Frank Carlson Library

Annie Zook, the Amish preacher's daughter, is caught between two worlds. Living with shunned friend Esther, Annie longs to return to her forbidden art and the idyllic days spent with Englisher Ben Martin, before her father ordered her never to see him again. Stunned when family secrets come to light, Ben determines to solve the mystery of his past. Will his future include Annie--or will the Brethren always stand between them?

Relive the glory of a Pennsylvania canal town through the eyes of those who ministered to the needs of the workers. Betsy Nelson reluctantly returns to her childhood home to care for her failing father, a faithful minister who served the town for years. William Covington, a confirmed bachelor, comes to town to become the new pastor and set aside the luxuries of his birth for service to God. Can Betsy and William find common ground on which to work...

Reverend John Ames is dying in 1956 in Gilead, Iowa. Glory Boughton has returned to care for her dying father and soon her brother, Jack, the prodigal son, comes home, too. As the Reverend John Ames approaches the hour of his own death, he writes a letter to his son chronicling three previous generations of his family, a story that stretches back to the Civil War and reveals uncomfortable family secrets. In 1956, toward the end of Reverend John Ames's...

"Conflating her own childhood experiences with those of a celebrated Wagnerian soprano of her day, Willa Cather here introduces Thea Kronborg, a Scandinavian-American singer who rises from a one-story town in Colorado to the Metropolitan Opera House. Along the way she learns her own capacity for the rigorous demands of artistic excellence, and how few of her colleagues are willing to sacrifice ordinary vanities for exacting professional standards....

When a twist of fate makes Jamie Sullivan his date at the homecoming dance, Landon Carter never dreamed they would fall in love, but as he comes to realize his true feelings for Jamie, he learns of a terrible secret that will take his love away from him forever.

"Jack tells the story of John Ames Boughton, the loved and grieved-over prodigal son of a Presbyterian minister in Gilead, Iowa, a drunkard and a ne'er-do-well. In segregated St. Louis sometime after World War II, Jack falls in love with Della Miles, an African-American high school teacher, also a preacher's child, with a discriminating mind, a generous spirit and an independent will. Their fraught, beautiful story is one of Robinson's greatest achievements."--...

Former spy and Inferno Club member Lord Trevor Montgomery is about to ace the greatest danger of all--marriage! Yes, he has every lady of the ton swooning, but he doesn't have a jot of interest in any of them, except for shy, warm-hearted Miss Grace Kenwood--the parson's daughter. She could steal his heart--if he believed he still possessed one.

A compassionate, humorous story of faith, betrayal, and coming of age on the evangelical sawdust trail. Johnson was just three years old when her mother signed on as the organist for tent revivalist David Terrell. She brings to life miracles, exorcisms, and face-offs with the Ku Klux Klan-- and that's just what went on under the tent.

Kelly's chance: "Life for Kelly McGregor is a daily drudge of driving her overbearing father's mules along the Lehigh Canal--then she meets Mike Cooper and beings to understand all that life could offer. But can Mike convince Kelly he's not like her father and just right for her?"--back cover. Bety's return: "Betsy Nelson is reluctant to see her minister father retire and even more reluctant to meet the man who is to take his place. Returning to...

"When Ruby King's mother is found murdered in their home in Chicago's South Side, the police dismiss it as another act of violence in a black neighborhood. But for Ruby, it's a devastating loss that leaves her on her own with her violent father. While she receives many condolences, her best friend, Layla, is the only one who understands how this puts Ruby in jeopardy. Their closeness is tested when Layla's father, the pastor of their church, demands...