La Porte County Public Library System

A young girl eagerly awaits a coming rainstorm to bring relief from the oppressive summer heat.

Spare and unsparing, God Help the Child--the first novel by Toni Morrison to be set in our current moment--weaves a tale about the way the sufferings of childhood can shape, and misshape, the life of the adult. At the center: a young woman who calls herself Bride, whose stunning blue-black skin is only one element of her beauty, her boldness and confidence, her success in life, but which caused her light-skinned mother to deny her even the simplest...

"From the New York Times best-selling author of Reconstructing Amelia, a gripping, moving novel about a daughter racing to uncover the truth about her mother in the wake of her disappearance. When Cleo, a student at NYU, arrives late for dinner at her childhood home in Brooklyn, she finds food burning in the oven and no sign of her mother, Kat. Then Cleo discovers her mom's bloody shoe under the sofa. Something terrible has happened. But what? The...

Lorca spends her life poring over cookbooks, making croissants and chocolat chaud, seeking out rare ingredients, all to earn the love of her distracted chef of a mother, who is now packing her off to boarding school. In one last effort to prove herself indispensable, Lorca resolves to track down the recipe for her mother's ideal meal, an obscure Middle Eastern dish called masgouf. Victoria, grappling with her husband's death, has been dreaming of...

"Ronni Sunshine left London for Hollywood to become a beautiful, charismatic star of the silver screen. But at home, she was a narcissistic, disinterested mother who alienated her three daughters. As soon as possible, tomboy Nell fled her mother's overbearing presence to work on a farm and find her own way in the world as a single mother. The target of her mother's criticism, Meredith never felt good enough, thin enough, pretty enough. Her life took...

"Alice Metcalf was a devoted mother, loving wife, and accomplished scientist who studied grief among elephants. Yet it's been a decade since she disappeared under mysterious circumstances, leaving behind her small daughter, husband, and the animals to which she devoted her life. All signs point to abandonment . . . or worse. Still Jenna--now thirteen years old and truly orphaned by a father maddened by grief--steadfastly refuses to believe in her...

When her adult daughter with Down syndrome, Chloe, begins to have a relationship with Thomas, another mentally challenged person, Alicia Richards prepares herself to help Chloe through the moments of heartbreak and joy that this new stage in her life will bring.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Party Crasher and Love Your Life comes “frothy fun . . . Faster than a swiping Visa, more powerful than a two-for-one coupon, able to buy complete wardrobes in a single sprint through the mall—it’s Shopaholic!” (The Washington Post)
“Sophie Kinsella keeps her finger on the cultural pulse, while leaving me giddy with laughter.”—Jojo...

"A brilliant queer dystopian novel from the author of Yours for the Taking, following a cast of characters on the margins of a strange and exclusive new society. The year is 2041, and it's a dangerous time to be a woman driving across the United States alone. Deadly storms and uncontrollable wildfires are pummeling the country while political tensions are rising. But Kelly's on the road anyway; she desperately needs to get back to her daughter, who...

Isabelle McAvoy (58), private art consultant in New York City. The first half of the book focuses on her past, having three daughters with three different men and following her through each of those relationships. Her first love was a reclusive American living in France, much older than her, who was always a part of their daughter's life, though they never married. Her second husband went to prison for fraud when Isabelle was pregnant with her second...