Tolstoy based "Resurrection", the last of his novels, on a true story of a philanderer whose misuse of a beautiful young orphan girl leads to her ruin. Fate brings the two together many years later and the meeting awakens the man's moral conscience. Anger, intimacy, forgiveness, and grace result. While the situation of Tolstoy's plot is alien to most people, his nuanced treatment of mortal life is familiar to all. Late in his life Tolstoy confessed...

"While preparing for her bat mitzvah--and trying to make sense of her own life--Zippy discovers she has magical abilities when she conjures up a beautiful girl with no memory and wings like an angel to whom she is connected"--WorldCat. "Hi, whoever is reading this. I'm Zipporah Chava McConnell, but everyone calls me Zippy. Things used to be simple--until a few weeks ago. Now my best friend, Bea, is acting funny; everyone at school thinks I'm weird;...

"'No matter where you go, no matter whether you succeed or fail, stand or fall, no gone is too far gone. You can always come home.' At the age of eighteen, musician and songwriter Cooper O'Connor took everything his father held dear and drove 1,200 miles from home to Nashville, his life riding on a six-string guitar and the bold wager that he had talent. But his wager soon proved foolish. Five years after losing everything, he falls in love with Daley...

"Rarely has an Evangelical upbringing been depicted with the relentless honesty, wide-ranging empathy, and Superbad-meets-Siddhartha playfulness of HELL IS A WORLD WITHOUT YOU. During the time of Pizza Hut buffets, 9/11, and all-night Mario Kart parties, a grieving teenager faces a mortal crossroads: fire-and-brimstone certainty vs. forbidden love. And whether or not you've ever begged God to delay the Rapture (so you could have time to lose your...

"Hannah Malfa-Adler is Jew ... ish. Not that she really thinks about it. She'd prefer to focus on her favorite pastime: baking delicious food! But when her best friend has a beyond-awesome Bat Mitzvah, Hannah starts to feel a little envious ... Despite her parents firm no, Hannah knows that if she can learn enough about her own faith, she can convince her friends that the party is still in motion."--

When Paul Manning begins working as an engineer clerk for the railroad, he decides to move in with his mother's family on their farm. There, he is able to be closer to his job as the railroad paves the way for further industrialization of rural areas. While Paul is advancing in his career and settling in his new home, his attention is held by his cousin, Phillis. Paul and Phillis become quick friends and confidants. Worried for her, Paul keeps a close...

"I will punish you as your deeds deserve…" Emory Chance knows the cross-stitched warning points directly to her motherly neglect. Burying her grief, she's determined to find her daughter Daisy's murderer. But when the investigation hits a dead end, her anger escalates. Not even the kindness of her persistent suitor Hixon can soften her heart towards the community of friends that can help her begin to heal. And as the questions surrounding Daisy...

Six Years and a Quarter Way Through is a story about a young woman who's lost her way. Like many of us, Leah believed that the vision supersedes the process until, at age twenty-six, she stops believing in the vision and the one who gave it to her. Leah has lost her faith, her job, her confidence, and maybe her mind. Utterly defeated and without hope that her dreams to become a star would come true, she meets Trenton Shaw, a rich, powerful, handsome,...

"After a lifetime of being homeschooled, Ham starts a new year in a new school where he meets Micah, who helps him navigate this strange world, and as he tries to fit in, he wonders if it is worth changing who he wants to be"--WorldCat.

Thirteen-year-old Rose Gray's fervent prayers for peace during the bombing raids have been answered, but no one around her in 1947 England is physically or spiritually free of the aftereffects of war. Living on a government-run tenant farm, Rose struggles with her father's increasingly violent moods, her mother's past (including the appearance of a stranger returning from war), and a school headmistress bordering on madness. Rose's story is about...