive woman who is new to town.

Chevalier transports readers to a bygone time and place in this richly imagined portrait of the young woman who inspired one of Vermeer's most celebrated paintings. "Girl with a Pearl Earring" is the story of 16-year-old Griet, whose life is transformed by her brief encounter with genius, even as she herself is immortalized in canvas and oil. An Independent Bestseller Winner of the 2000 Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Award! Tracy Chevalier...

In 1904, nine-year-old Samantha, an orphan living with her wealthy grandmother, and her servant friend Nellie have a midnight adventure when they try to find out what has happened to the seamstress who suddenly left her job.

For more than three hundred years, Bluff House has sat above Whiskey Beach, guarding its shores and its secrets. To summer tourists, it's the crown jewel of the town's stunning scenery. To the residents of Whiskey Beach, it's landmark and legend. To Eli Landon, it's home. A Boston lawyer, Eli has weathered an intense year of public scrutiny and police investigations after being accused of murdering his soon-to-be ex-wife. And though there was never...

From the time she is sent to pick up the guest conductor, Amelia Bedelia's normal confusion causes quite an uproar at the school concert.

Henry James' The Turn of the Screw (1898) is one of the most gripping psychological novellas ever written; a grim tale that could equally be a tale of madness or a tale of the supernatural. The depths and meaning of this story has been one of the most fascinating literary debates in all of literature. The intriguing asymmetry of The Turn of the Screw, between the seen vs. unseen, the internal v. the external, and good vs. evil, rises this book beyond...

"In a shabby house, on a shabby street, in the new capital of Madrid, Luzia Cotado uses scraps of magic to get through her days of endless toil as a scullion. But when her scheming mistress discovers the lump of a servant cowering in the kitchen is actually hiding a talent for little miracles, she demands Luzia use those gifts to better the family's social position. What begins as simple amusement for the bored nobility takes a perilous turn when...

Meet the Bright Young Things, the rabble-rousing hedonists of the 1920s whose treasure hunts were a media obsession. One such game takes place at the 18th birthday party of Pamela Mitford, but ends in tragedy as cruel, charismatic Adrian Curtis is pushed to his death from the church neighbouring the Mitford home. The police quickly identify the killer as a maid, Dulcie. But Louisa Cannon, chaperone to the Mitford girls and a former criminal herself,...

When the literal-minded Amelia Bedelia helps out at her doctor's office one busy day, nothing seems to go quite right until Amelia begins to treat the impatient patients.

Tucker Mills, Massachusetts, 1839. bound as an indentured servant to the Tucker Mills bank and its controlling manager, Reese Thackery finds comfort in her faith and her friends. She vows to serve her remaining two years with a willing heart. But that's before bank owner Conner Kingsley rides into town to audit the bank. Reese starts her work at the Kingsley manor but is haunted by memories of her past. When the bank manager becomes vengeful, Conner...