Frank Carlson Library

Cara Romero thought she would work at the factory of little lamps for the rest of her life. But when she loses her job in the Great Recession, she is forced back into the job market for the first time in decades. Set up with a job counselor, Cara instead begins to narrate the story of her life. She recounts her tempestuous love affairs, her relationships with her neighbor Lulu and her sister Angela, her struggles with debt, gentrification, and loss,...

The battle of the sexes rages on in this smart, witty, and extremely timely comedy from the phenomenally popular Jane Heller At first, Manhattan financial planner Melanie Banks adores Dan Swain, her pro football player husband who's got a sexy Oklahoma drawl to go with his athletic good looks. But then his career comes to a screeching halt and he spends the next few years out of a job, seemingly unconcerned about it. Suddenly, she's the one bringing...

"The charming international bestseller about an unlikely friendship between an elderly door-to-door bookseller and a nine-year-old girl that changes his life. Small-town German bookseller Carl Kollhoff delivers his books to special customers in the evening hours after closing time, walking through the picturesque alleys of the city. These people are almost like friends to him, and he is their most important connection to the world. When Kollhoff unexpectedly...

A funny-but-touching tale about everything that can go wrong...and what makes it all right! Tess Nelson is poised to take a well-deserved step up the corporate ladder when it's yanked out from under her. With no job and nothing to fill her days--just a nonrefundable ticket for a trip to Hawaii--Tess decides a tropical vacation is just what she needs. But Tess's journey to paradise is a disaster from the beginning. A sprained ankle at the airport...

After discovering that her husband has lost all of their money and has left her broke, Bonnie Duke Cullman is abandoning her comfortable life in Atlanta to teach at a community college in rural Alabama. Her life becomes unexpectedly intertwined with the local ladies of Florabama, and together they survive the ups and downs of small town life.

"About to land her biggest deal yet, Leigh Henderson is on her game. Nothing can get in her way. Except Rebecca Mayer, who’d sashayed in a few weeks ago with a former client list that would fill the entire hallway to Leigh’s office. When her boss unexpectedly offers the deal to Rebecca and tells Leigh he’s letting her go, Leigh finds herself without a job. But that’s the least of her worries. Her mother has some news...

"Tom Lowe's identity and his pride are invested in the work he does with his back and his hands. He designed and built his family's dream home, working extra hours to pay off the adjustable rate mortgage he took on the property, convinced he is making every sacrifice for the happiness of his wife and son. Until, in a moment of fatigued inattention, shingling a roof in too-bright sunlight, he falls. In constant pain, addicted to painkillers at the...

Tammy is having a bad day. She's totaled her car, gotten fired from her job at a burger joint, and finds her husband getting comfortable with the neighbor in her own house. It's time to take her boom box and book it. The bad news is she's broke and without wheels. The worse news is her grandma, Pearl, is her only option-with a car, cash, and an itch to see Niagara Falls. Not exactly the escape Tammy had in mind. But on the road, with grandma riding...

After Karen Sommerfield is suddenly forced to deal with the threat of cancer at the same time her company downsizes her, she returns to the rural Missouri Ozarks and her grandmother's old farm on an odyssey to find herself.

After losing her job and her latest dysfunctional relationship collapsing, Olive escapes to the countryside for the weekend for some peace and self-reflection. She rents a country house from an eccentric widower named Harvey. Soon two generations collide as Olive awakens Harvey's homicidal propensities and is immersed into a blood-soaked fight for her life.