The enchanting story of a shipwrecked family --a minister, his wife, and four sons-- who are cast up on a desert island, build a wonderful house in a tree, and survive so cleverly and happily apart from the world that they never want to be rescued.

"The acclaimed, bestselling author--winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize--tells the enthralling story of how an unexpected romantic encounter irrevocably changes two families' lives. One Sunday afternoon in Southern California, Bert Cousins shows up at Franny Keating's christening party uninvited. Before evening falls, he has kissed Franny's mother, Beverly--thus setting in motion the dissolution of their marriages and the joining...

"In the wake of a shocking tragedy, Natalie Harper inherits a charming, but financially strapped bookstore in San Francisco. She also becomes the caretaker for her grandfather, Andrew, who owns a historic building that houses the store. Grandpa Andrew has begun to struggle with memory loss, and Natalie plans to close the bookstore and sell the building to pay for his care. There's only one problem - her grandfather refuses to sell. Natalie takes...

Hope Anderson is at a crossroads. At 36, she's been dating her boyfriend, an orthopedic surgeon, for six years. With no wedding plans in sight, and her father recently diagnosed with ALS, she decides to use a week at her family's cottage in Sunset Beach, North Carolina, to ready the house for sale and mull over some difficult decisions about her future. Tru Walls has never visited North Carolina, but is summoned to Sunset Beach by a letter from a...

A year in the life of two young girls growing up on the Wisconsin frontier, as they help their mother with the daily chores, enjoy their father's stories and singing, and share special occasions when they get together with relatives or neighbors.

Irene Steele's idyllic life -- house, husband, family -- is shattered when she is woken up by a late-night phone call. Her beloved husband has been found dead. Before Irene can process this tragic news, she must confront the perplexing details of her husband's death. He was found on St. John island, a tropical paradise far removed from their suburban life. Leaving the cold winter behind, Irene flies down to the beautiful Caribbean beaches of St. John...

"Olivia McAfee knows what it feels like to start over. Her picture-perfect life-living in Boston, married to a brilliant cardiothoracic surgeon, raising a beautiful son, Asher-was upended when her husband revealed a darker side. She never imagined she would end up back in her sleepy New Hampshire hometown, living in the house she grew up in, and taking over her father's beekeeping business. Lily Campanello is familiar with do-overs, too. When she...

After an October blizzard, Laura's family moves from the claim shanty into town for the winter, a winter that an Indian has predicted will be seven months of bad weather.

Ramona Quimby is seven and a half - "right now", as she likes to say. With her rapid growing come many changes, including new pajamas so cozy that Ramona wears them under her clothes to school. But even though Ramona's getting bigger, she sometimes feels left out of the more grown-up relationship between her older sister, Beezus, and their busy working mom. Mrs. Quimby tells friends she "couldn't get along without Beezus", but does this mean she doesn't...

Nearing the end of his life, Enzo, a dog with a philosopher's soul, tells his story of trying to bring together the family who have been pulled apart by a three year custody battle between daughter Zoe's maternal grandparents and her father Denny, a race car driver.