Washoe County Library System

Some people stay all summer long on the idyllic island of Belle Isle, North Carolina. Some people come only for the weekends-and it's something they look forward to all week long. When Riley Griggs is waiting for her husband to arrive at the ferry one Friday afternoon, she is instead served with papers informing her that her island home is being foreclosed. To make matters worse, her husband is nowhere to be found. She turns to her island friends...

Celebrity chef Deacon Rowe is struggling with addiction, depression and not one, but two scandals. As summer nears, he travels to the idyllic Eastern bluff of Nantucket, where he takes his own life. In the shocking wake of Deacon's suicide, his first wife and childhood sweetheart, Laurel Rowe, sets out to gather Deacon's far-flung family, including Deacon and Laurel's son, and Deacon's other ex-wives and children, on the island.

Crippled in his right arm and leg, Aaron has spent his childhood fending off a sister who wants to manage him. So when he meets Dorothy, a plain, outspoken, independent young woman, she is like a breath of fresh air. Unhesitatingly, he marries her and they have a relatively happy, unremarkable marriage. But when a tree crashes into their house and Dorothy is killed, Aaron feels as though he has been erased forever. Only Dorothy's unexpected appearances...

Bill Bryson, instead of retiring to enjoy his loving and beautiful wife, and large and happy family, challenges himself to hike the Appalachian Trail; 2,200 miles of America's most unspoiled, spectacular and rugged countryside from Georgia to Maine. The peace and tranquility he hopes to find, though, is anything but, when the only person he can find willing to join him on the trek; his long lost and former friend Katz, a down-on-his-luck serial philanderer....

After nearly two decades under the wing of an aging, avuncular husband, dutiful mother and housewife Pippa Lee undergoes a midlife breakthrough. Unearthing the sexually curious wild child of her teens, middle-aged Pippa sparks a relationship with a divorcee loner. Pippa Lee is a resilient woman, refusing to let life pass her by.

A decades-spanning tale of love and resilience and of one woman's journey to freedom. Celie faces many hardships in her life, but ultimately finds remarkable strength and hope in the unbreakable bonds of sisterhood.

"Alma Mahler died in New York City in 1964, at the age of 85. The New York Times ran an obituary that described her as a woman whose "intellect...complimented her beauty." The obituary was something of a scandal: spicy, racy, naming the names of Alma's lovers, dredging up her secret affairs, and-in tone-passing judgment on this woman who had the audacity to be attracted to, and attractive to, men of genius. Since then, history has passed judgement...