Frank Carlson Library

"An enchanting and timeless all-American story that follows the inhabitants of a small Midwestern town in their quest to revive its flagging heart"--

With extensive excerpts appearing in the New Yorker before its release, Tom Drury's groundbreaking debut, The End of Vandalism, drew widespread acclaim and comparison to the works of Sherwood Anderson and William Faulkner. With his fictional Grouse County, Tom Drury conjures a Midwest that is at once familiar and amusingly eccentric-where a thief vacuums the church before stealing the chalice, a lonely woman paints her toenails in a drafty farmhouse,...

Popular fiction author Sally John's first series The Other Way Home (more than 65,000 copies sold) comes to life with a fresh, new cover for a new audience of readers. In A Journey by Chance, the first book of the series, Dr. Gina Philips heads from Southern California to the tiny Midwest town of Valley Oaks for her cousin's wedding. Her plan to heal from a failed relationship and escape from a lost job is interrupted by the persistent attention of...

"Billie Letts takes readers on an unforgettable journey through the best and worst of America's heartland as she tells a story of two abandoned children desperately searching for people to call family and a place to call home"--Provided by publisher.

When a local nursery introduces a gardening contest, the gardeners of Livia jump into the competition with a vengeance, including a middle-aged couple who risk their retirement savings, a garden witch, and a self-styled gardening expert.

Ruth, a young woman living in a rural Illinois town, looks back on the people who have shaped her life, including her runaway father, shrewish mother, and crazy husband.

Betta Nolan moves to a small town after the death of her husband to try to begin anew. Pursuing a dream of a different kind of life, she is determined to find pleasure in her simply daily routines. Among those who help her in both expected and unexpected ways are the ten-year-old boy next door, three wild women friends from her college days, a twenty-year-old who is struggling to find his place in the world, and a handsome man who is ready for love....

Teenaged Trace Bonham, a star driver on the Midwest super-stock circuit, blows away the competition wherever he races, but with every victory Trace is increasingly aware that his winning is due to more than just his driving skills.

Lo Gunderson feels trapped in her small midwestern hometown until she sees an ad for a free car in the local paper. To maintain her staunch anticapitalist values, she refuses to spend money on what she can find for free, so this car is the perfect ticket out of the town. Though it doesn't cost any money, it still comes with a price. Blanche Peterson is dying and asks that Lo track down her estranged son. But before she can decide whether to fulfill...

"It's December 23, 1971, and heavy weather is forecast for Chicago. Russ Hildebrandt, the associate pastor of a liberal suburban church, is on the brink of breaking free of a marriage he finds joyless -- unless his wife, Marion, who has her own secret life, beats him to it. Their eldest child, Clem, is coming home from college on fire with moral absolutism, having taken an action that will shatter his father. Clem's sister, Becky, long the social...