Weddings and funerals; funerals and weddings: about the only time an extended family comes together is for one or the other. There has been a death in the Dupee family. Oldest brother Dud Jr. has gone on to his eternal reward… or at least to somewhere beyond this earthly realm. The sudden loss has the entire family unhinged.As the feuding Dupee family gathers to mourn, each family member realizes the cold fact of his own mortality. Dud was dropped in the cornfield by 'the big one'....

Elspeth Zaiser, mother to three wayward daughters and six headstrong cats is having a tough summer. For one thing her three daughters are home from college. One is a witch and the other two are… irascible. For another, her gossipy, religious fanatic neighbor has declared holy war on her scarecrow.In May Elspeth decided to pack up her widow's weeds and find someone to jump start her graying heart. Now, in July, after six disastrous blind dates, she is giving up on love. Her housekeep...

Clyde Dupee, pronounced 'dupay', much like men of his ilk, wanders through life in a drunken haze: drunk, sober, drunk, sober, two words repeated for a lifetime by men such as Clyde. A jailbird, an abysmal penny-ante burglar; he was certainly not someone the poised and proper Tharon McGee could ever consider appropriate. On work release from the prison, Clyde takes time from his welding job to arrange studies for his GED, and Tharon, a former beauty queen, is his counselor. Twice burned an...

It is June 2, 1970. Cow pasture hippie, Lillian McMullen, is home from college. Lillian is nicknamed Quick because she does everything early. She started kindergarten at four, learned to drive at eleven, owned a car at fifteen; graduated high school at seventeen, was engaged to be married at eighteen. The wedding is tomorrow but this is one snap decision that Quick is regretting. With less than 24 hours to an iron-bound commitment Quick sets out to seduce her high school English teacher. I...

Forty years is a long time to be married. Even a marriage that began with hearts and flowers can become a long, tedious row to hoe. Cy and Stevie Dupee are facing this milestone in a few short weeks. The small family dinner they requested has turned into a county-wide extravaganza. Tensions are simmering and the stress is telling. Cy is taking more side trips into the golden past, as mired in daydreams as a tractor in sugar sand. Stevie, on the other hand, has been a bitch on wheels since ...

It is 1992, February of that year to be exact-- the month of brooms. An icy wind is scouring the sandhills of western Kansas, sweeping tumbleweeds and clouds of grit across the gray prairie. There is nothing on the monotonous horizon but same and old. This is the time of year that folks do crazy, desperate things and silent, steel-fisted stairbird Meggs Dupee has just done something crazy. He has taken a pregnant, twenty something waitress home to keep his house for him. Is it a ploy to do...

Nineteen-year -old Marie Rastrelli did not believe in true love. Lark, dark, brilliantly sarcastic, fiercely independent, and undeniably homely, neither motherhood nor a family had ever been in her plans. She wanted to be a dentist. Balding, bespectacled, and even homelier than Marie, eighteen-year-old Sandy Dupee not only believed in true love, he knew it for a fact. He fell in love with Marie at first sight.In order to marry Marie, Sandy was required to swear off romantic love for...

A restless young woman thinks she's found a free ride to happiness and adventure. But it's a trip that may land her in prison—or worse. . .When Trudy Bell lands a job at a travel agency, she feels like a new woman. And her friendly personality soon wins her the adoration of her colleagues—with one exception. Ann Oliver, the only other African American employee, a high-level manager who despises Trudy's low-income background. But no one is going to ruin Trudy's new life. In...

Sweetie is a smart poodle pup, with a knack for learning tricks. Can Charles find an owner that will make use of her talents? Charles loves Sweetie at first sight. For such a small pup, she has a whole lot of charisma and she's amazing at learning tricks. But Buddy is jealous every time the new miniature poodle gets near the family. Can Charles find a home for this cuddly sweetheart without upsetting his own puppy?

To their neighbours in suburban Holt, New York, the Winters family has it all: a grand home, a trio of radiant daughters and a sense of security in their affluent corner of America.But when five-year-old Ellie disappears, the fault lines within the Winters family are exposed.Fifteen years later, Caroline, now a New Orleans cocktail waitress, sees a photograph of a woman in People Magazine. Convinced that it is Ellie all grown up, Caroline embarks on a search for her missin...

Lisa Scottoline breaks new ground in Look Again, a thriller that's both heart-stopping and heart-breaking, and sure to have new fans and book clubs buzzing.When reporter Ellen Gleeson gets a "Have You Seen This Child?" flyer in the mail, she almost throws it away. But something about it makes her look again, and her heart stops—the child in the photo is identical to her adopted son, Will. Her every instinct tells her to deny the similarity between the boys...

**A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER#1 New York Times-bestselling author Jan Karon returns with the fourteenth novel in the beloved Mitford series, featuring three generations of Kavanaghs.**Wounds heal, bonds grow stronger, and celebrations continue...Welcome back to beloved Mitford.After twelve years of wrestling with the conflicts of retirement, Father Tim Kavanagh realizes he doesn't need a steady job to prove himself. Then he's given one. As...