Adult

During summer break one day, Angie, the teenage daughter of Indian immigrant Babur Singh, is walking home after swimming at the high school pool when she finds Henry McCleary, a white classmate from a wealthy family, stabbed and bleeding on the football field. The police immediately focus their investigation on Chiara Thompkins, a runaway Black girl who disappears after the stabbing and --- it’s later discovered --- wasn’t properly enrolled in the public high school. The incident sends shock waves through the community and reveals jarring truths about the lengths to which families will go to protect themselves.

Karen Fine always knew that she wanted to be a vet and wasn't going to let anything stop her: not her allergy to cats, and not the fact that in the '80s veterinary medicine was still a mostly male profession. Inspired by her grandfather, a compassionate doctor who paid house calls to all his (human) patients, Dr. Fine persevered and brought her Oupa's principles into her own practice, which emphasizes the need to understand her patients’ stories to provide the best possible care. And in THE OTHER FAMILY DOCTOR, Dr. Fine shares all these touching, joyful, heartbreaking and life-affirming tales that make up her career as a vet.

Ana will never forget her mother’s face when she and her baby brother, Oskar, were sent out of their Polish ghetto and into the arms of a Christian friend. When a woman from a Jewish reclamation organization seizes them, Ana sees an opportunity to reconnect with her roots, while Oskar sees only the loss of the home he loves. Roger grows up in a monastery in France. When a relative seeks to retrieve him, the Church steals him across the Pyrenees before relinquishing him to family in Jerusalem. Renata is a post-graduate student in archaeology. After her mother’s death, her grief is entwined with all the questions her mother left unanswered. As their stories unexpectedly converge in Israel two decades later, they each must ask where and to whom they truly belong.

Some years ago, Oliver Darkshire stepped into the hushed interior of Henry Sotheran Ltd to apply for a job. Allured by the smell of old books and the temptation of a management-approved afternoon nap, Darkshire was soon unteetering stacks of first editions and placating the store’s resident ghost (the late Mr. Sotheran, hit by a tram). A novice in this ancient, potentially haunted establishment, Darkshire describes Sotheran’s brushes with history (Dickens, the Titanic), its joyous disorganization, and the unspoken rules of its gleefully old-fashioned staff. As Darkshire gains confidence and experience, he shares trivia about ancient editions and explores the strange space that books occupy in our lives --- where old books often have strong sentimental value, but rarely a commercial one.

Love takes flight in a collection of sexy, fun novellas all set at the airport. The Love Connection: An airport pet groomer meets her frequent-flier crush and finds herself in a fake-dating situation with a professional risk assessor who moonlights as a romance author. The Missed Connection: Two strangers share a romantic night only to discover months later that they're professional rivals about to embark on an extended business trip together in this grumpy-meets-sunshine romance. The Sweetest Connection: Two best friends have one week to return a lost love letter found in a candy store at the airport --- and work up the courage to confess the deep feelings between them --- before one of them leaves the country.

Who hasn’t wondered for a split second what the world would be like if a person who is the object of your affliction ceased to exist? But then you’ve probably never heard of The McMasters Conservatory, dedicated to the consummate execution of the homicidal arts. To gain admission, a student must have an ethical reason for erasing someone who deeply deserves a fate no worse (nor better) than death. The campus of this “Poison Ivy League” college --- its location unknown to even those who study there --- is where you might find yourself the practice target of a classmate…and where one’s mandatory graduation thesis is getting away with the perfect murder of someone whose death will make the world a much better place to live.

Former CIA Russia expert Max Geller is recovering from an intense mission while lying low in Australia, enjoying his sudden wealth in the company of his new girlfriend, Vanessa. But his beachy bliss is short-lived when he is ambushed by the CIA. He soon learns that Vanessa is being used as blackmail by his former CIA boss, Rodney, to convince him to go to Moscow. His mission is to smuggle out a defector with knowledge of a secret Kremlin war plan. Max is wanted by the Russians, so the defector could be bait to lure him into the hands of his old enemy, FSB Colonel Zabluda. When Max is spotted in Moscow, Zabluda launches a manhunt, pursuing him and the defector across country lines. Max and the defector race to evade countless attacks and attempts at capture as they escape to the United States.

Grace isn’t exactly thrilled when her newly widowed mother, Jackie, asks to move in with her. They’ve never had a great relationship, and Grace likes her space --- especially now that she’s stuck at home during a pandemic. Then again, she needs help with the mortgage after losing her job. But living with Mother isn’t for everyone. Good intentions turn bad soon after Jackie moves in. Old wounds fester, and new ones open. Grace starts having nightmares about her disabled twin sister, who died when they were kids. And Jackie discovers that Grace secretly catfishes people online. When Jackie makes an earth-shattering accusation against her, Grace sees it as an act of revenge, and it sends her spiraling into a sleep-deprived madness.

Aly Jackson has waited her whole life to become editor in chief of All Good magazine. But six months into the job, she overhears her coworkers belittling her. Aly’s clapback? A very public, career-jeopardizing meltdown. To undo the mess, she agrees to a month-long unpaid leave. Reluctant but determined to turn misfortune into opportunity, Aly retreats to the Lake Michigan beach house that her brother, Luke, left to her when he died nearly a year earlier. Except when Aly arrives, she discovers that Luke’s slacker best friend, Wyatt, inherited the place, too. As battle lines are drawn, Aly wonders if she and this wild card have more than Luke in common. But is she willing to swap her lifelong dreams for a shot at healing her broken heart?

It’s 1927, and the most devastating flood in American history has swelled the Mississippi River to a width of 80 miles. In an attempt to save a family trapped by the rising water, four men in a tiny rowboat battle the treacherous flow. Three are convicts, on loan from the local prison and pressed into service. The fourth, the leader of the team, is driven by his own hidden motives. But to their surprise upon arrival at Ballymore, an ancestral home protected by a high, circular levee, not everyone in the family feels the need to be saved. As the threat from the flood increases and time ticks away, the crew and the family must decide on a course of action, and a desperate plan is hatched to save the weakening levee and all it was built to protect.