Akron Public Library

Miss Julia, a longtime church member and pillar of her small Southern community finds herself in the center oa an unseemly scandal. The recently bereaved and newly wealthy widow becomes the guardian of a wan nine-year-old, the bastard son of Miss Julia's late husband, whose mere presence turns her life upside down.

They meet at their father's funeral, two beautiful women who could almost be twins. Abbie Lawson is the gently bred daughter, raised in the lap of luxury. Rachel Farr is the love child of Dean Lawson and a fiery artist. Rachel's life has been modest and lonely--until now. For the father's death will set off a fierce competition between the sisters, and the stakes are nothing less than all that is Texas at its most magnificent--its oil fields, its...

Miss Julia, a recently beraved and newly wealthy widow, is confronted by Hazel Marie Puckett with a youngster in tow and announces it is the bastard son of Miss Julia's late husband. When Hazel Marie does not return from a dinner date, Miss Julia hires J.D. Pickens to investigate. She and Little Loyd help search for Hazel and run into many adventures.

As the interminable case of 'Jarndyce and Jarndyce' grinds its way through the Court of Chancery, it draws together a disparate group of people: Ada and Richard Clare, whose inheritance is gradually being devoured by legal costs; Esther Summerson, a ward of court, whose parentage is a source of deepening mystery; the menacing lawyer Tulkinghorn; the determined sleuth Inspector Bucket; and even Jo, the destitute little crossing-sweeper. A savage, but...

Colleagues, friends, and lovers know Dodge Hanley as a private investigator who doesn't let rules get in his way-in his private life as well as his professional one. If he breaks a heart, or bends the law in order to catch a criminal, he does so without hesitation or apology.That's why he's the first person Caroline King-who after a thirty-year separation continues to haunt his dreams-asks for help when a deranged stalker attempts to murder their...

"Nothing so coarsely indecent as the whole history of Jude in his relations with his wife Arabella has ever been put in English print," asserted M. O. W. Oliphant, the Scottish humorist. Hardy's "Jude the Obscure--the ill-received novel that was to be his last--is a strikingly modern portrait of provincial, workaday life, frank sexuality, and the desire to transcend the mire of prosaic living. Amy M. King is Assistant Professor of Literature at the...

"Maggie, Eliza, and Tricia Sweeney grew up as a happy threesome in the idyllic seaside town of Southport, Connecticut. But their mother's death from cancer fifteen years ago tarnished their golden-hued memories, and the sisters drifted apart. Their one touchstone is their father, Bill Sweeney, an internationally famous literary lion and college professor universally adored by critics, publishers, and book lovers. When Bill dies unexpectedly one June...

At age eighty-two and in failing health, Olivia Morrow must decide whether she will expose a long-held family secret and reveal that her cousin, Catherine, gave birth to a son at age seventeen and gave him up for adoption before entering a convent. Now deceased, Sister Catherine is being considered for beatification by the Catholic Church. Catherine' s granddaughter Monica has no idea that her grandfather was the famous doctor Alex Gannon, and Alex's...

This historical novel is based on Urrea's real great-aunt Teresita, who had healing powers and was acclaimed as a saint. Urrea has researched historical accounts and family records for years to get an accurate story.

"My name is Larkspur, and I am an Elemental. My people use the power of the earth to sustain life and defy our enemies. I should be at my father's side as a royal princess. But as a half-breed, bastard child, that isn't going to happen. I've been accused of attacking the queen, my wicked stepmother, and my life is suddenly on the line. I have only two options left to me: banishment, or training to become one of the King's Elite Guards, an Ender. Option...