Washoe County Library System

"Brilliant, heartbreaking, tender, and highly original - poet Ocean Vuong's debut novel is a sweeping and shattering portrait of a family, and a testament to the redemptive power of storytelling. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family's history that began before he was born--a history whose epicenter is rooted in...

"Welcome to Lockwood, proud home of The Fairway Players, who, under the creative control of Martin Hayward, the owner of the local country club, are putting on a production of Arthur Miller's "All My Sons." The star, as always: Martin's wife, Helen, the only person in the troupe with any real acting talent. But this is not a production like any other: just as rehearsals get under way, tragedy strikes: Poppy Reswick, Martin and Helen's beloved granddaughter,...

"The Christmas season has arrived in Lower Lockwood, and the Fairway Players are busy rehearsing their festive holiday production of Jack and the Beanstalk to raise money for a new church roof. But despite the season, goodwill is distinctly lacking among the amateur theater enthusiasts with petty rivalries, a possibly asbestos-filled beanstalk, and some perennially absent players behind the scenes. Of course, there’s also the matter of the dead...

"Lucas Goodgame lives in Majestic, Pennsylvania, a quaint suburb that has been torn apart by a recent tragedy. Everyone in Majestic sees Lucas as a hero—everyone, that is, except Lucas himself. Insisting that his deceased wife, Darcy, visits him every night in the form of an angel, Lucas spends his time writing letters to his former Jungian analyst, Karl. It is only when Eli, an eighteen-year-old young man whom the community has ostracized, begins...

Lilly and Val, friends from childhood, reveal their feelings, secrets, and recipes through a series of letters, until a misunderstanding separates them for years and a death forces them to decide if they want to reconcile.

When an anonymous benefactor offers to put Samantha Moore through school, with the stipulation that she write frequent letters to him on her progress, Sam finds safety in the letters as her program and her peers force her to confront her past.

Eddie has travelled with his uncle Morton to Mongolia, in hope of being one of the few to watch the Great Dragon Battle Ceremony. But wild dragons are not so nearly friendly as pet ones, and the inhospitable mountains are a dangerous place to be stuck with nothing but a pile of chocolate bars. Meanwhile, back at home, Mum can't quite believe her son has really run off to Mongolia, and now she has been left with the tricky task of dragonsitting . ....

Through a series of letters, Sophie Brown, age twelve, tells of her family's move to her Great Uncle Jim's farm, where she begins taking care of some unusual chickens with help from neighbors and friends.

Gossip columnist Melissa Fuller, having found her elderly neighbor in a coma after suffering an attack, contacts the woman's nephew Max, who despite a reputation as a womanizer turns out to be kind, funny, and very lovable, but the growing bond between the two young people is broken when Melissa discovers he is not who he claims to be.