NCW Libraries

In nineteenth century China, in a remote Hunan county, a girl named Lily, at the tender age of seven, is paired with a laotong, or "old same," in an emotional match that will last a lifetime. The two women exchange messages written on silk fans and handkerchieves using nu shu, a unique language that women created in order to communicate in secret, sharing their experiences, but when a misunderstanding arises, their friendship threatens to tear apart....

Ella and John have shared a wonderful life for than sixty years. Now, their doctors and middle-aged children just want them to cruise gently into that undignified night of old age. Instead, they embark on a forbidden vacation of rediscovery along Route 66, with the broken record of John's memory as their soundtrack. Thought time is catching up with them, Ella is determined to make it to their destination for one more happy day together.

"A visionary and deeply moving novel centered around former newspaperman Sam Cunningham as he prepares to die, Late City covers much of the early twentieth century, unfurling as a conversation between the dying man and a surprising God. As the two review Sam's life, from his childhood in the American South and his time in the French trenches during World War I to a newspaper career in Chicago in the Roaring Twenties and the decades that follow, moments...

"Gentle, sensitive...sometimes funny, occasionally sad, and ultimately life-affirming." -Winston-Salem Journal The Sweet By and By is the story of five southern women of different ages and from very different backgrounds whose lives come together in a journey of courage, hope, and humor. First-time author Todd Johnson-who was a co-producer with Oprah Winfrey of Broadway's The Color Purple-makes an indelible literary mark with a debut novel that...

If you had to pick five people to sum up your life, who would they be? If you were to raise a glass to each of them, what would you say? And what would you learn about yourself, when all is said? At the bar of a grand hotel in a small Irish town sits 84-year-old Maurice Hannigan. He's alone, as usual, though tonight is anything but. Pull up a stool and charge your glass, because Maurice is finally ready to tell his story. Over the course of this evening,...

A ghost story set in the pastoral countryside of the north shore of O'ahu, Hawaii. Revealed in four chapters, it tells the story of an elderly man facing the end of his life, visited by the ghosts of his past. Incorporating familial history and mythology, dream logic and surrealism, it's a time-shifting kaleidoscope story of a fractured family facing the death of their patriarch that will take viewers from the high-rises of contemporary Honolulu to...

"In 1971, a property speculator named Harley Mann begins recording his life story onto a reel-to-reel machine. Reflecting on his childhood in the early 20th century, Harley recounts that after his father's sudden death, his family migrated down to Florida-mere miles away from what would become Disney World-to join a community of Shakers. Led by Elder John, a generous man with a mysterious past, the colony devoted itself to labor, faith, and charity,...

Determined to leave a mark on the world even though they are in the hospital and their days are dwindling, unlikely friends, seventeen-year-old Lenni and eighty-three-year-old Margot, devise a plan to create one hundred paintings showcasing the stories of the century they have lived. Seventeen-year-old Lenni Pettersson has been told she's dying, but still has plenty of living to do. She lives on the Terminal Ward at the Glasgow Princess Royal Hospital....

"When Kendra first visits her ailing grandmother, Ella has only one request: that she write her story down, before she forgets...In 1937, seventeen-year-old Ella's life changes forever when she is sent to spend the summer on the beautiful and windswept Ile de Re and meets the charismatic, creative Christophe. They spend the summer together, exploring the island's sandy beaches and crystal-clear waters, and, for the first time in her life, Ella feels...