Frank Carlson Library

All marriages have a breaking point. All families have wounds. All wars have a cost. . . .Like many couples, Michael and Jolene Zarkades have to face the pressures of everyday life children, careers, bills, chores even as their twelve-year marriage is falling apart. Then a deployment sends Jolene deep into harm's way and leaves defence attorney Michael at home, unaccustomed to being a single parent to their two girls. As a mother, it agonizes Jolene...

When Vivi and Siddalee Walker, an unforgettable mother-daughter team, get into a savage fight over a New York Times article that refers to Vivi as a "tap-dancing child abuser," the fallout is felt from Louisiana to New York to Seattle. Siddalee, a successful theater director with a huge hit on her hands, panics and postpones her upcoming wedding to her lover and friend, Connor McGill. Vivi's intrepid gang of lifelong girlfriends, the Ya-Yas, sashay...

The New York Times "bestselling author of The Christmas Box" returns with a holiday novel of hope, love, and redemption as a husband is given the opportunity to confront his own legacy.

Father Tim and Cynthia arrive in the west of Ireland, intent on researching his Kavanagh ancestry. The charm of their lakeside B & B is broken when Cynthia startles a burglar and sprains her already-injured ankle. Then a cherished and valuable painting is stolen from the lodge owners, and Cynthia's pain pales in comparison to the wound at the center of this bitterly estranged Irish family.

Father Tim, Mitford's most eligible bachelor, finds himself in need of divine intervention when his attention becomes focused on his attractive neighbor, while at the same time he is being pursued by a wealthy widow, and his cousin Meg moves into the rectory.

You had to push to start a fight with Orrin Sackett, but not with his brother, Tyrel. Tye had been born to trouble, and the night he stepped between his brother and a bullet changed the course of both their lives forever.

Spanning decades, generations, and America in the 1940s and today, this novel is a fun-loving mystery about an Alabama woman today, and five women who in 1943 worked in a Phillips 66 gas station, during the WWII years. Mrs. Sookie Poole of Point Clear, Alabama, has just married off the last of her three daughters and is looking forward to relaxing and perhaps traveling with her husband, Earle. The only thing left to contend with now is her mother,...

A poignant, evocative story that celebrates the magic of motherhood, the joys of coming home, and the price we so willingly pay for love. 2007-078-01

As the nation grapples with the strictures of Prohibition, Rosa Barclay lives on a Southern California rye farm with her volatile husband, John, who has lately found another source of income far outside the federal purview. Mother to eight children, Rosa mourns the loss of four who succumbed to the mysterious wasting disease that is now afflicting young Ana and Miguel. Two daughters born of another father are in perfect health. When an act of violence...