Colorado Parks & Wildlife Research Library

"1987. The only one person who has ever truly understood fourteen-year-old June Elbus is her uncle, the renowned painter Finn Weiss. Shy at school and distant from her older sister, June can only be herself in Finn's company; he is her godfather, confidant, and best friend. So when he dies, far too young, of a mysterious illness her mother can barely speak about, June's world is turned upside down. But Finn's death brings a surprise acquaintance into...

When a chauffeur-cook on the verge of financial ruin decides to help a 98-year-old rocket scientist by moving into his home, he decides to teach her a few life lessons. Together, they discover why they each still matter. "A wonderful book, brimming with humor and spirituality. The characters are lovingly drawn and Byk provides her readers with a day-by-day recounting of how her life intersects with the indefatigable Mister B, whose memory seems almost...

James Wade, whose first two novels were praised as rhapsodic and haunting, delivers his most powerful work to date--a chilling parable about the impossible demands of hate and love, trauma and goodness, vividly set in the landscapes of Texas and Louisiana. Beasts of the Earth tells the story of Harlen LeBlanc, a dependable if quiet employee of the Carter Hills High School's grounds department, whose carefully maintained routine is overthrown by an...

"Sixteen-year-old Lorena Leland's dreams of a rich and fulfilling life as a writer are dashed when the stock market crashes in 1929. Seven years into the Great Depression, Rena's banker father has retreated into the bottle, her sister is married to a lazy charlatan and gambler, and Rena is an unemployed newspaper reporter. Eager for any writing job, Rena accepts a position interviewing former slaves for the Federal Writers' Project. There, she meets...

"This is the first time in American history that we have had four different generations working side-by-side in the workplace: the Traditionalists (born before 1945), the Baby Boomers (born 1945-1964), Gen X (born 1965-1980), and the Millennials (born 1981-2001). Haydn Shaw, popular business speaker and generational expert, has identified 12 places where the 4 generations typically come apart in the workplace (and in life as well). These sticking...

"When Ben Aitken learnt that his gran had enjoyed a four-night holiday including four three-course dinners, four cooked breakfasts, four games of bingo, a pair of excursions, sixteen pints of lager and luxury return coach travel, all for a hundred pounds, he thought, that's the life, and signed himself up. Six times over. Good value aside, what Ben was really after was the company of his elders - those with more chapters under their belt, with the...

"At 52, Karl Preston lives an ideal American life with his wife and 24-year-old daughter, in an affluent North Carolina suburb. At the request of his father, Karl and his family travel to Florida for a weekend visit that generates a roller-coaster ride of emotions that buttoned-up Karl is not fully prepared to deal with." "Frank and Annike, Karl's elderly parents, use this reunion to announce their planned move to a retirement community and their...

"Though she lives in the shadow of her legendary landscape photographer father, and is the mother of a painter whose career is about to take off, Claire has carved out a practical existence as a commercial photographer. Her pictures may not be the stuff of genius, but they've paid for a good life. But when her father dies, Claire loses faith in the work she has devoted her life to, and worse, begins to feel jealous of her daughter's success. Then,...

In The Sibling Society, Bly turns to stories as unexpected as Jack and the Beanstalk and the Hindu tale of Ganesha to illustrate and illuminate the troubled soul of our nation itself. What he shows us is a culture where adults remain children, and where children have no desire to become adults - a nation of squabbling siblings Through his use of poetry and myth, Bly takes us beyond the sociological statistics and tired psychobabble to see our dilemma...

Set in the lush, rolling hills of northern New Jersey and the romantic, windswept dunes of Cape Cod, this is the story of three generations of women who find their lives, and dreams, suddenly transformed in ways they never could have imagined; and the journey of one woman who comes to realize that when you're a mother, or a daughter, you are never truly free.