Central Kansas Library System

Three generations of women converge on the family beach house in this wickedly funny, emotionally resonant story of love and dysfunction from the author of Commencement. By turns uproarious and achingly sad, Maine reveals the sibling rivalry, alcoholism, social climbing, and Catholic guilt at the center of one family, along with the abiding, often irrational love that keeps them coming back, every summer, to the family house and to each other.

At age eighty-two and in failing health, Olivia Morrow must decide whether she will expose a long-held family secret and reveal that her cousin, Catherine, gave birth to a son at age seventeen and gave him up for adoption before entering a convent. Now deceased, Sister Catherine is being considered for beatification by the Catholic Church. Catherine's granddaughter Monica has no idea that her grandfather was the famous doctor Alex Gannon, and Alex's...

"Everyone in my family has killed someone. Some of us, the high achievers, have killed more than once. I'm not trying to be dramatic, but it is the truth. Some of us are good, others are bad, and some just unfortunate. I'm Ernest Cunningham. Call me Ern or Ernie. I wish I'd killed whoever decided our family reunion should be at a ski resort, but it's a little more complicated than that. Have I killed someone? Yes. I have. Who was it? Let's get started"--...

When Phoebe Robbins learns her family will move to Sitka, Alaska, she is unsure what this wild, untamed land might offer her. But before she even sets foot on this new territory, she has an unexpected encounter with Dalton Lindquist. When he decides to pursue answers to his past, he finds he must leave Sitka ... and the lovely Phoebe. But Dalton is not the only one who has sought her attention. His best friend, Yuri, determines to claim her affection,...

In 1880's Georgetown, Colorado, seventeen-year-old Nealie Bent deals with lies, secrets, and heartache before choosing the man who will give her the Bride's House. Years later, Nealie's daughter, Pearl, grows up in the Bride's House. When the enterprising young Frank Curry comes along and asks for Pearl's hand in marriage, Pearl's father sabotages the union. But Pearl has inherited her mother's tenacity of heart, and her father underestimates the...

Sixteen-year-old Nora Grey struggles to face the truth while coping with having a fallen angel boyfriend named Patch and unraveling the mystery surrounding her father's murder.

When their "no frills" wedding turns into the event of the decade with the help of well-meaning neighbors, former high school sweethearts Lily Fontaine and Trent July consider eloping until something happens to remind them that happiness is to be shared.

A contemporary retelling of "Jane Eyre" in which an orphaned nanny becomes entranced with her magnetic and brooding employer, a rock star with a torturous secret from his past.

Elise Dutton dreads the arrival of another holiday season. Three years earlier, her husband cheated on her with her best friend, resulting in a bitter divorce that left her alone, broken, and distrustful. Then, one November day, a stranger approaches Elise in the mall food court. Though she recognizes the man from her building, Elise has never formally met him. Tired of spending the holidays alone, the man offers her a proposition. For the next eight...

Violet is one of the most celebrated courtesans in Shanghai, a beautiful and intelligent woman who has honed her ability to become any man's fantasy since her start as a "Virgin Courtesan" at the age of twelve. Half-Chinese and half-American, she moves effortlessly between the East and the West. But her talents belie her private struggle to understand who she really is and her search for a home in the world. Abandoned by her mother, Lucia, and uncertain...