Central Kansas Library System

After the tragic death of his wife, Alec Riley struggles to put his life back together. He and his three children are lost in their grief until Sophie walks unexpectedly into their lives. Having left her native Czechoslovakia, Sophie has discovered the land which seemed so bright with promise is far from her dream. Sophie, a highly educated woman, finds herself keeping house for Alec and his family. How can Sophie find peace in her new job? Will God...

With their eldest son about to be drafted into military service, Reinhardt and Lillian Vogt decide to immigrate to America with their three sons and Reinhardt's adopted brother. After tragedy strikes during the voyage, their hopeful dreams turn to dust. Can they maintain the faith of their fathers in a new land?

With a wife he loves and an exciting London-based career, architect Charles Waterston's life seems in perfect balance. Nothing prepares him for the sudden end to his 10-year marriage - or his unwanted transfer to his firm's New York office. Christmas is approaching when Charlie leaves New York, heading to Vermont to ski. But a sudden snowstorm strands him in a small Massachusetts town. There Charlie meets an elderly widow who offers to rent him her...

Lillian's rise to fame and fortune spans seventy years and is inextricably linked to the course of American history itself, from Prohibition to the disco days of Studio 54. Yet Lillian Dunkle is nothing like the whimsical motherly persona she crafts for herself in the media. Conniving, profane, and irreverent, she is a supremely complex woman who prefers a good stiff drink to an ice cream cone. And when her past begins to catch up with her, everything...

"A sinful act ruins the lives of three people, especially that of Hester Prynne, a young, beautiful, and dignified woman, who has conceived a child out of wedlock and receives a public punishment of having to wear a scarlet "A" on her clothing. Despite Hester's attempts through the years to distance herself from her past and repent for her sins, she continues to be rejected by society. A best-seller upon its publication in 1850, The Scarlet Letter's...

When a young Korean girl known as Regret leaves her homeland for a better life in Hawaii, as a "picture bride," she expects to find prosperity and a chance at education. But the rich husband she is promised turns out to be a poor plantation worker with drinking and gambling problems, and the girl now known as Jin is forced to seek her own path. Joining with her fellow picture brides to start a business, Jin must shed her naievet�e and overcome prejudice...

2007. Jende Jonga, a Cameroonian immigrant living in Harlem, has come to the United States to provide a better life for himself, his wife, Neni, and their six-year-old son.Working as a chauffeur for Clark Edwards, a senior executive at Lehman Brothers, he displays the punctuality, discretion, and loyalty that Edwards demands. Neni temporary work at the Edwardses' summer home in the Hamptons means a brighter future-- until Jende and Neni notice cracks...

Two star-crossed lovers--Enza and Ciro--meet and separate, until, finally, the power of their love changes both of their lives forever. Set during the years preceding and during World War I.

In the diary account of her journey from Ireland in 1847 and of her work in a mill in Lowell, Massachusetts, fourteen-year-old Mary reveals a great longing for her family.

"In 1946, three European women, having married American soldiers, board the Queen Mary to reunite with their husbands. But as they journey to the United States, secrets are revealed that will alter their lives forever"-- World War Two is over: Annaliese Lange, a German ballerina desperate to escape her past, and Simone Deveraux, the wronged daughter of a French Resistance spy, are joining hundreds of other European war brides aboard the renowned...