San Antonio College Library

Pearl Tull is nearing the end of her life but not her memory. It was a Sunday night in 1944 when her husband left the little row house on Baltimore's Calvert Street, abandoning Pearl to raise their three children alone: Jenny, high-spirited and determined, nurturing to strangers but distant to those she loves; the oldest son, Cody, a wild and incorrigible youth possessed by the lure of power and money; and sweet and clumsy Ezra, Pearl's favorite,...

With an Introduction by Pat Righelato, University of Reading The child of parents who divorce, remarry and then embark on adulterous affairs, Maisie Farange survives by her intelligence and spirit. For all its sombre theme of childhood innocence exposed to a corrupted adult world, this novel is one of James's comic masterpieces. The outrageous behaviour of the characters on the seedy fringes of the English upper class is conveyed with wit and relish....

Parisian archivist Hélène knows very little about her mother, Nathalie, who died when Hélène was four. In the hope of learning more, she places a newspaper ad calling for information on Nathalie and two unknown men pictured with her in a photograph taken at a tennis tournament in 1971. Against all odds, she receives a phone call from Stéphane, a Swiss biologist, whose father is one of the men in the photo. More letters and photographs pass between...

"In a few short hours, Frank's in-control life has spun utterly out of control. Now unexpected changes face him, his father, and the other family members. But as one chapter of life closes for the Reynolds family, they discover that God has already been writing the next."--Page 4 of cover.

A portable radio helps a girl survive after she is lost in the woods of New England. During her nine-day ordeal, Trisha McFarland fights thirst, wasps and the terrors of the night, all the while keeping up her spirits by listening to music and baseball games.

Having suffered abuse and misfortune for much of her life, a young child searches for a better life and finally gets a break in the home of a loving woman with several foster children.

Born severely disabled in 1950s Sweden, Desiree cannot walk or talk but can use her clairvoyant and onmiscient powers to travel through time and space into the lives of her three foster sisters.

Performance artists Caleb and Camille Fang dedicated themselves to making great art. But when an artist's work lies in subverting normality, it can be difficult to raise well-adjusted children. Just ask Buster and Annie Fang. For as long as they can remember, they starred (unwillingly) in their parents' madcap pieces. But now that they are grown up, the chaos of their childhood has made it difficult to cope with life outside the fishbowl of their...

When an elephant couple decides it is time to have a child, unexpected challenges arise but, at last, the pair's deepest wish comes true.

"A producer at the Belfast bureau of the BBC, Tessa is at work one day when the news of another raid comes on the air. The IRA may have gone underground after the Good Friday agreement, but they never really went away, and lately, bomb threats, arms drops, and helicopters floating ominously over the city have become features of everyday life. As the anchor requests the public's help in locating those responsible for this latest raid - a robbery at...