Adult

Near the top of Mount Everest, on May 10, 1996, eight climbers died. It was the worst tragedy in the mountain's history. Lou Kasischke was there. AFTER THE WIND tells the harrowing story of what went wrong, as it has never been told before --- including why the climbers were so desperately out of time as the rogue storm struck. His personal story, captured in the title, tells about the intense moments near the top. These moments also revealed the love story that saved his life.

Taking its title from a group of stories that begin the book, BREAM GIVES ME HICCUPS moves from contemporary LA to the dorm rooms of an American college to ancient Pompeii, throwing the reader into a universe of social misfits, reimagined scenes from history, and ridiculous overreactions. In one piece, a tense email exchange between a young man and his girlfriend is taken over by the man’s sister, who is obsessed with the Bosnian genocide; in another, a college freshman forced to live with a roommate is stunned when one of her ramen packets goes missing.

Madeline King and Grace Pancik are best friends and the envy of Nantucket for their perfect marriages, their beautiful kids, and their Sunday night double dates with their devoted husbands. But this summer, something's changed, and if there's anything Nantucket likes better than cocktails on the beach at sunset, it's a good rumor. As the gossip escalates, and they face the possible loss of the happy lives they've worked so hard to create, Grace and Madeline try mightily to set the record straight --- but the truth might be even worse than rumor has it.

When she gets news of a possible inheritance left by a grandmother she’s never met, a broke and knocked-up Mattie Wallace jumps at this one last chance to turn her life around and drives 800 miles to her mother’s birthplace. But before long, it becomes clear that something terrible happened to her mother. The harder Mattie digs for answers, the more obstacles she encounters. Giving up isn’t an option. Uncovering what started her mother’s downward spiral might be the only way to stop her own.

After recovering from a serious illness, Stella Sweeney finds out that her neurologist, Dr. Mannix Taylor, has compiled and self-published a memoir about her illness. Her discovery comes when she spots a photo of the finished copy in an American tabloid --- and it’s in the hands of the vice president’s wife! As her relationship with Dr. Taylor gets more complicated, Stella struggles to figure out who she was before her illness, who she is now, and who she wants to be while relocating to New York City to pursue a career as a newly minted self-help memoirist.

Dortchen Wild, who lives in the small German kingdom of Hesse-Cassel in the early 19th century, finds herself irresistibly drawn to the boy next door. Forced to live under oppressive French rule, Wilhelm Grimm and his brothers preserve old half-forgotten tales. As Dortchen tells Wilhelm some of the most powerful and compelling stories in what one day will become his and Jacob's famous fairy tale collection, their love blossoms. But Dortchen's father will not give his consent for them to marry, and war, death and poverty also conspire to keep the lovers apart. Yet Dortchen is determined to find a way.

Lawyer Andy Carpenter's true passion is the Tara Foundation, the dog rescue organization he runs with his friend, Willie Miller. So it's frightening when Willie calls him to say the alarm has gone off at the foundation building, and there's clearly been a break-in. It turns out that a recently rescued dog has been stolen. Andy and Willie track the missing dog to a house in downtown Paterson, New Jersey. Sure enough, they find the dog...standing right next to a dead body. Could it be a coincidence? Or could the dog theft somehow be connected to the killing?

Mahmoud's passion for his wife Fereiba, a schoolteacher, is greater than any love she's ever known. But their happy, middle-class world implodes when their country is engulfed in war, and the Taliban rises to power. Mahmoud, a civil engineer, becomes a target of the new fundamentalist regime and is murdered. Forced to flee Kabul with her three children, Fereiba has one hope to survive: she must find a way to cross Europe and reach her sister's family in England.

Nine-year-old Cynthia Robinson’s life was perfectly normal until the day she knew, without being told, of her parents’ impending divorce. Things got stranger from there, and now not only does she have premonitions, she can also read and influence the minds of those around her. Cynthia is not the only one with the ability to “weave” --- all over the country, people with similar abilities struggle to balance their lives with their powers. Some with this gift are weavers with dark motives and grisly appetites who want to use people like Cynthia for their own purposes.

1883. Thaniel Steepleton returns home to his tiny London apartment to find a gold pocket watch on his pillow. Six months later, the mysterious timepiece saves his life, drawing him away from a blast that destroys Scotland Yard. At last, he goes in search of its maker, Keita Mori, a kind, lonely immigrant from Japan. Although Mori seems harmless, a chain of unexplainable events soon suggests he must be hiding something. When Grace Carrow, an Oxford physicist, unwittingly interferes, Thaniel is torn between opposing loyalties.