NCW Libraries

"An acclaimed storyteller returns with "a gorgeous and gripping literary mystery" that explores "family, betrayal, passion, race, culture and the American Dream" (Jean Kwok). The residents of Haven, Wisconsin have dined on the Fine Chao restaurant's delicious Americanized Chinese food for thirty-five years, happy to ignore any unsavory whispers about the family owners. But when brash, charismatic, and tyrannical patriarch Leo Chao is found dead--presumed...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “There’s such warmth to Dumas’ writing that it invites the reader to pull up a seat at her table and smile right along with her at the quirks of her family and Iranians and Americans in general.”—Booklist

In the New York Times bestselling memoir Funny in Farsi, Firoozeh Dumas recounted her adventures growing up Iranian American...

William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy: his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him. His skill on the basketball court earned him a scholarship to a college far away from his childhood home. Julia Padavano, a spirited and ambitious young woman, surprises William with her appreciation of his quiet steadiness. With Julia comes her three younger sisters: Sylvie, the dreamer, happiest with her nose in a book and dreams...

Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances "Frankie" McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the...

Colin Quinn owns a Bed and Breakfast on Nantucket and is a proud father of four-Patrick, Shane, Ava, and Bart, all grown and living in varying states of disarray. As Christmas approaches, Conor and his wife Mitzi anticipate a wonderful family reunion. But when Bart, the golden child and a recent Dartmouth graduate, announces that he has joined the Marines and is leaving for Afghanistan two days before Christmas, Mitzi is so distressed that she confesses...

While preparing for Christmas at the Winter Street Inn, Kelley Quinn and his family find the holiday season thrown into chaos when three of their exes show up.

"In the quiet of twilight, on an early autumn day, twenty-six-year-old Elisa Vandersteel is killed while riding her bicycle along the Charles River. It appears she was struck by lightning--except the weather is perfectly clear with not a cloud in sight. Dr. Kay Scarpetta, the Cambridge Forensic Center's director and chief, decides at the scene that this is no accidental Act of God. Her investigation becomes complicated when she begins receiving a...

Published for the fortieth anniversary of the final days of the Vietnam War, this is the suspenseful and moving tale of how John P. Riordan, an assistant manager of Citibank's Saigon branch, devised a daring plan to save 106 Vietnamese from the dangers of the Communist takeover. Riordan-who had left the military behind for a career in international banking-was not the type to take dramatic action, but once the North Vietnamese Army closed in on Saigon...

Does your work life "balance" feel anything but? Most people will probably tell you that you need to be more strict about separating your office and home lives, and WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T TAKE THE OFFICE HOME WITH YOU! To this, husband-and-wife authors Caitlin and Andrew Friedman say: Think again! In Family Inc., they share how they were able to use the organizational strategies they'd relied on in their professional lives to bring the joy-and yes,...

The Worth's are a family portrait of dysfunction, but when their matriarch, Grandma Mabel dies suddenly, they must set aside their differences and come together. Chaos ensues as they soon discover that not only did Grandma Mabel keep secrets, so did everyone else. They begin to find their way back to each other and realize that while you can't choose your family, you can choose to be friends with them.