Even if others abandon you, you must never abandon yourself. This simple truth became Terry Helwig’s lifeline as she was forced to grow up too soon. Terry grew up the oldest of six girls in the big-sky country of the American Southwest, where she attended 12 schools in 11 years. Helwig’s stepfather, Davy, a good-hearted and loving man, proudly purchased a mobile home to enable his family to move more easily from one oil town to another, where Davy eked out a living in the oil fields.

Vanity Fair, with its rich cast of characters, takes place on the snakes-and-ladders board of life. Amelia Sedley, daughter of a wealthy merchant, has a loving mother to supervise her courtship. Becky Sharp, an orphan, has to use her wit, charm, and resourcefulness to escape from her destiny as a governess. This she does ruthlessly, musing: "I think I could become a good woman, if I had £5,000 a year."

Heroic bookseller Laurent Letellier comes across an abandoned handbag on a Parisian street. There's nothing in the bag to indicate who it belongs to, although there's all sorts of other things in it. Laurent feels a strong impulse to find the owner and tries to puzzle together who she might be from the contents of the bag. Especially a red notebook with her jottings, which really makes him want to meet her. Without even a name to go on, and only a few of her possessions to help him, how is he to find one woman in a city of millions?

A heartwarming account of the trials and triumphs a hummingbird rehabber encounters while caring for her tiny, fragile patients. This personal narrative is filled with the science and magic surrounding these fascinating creatures.

From a distinguished chronicler of American social history and political culture, An Unfinished Season captures the postwar moment of the 1950s when the modern world lay just over the horizon. In a time of rabid anticommunism, worker unrest, and government corruption, even the small-town family could not escape the nationwide suspicion and dread of "the enemy within".

Diego is drifting. He has been content with living his life in a sun-scorched village that lies on the route of the pilgrim path: the Camino de Santiago. But one stormy night, change is forced upon Diego when his father, Eduardo, the local candy floss maker, unexpectedly catches him entertaining a captivated crowd with flamenco guitar rhythms. At that moment, Eduardo lets go of the ghosts from his past and realizes it's time for Diego to find his path in life. Eduardo arranges for Diego to live and work on a farm and sends him on his way with the gift of his old Spanish guitar.

The Portrait of a Lady tells the compelling and ultimately tragic tale of a beautiful young American woman's encounter with European sophistication. Set principally in England and Italy, the story follows Isabel Archer's fortunes as a variety of admirers vie for her hand. Her choice will be crucial, and she is not wanting for advice, whether from the generous-spirited Ralph Touchett or the charming Madame Merle.

From the editor of the award-winning Children of Manzanar, Heather C. Lindquist, and Edgar Award winner Naomi Hirahara comes a nuanced account of the “Resettlement”: the relatively unexamined period when ordinary people of Japanese ancestry, having been unjustly imprisoned during World War II, were finally released from custody. Given $25 and a one-way bus ticket to make a new life, some ventured east to Denver and Chicago to start over, while others returned to Southern California only to face discrimination and an alarming scarcity of housing and jobs. 

John Cotter was thirty years old when he first began to notice a ringing in his ears. Soon the ringing became a roar inside his head. Next came partial deafness, then dizziness and vertigo that rendered him unable to walk, work, sleep, or even communicate. At a stage of life when he expected to be emerging fully into adulthood, teaching, and writing books, he found himself “crippled and dependent” and in search of care.

When they meet in the 1930s, Doris and Tup’s love is immediate. They marry quickly and Doris commits to the only life Tup ever wanted: working the Senter family farm. Soon their first child, Sonny, is born and Doris and Tup understand they are blessed. More children arrive - precocious, large-hearted Dodie and quiet, devoted Beston - but Doris and Tup take nothing for granted. When an unimaginable tragedy turns the family of five into a family of four, everything the Senters held faith in is shattered.

What will they risk for answers? Picturesque Daylesford has a darker side. Melbourne writer Georgie Harvey heads to the mineral springs region in central Victoria to look for a missing farmer, and soon links the woman’s disappearance with the unsolved mystery surrounding her husband. Meanwhile, maverick police officer and solo dad John Franklin is working a case that’s a step up from Daylesford’s usual soft crime: A stalker targeting single mothers.

There have been numerous books about the why, when, and where of slavery in America, but there is a dearth of material exposing what slavery was actually like. In The Great Stain, researcher Noel Rae frames firsthand accounts from former slaves, slave owners, and even African slavers. Rae exposes the commerce and culture of slavery, not only from an economic or moral standpoint but also through multitudinous perspectives within it: a young girl is beaten after being accused of stealing a piece of candy, a slave ship's surgeon recounts brutal treatment and squalid conditions.

This sweeping saga captures life in the Far East during the Middle Ages and dramatizes the events that transformed a Mongol tribesman named Temujin into the man who would conquer Asia and be known to the world for centuries to come as Genghis Khan. Raised by an indomitable woman and educated by his outcast uncle, Temujin becomes a fearsome warrior who inspires loyalty in his friends and hatred in his enemies. But he is also blessed with a keen intelligence and the charisma of a natural born leader. These gifts lead Temujin to a relentless pursuit of power.

Young David Balfour is the rightful heir but his uncle has other plans. This story recounts Master Balfour's escape on the high seas and his adventures making his way back across Scottish Highlands.

Olivia Montag is a professor who doesn’t have all the answers. The devastating loss of a child ended her marriage, and she’s been overlooked for a job promotion one time too many. Not sure what comes next, she leaves it all behind and volunteers to teach English to schoolchildren in India. Ten thousand miles away, she connects with fellow volunteers and finds purpose in teaching. Until one by one, the girls in her classes stop showing up. Then she meets Mukesh, an Indian man with a heart for invention, who may be the only one who can help her students.