Akron Public Library

"There was a time when the world was sweeter... when the women in Beaufort, North Carolina, wore dresses, and the men donned hats. Every April, when the wind smells of both the sea and lilacs, Landon Carter remembers 1958, his last year at Beaufort High. Landon had dated a girl or two, and even once sworn that he'd been in love. Certainly the last person he thought he'd fall for was Jamie, the shy, almost ethereal daughter of the town's Baptist minister......

In 1911, Turner Buckminster hates his new home of Phippsburg, Maine, but things improve when he meets Lizzie Bright Griffin, a girl from a poor, nearby island community founded by former slaves that the town fathers--and Turner's--want to change into a tourist spot.

Relates the surprising gifts bestowed on twelve-year-old Bob Barnhart and his family, who have recently moved to a small Illinois town in 1958, by their larger-than-life neighbor, Mrs. Dowdel.

"Set in the years 1950-1970 in a changing America and London, follow[s] two married couples - ministers and academics - whose intricate bonds of faith and friendship, jealousy and understanding, are tested by the birth of an autistic child"--

"Jeremiah Hatcher witnessed war's atrocities while serving as a missionary in Poland. No one knew of his secret missions to hide Jewish children on Red Cross ships, sending them to homes in New York. The childhood bout of polio that made Jeremiah a cripple and weakened his heart forced him to leave Poland earlier than he wanted, and now he's being sent to a small church in the hills of Arkansas to fill in for the minister while the man recovers from...

Follows the Camden family, with Eric, the minister father, and Annie, the stay-at-home mom, and how they deal with the drama of having seven children. The kids range in age from toddlers to adults with families of their own. The friends, neighbors, and love interests of the various members of the family are heavy issues and are addressed in a real-life matter.