"In this short novel, a woman mourning the loss of her mother gets a mysterious package in the mail."--

The astrobiologist Theo Byrne searches for life throughout the cosmos while single-handedly raising his unusual nine-year-old, Robin, following the death of his wife. Robin is a warm, kind boy who spends hours painting elaborate pictures of endangered animals. He's also about to be expelled from third grade for smashing his friend in the face. As his son grows more troubled, Theo hopes to keep him off psychoactive drugs. He learns of an experimental...

Elly, Sable, Barbara Ann and Beth. They have been drawn together by the sudden death of their friend Gabby?and the favor she has asked of them. For these four women, whose own lives have become unhappy works of fiction, a summer sorting through Gabby's personal papers offers the perfect challenge?and the perfect escape.ELLY?the intellectual spinster who's hidden herself within the Walls of academia, afraid to admit that she's tired of being aloneSABLE?her...

Famous for his fifty-year-old self-help book on love and relationships, Peter engages in a passionless relationship after the death of his wife and questions the validity of his advice when an ambitious young editor launches a contest for struggling couples based on his book.

"A character-driven novel about the unlikely friendship between a 10-year-old boy and an elderly woman. The old woman badgers the boy into taking her sailing, but when the weather turns bad, it becomes a wild sail. It becomes the last trip before she goesinto the hospital where she dies: but not before the two of them share memories of their last sail together. Hazel helps build the boy's confidence during a tough time in his home life. Both moving...

In this book the author give us a wise, haunting, and deeply moving novel in which she explores how a middle-aged man, ripped apart by the death of his wife, is gradually restored by her frequent appearances, in their house, on the roadway, in the market. Crippled in his right arm and leg, Aaron has spent his childhood fending off a sister who wants to manage him. So when he meets Dorothy, a plain, outspoken, independent young woman, she is like a...

It's mid-December and for the fifth year, at the Sullivans' lonely brownstone in Harlem, stockings go un-stuffed, tinsel un-strewn, gifts un-bought, mistletoe un-hung, chestnuts un-roasted, carols un-played, cookies un-cooked and a tree un-visible. But this year, a mysterious someone is sending gifts to widower Henry Sullivan and his two children, Will and Ella. These gifts are... strange. Noisy. And there's no returning them. First, a small beaked...

"He promised her he would never let go. She's willing to risk everything to hold on. In the aftermath of her husband's logging accident, Elsa has more questions than answers about how to carry on while caring for their two small children in the unfinished house he was building for them in the woods of rural Wisconsin. To cope with the challenges of winter and the near-daily miscommunications from her in-laws, she forges her own relationship with the...

Preston and Constance Whittier have built a happy life together, with a brood of six children raised in a beautiful historic Manhattan mansion. Now, with a nearly empty nest, it’s easier than ever for the Whittiers to maintain their tradition of a solo romantic “Wintermoon” ski trip. But with this year’s trip comes tragedy, and suddenly the Whittier’s adult children find themselves reuniting in the family home without their parents for the...