Colorado Parks & Wildlife Research Library

In his most brilliant and powerful novel, Pat Conroy tells the story of Tom Wingo, his twin sister, Savannah, and the dark and violent past of the family into which they were born. Set in New York City and the low country of South Carolina, the novel opens when Tom, a high school football coach whose marriage and career are crumbling, flies from South Carolina to New York after learning of his twin sister's suicide attempt. Savannah is one of the...

Elizabeth and Jackson Shore married young, raised two daughters, and weathered the storms of youth as they built a future together. But after the children leave home, they quietly drift apart. When Jack accepts a new job across country Elizabeth follows. The sudden death of her father changes everything. Grieving and alone, she retreats to an isolated beach house where she packs away the last remnants of her parents' lives. She sees their tender story...

Struggling with her rebellious daughter and her conflicting feelings for a soul-seeking priest and a cynical man, cardiologist Madelaine learns to overcome past betrayals when a tragedy brings them all together.

On what might become one of the most significant days in her husband's presidency, Alice Blackwell considers the strange and unlikely path that has led her to the White House--and the repercussions of a life lived, as she puts it, "almost in opposition to itself." How can she both love and fundamentally disagree with her husband? How complicit has she been in the trajectory of her own life? What should she do when her private beliefs run against her...

London, January 1946, emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. She finds it in a letter from a man she's never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb. As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society...

While his wife, Jo, brings home the bacon, Linc Menner holds down the fort--his gourmet cooking is sublime, his cleaning unrivaled, and his devotion to his daughter, Violet, unparalleled. But when the family relocates from upstate New York to the steamy beaches of Naples, Florida, life takes an unexpected turn. As the Menners renovate their new home, Linc's bliss turns into a war zone of contractors, dry wall dust, and chaos. And suddenly being...

Born in a village deep in the Cambodian forest, Somaly Mam was sold into sexual slavery by her grandfather when she was twelve years old. For the next decade she was shuttled through the brothels that make up the sprawling sex trade of Southeast Asia. She suffered unspeakable acts of brutality and witnessed horrors that would haunt her for the rest of her life--until, in her early twenties, she managed to escape. Unable to forget the girls she left...

In Kilgali, Angel runs a bustling business: baking cakes for all occasions. A CIA agent's wife seeks the perfect holiday cake but walks away with something far sweeter. A former boy-soldier orders an engagement cake, then, between sips of tea, shares an enthralling story...Weary human rights workers drop in, and heartsore limo drivers. Amid this cacophony of native tongues, love affairs, and confessions, Angel's kitchen is an oasis where people tell...

After his family hires migrant Mexican workers to help save their Vermont farm from foreclosure, eleven-year-old Tyler befriends the oldest daughter, but when he discovers they may not be in the country legally, he realizes that real friendship knows no borders.

Emily and Jessamine Bach are opposites in every way: Twenty-eight-year-old Emily is the CEO of Veritech, twenty-three-year-old Jess is an environmental activist and graduate student in philosophy. Pragmatic Emily is making a fortune in Silicon Valley, romantic Jess works in an antiquarian bookstore. Emily is rational and driven, while Jess is dreamy and whimsical. Emily's boyfriend, Jonathan, is fantastically successful. Jess's boyfriends, not so...