Central Kansas Library System

"An eye-opening memoir of working-class poverty in the American Midwest. During Sarah Smarsh's turbulent childhood in Kansas in the 1980s and 1990s, the forces of cyclical poverty and the country's changing economic policies solidified her family's place among the working poor. By telling the story of her life and the lives of the people she loves, Smarsh challenges us to look more closely at the class divide in our country and examine the myths about...

After her farm for widows and orphans is devastated by fire in 1884, Christina Willems is determined to reopen it despite opposition. She finds an unlikely ally in local lumber mill owner Levi Johnson. Having been hurt by people in the past, Levi prefers solitude. But young Tommy Kilgore, one of Christina's residents, worms his way into Levi's affections. When Tommy and Christina are threatened, will Levi reach out and find healing from the scars...

"In this vibrant new historical novel, the acclaimed author of The Plum Tree and What She Left Behind explores one young woman's determination to put an end to child labor in a Pennsylvania mining town... As a child, Emma Malloy left isolated Coal River, Pennsylvania, vowing never to return. Now, orphaned and penniless at nineteen, she accepts a train ticket from her aunt and uncle and travels back to the rough-hewn community. Treated like a servant...

The incomparable USA Today bestseller Samanth James cordially invites you to Regency England for a Sterling affair . . . Perfectly Marvelous Devon St. James must surely be dreaming! She closes her eyes in London's poorest slum, and awakens wrapped in fine linens . . . staring into the eyes of the most gorgeous man she has ever seen! Sebastian Sterling, marquess of Thurston, is clearly shocked to have a girl from the streets in his bed, though the...

Journalist Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary and their four children lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in the mountains. Rex was a charismatic, brilliant man who, when sober, captured his children's imagination, teaching them how to embrace life fearlessly. Rose Mary painted and wrote and couldn't stand the responsibility of providing...

Now a grown man returning from Europe as a successful painter, Seth Quinn is settling down on Maryland's Eastern Shore. Still, a lot has changed in St. Christopher - and the most intriguing change of all is the presence of Dru Whitcomb Banks. But a secret Seth's kept hidden for years threatens to explode, destroying his new life and his new love.

He asked for spare change; she kept walking. But something made her turn around and go back. They met nearly every week for years, and built an unexpected, life-changing friendship that has today spanned almost three decades.

"A young mother struggles to get back on her feet after a devastating loss leaves her and her daughter alone and living on the street"--

In the poverty of the Appalachian coal country in 1908, eight-year-old Minna's life gets even more difficult after her father dies of black lung, and that winter she cannot go to school because she does not have a coat--until the quilting mothers make her a coat using pieces of cloth from their own lives, each with a special story behind it.