Central Skagit Library District

A Simple Thing is a lovely, truly heartwarming novel about the drastic measures two mothers take to keep their families safe. Kathleen McCleary, the critically acclaimed author of House and Home, tells the intertwining stories of Susannah Delaney and Betty Pavalak. Susannah moves her family to remote Sounder Island-a primitive retreat with no electricity-to escape television, the internet, and the dangerous, corrupting influences of the modern technological...

Joyce and Marshall each think the other is killed on September 11-and must swallow their disappointment when the other arrives home. As their bitter divorce is further complicated by anthrax scares, suicide bombs, and foreign wars, they suffer, in ways unexpectedly personal and increasingly ludicrous, the many strange ravages of our time. In this astonishing black comedy, Kalfus suggests how our nation's public calamities have encroached upon our...

A woman marries into a ready-made family and learns the true meaning of motherhood.

In the aftermath of the American Revolution a destitute young woman agrees to a marriage of convenience and becomes Mistress of Tall Acre. But when secrets from her husband's past are revealed, loyalties and ties are torn asunder.

"In ancient Greece, a skilled marble sculptor has been blessed by a goddess who has given his masterpiece--the most beautiful woman the town has ever seen--the gift of life. After marrying her, he expects Galatea to please him, to be obedience and humility personified. But she has desires of her own and yearns for independence. In a desperate bid by her obsessive husband to keep her under control, Galatea is locked away under the constant supervision...

The tensions beneath the surface of Claire and Don Lowry's seemingly contented marriage explode in the bedrooms and backyards of a small Midwestern town over the course of a long, hot summer, as they discover that married life is not what they had predicted.

A second installment in a planned five-part series finds Harry despairing of a marriage to Emma and joining the Merchant Navy before assuming the identity of a fallen American soldier whose past proves even more turbulent than Harry's own.

Once-successful novelist Liza Cole has one month to write the thriller that could land her back on the bestseller list. Her husband David is distracted by the disappearance of his co-worker and best friend, Nick. Liza's latest heroine, Beth, is a new mother who suspects her husband is cheating on her. Beth aims to catch him in the act but before she realizes it she's tossing the body of her husband's mistress into the East River. As the lines between...

Portia Kane is escaping her ritzy Florida life and her cheating pornographer husband, running back to South Jersey, a place that remains largely unchanged from the years of her unhappy youth. Looking to find the goodness in the world she believes still exists, Portia sets off to save herself by saving someone else-- a beloved high school English teacher who has retired after a traumatic incident. With the 'help' of a sassy nun, an ex-heroin addict,...

"Trudy has betrayed her husband, John. She's still in the marital home--a dilapidated, priceless London townhouse--but John's not here. Instead, she's with his brother, the profoundly banal Claude, and the two of them have a plan. But there is a witness to their plot: the inquisitive, nine-month-old resident of Trudy's womb. Told from a perspective unlike any other, Nutshell is a classic tale of murder and deceit from one of the world's master storytellers"--...