Helen Plum Library

In Leisha Kelly's well-received novel, Julia's Hope, Samuel and Julia Wortham and their two children charmed readers as they found shelter in the home-and heart-of a grandmotherly woman named Emma Graham. Now, in Emma's Gift, the Wortham family is struck down by the deaths of two close friends, including their neighbor Wilametta Hammond, just days before Christmas 1931. Wila is the mother of ten children and the glue that holds the family together....

"Welcome to Stanhope. A safe neighborhood. A place for families. On the surface, William Wooler is a family man. But he's been having an affair, an affair that ended horribly this afternoon at a motel up the road. So when he returns to his house, devastated and angry, to find his difficult nine-year-old daughter, Avery, unexpectedly home from school, William loses his temper. Hours later, Avery's family declares her missing. Suddenly Stanhope doesn't...

The reader is taken on a journey through a neighborhood and shown the sights, sounds, and smells as evening approaches

"This summer, meet your neighbors. The residents of the exclusive cul-de-sac on Alton Road are entangled in a web of secrets and scandal utterly unknown to the outside world, and even to each other. On the night of the annual Summer block party, there has been a murder. But, who did it and why takes readers back one year earlier, as rivalries and betrayals unfold--discovering that the real danger lies within their own block and nothing--and no one--is...

Britt-Marie is a socially awkward, fussy busybody who is used to being organized. When she walks out on her cheating husband and gets a job as caretaker of the dilapidated recreation center in Borg, she is woefully unprepared for the changes. But as she takes on the task of leading the supremely untalented children's soccer team to victory, she just might find a place she belongs

Gossip columnist and single New York City girl Mel lives in the most exciting place in the world, yet she's bored with her love life. But things get interesting fast when the old lady next door is nearly murdered. Mel starts paying closer attention to her neighbors--what exactly is going on with the cute boy next door? Has Mel found the love of her life--or a killer?

Read the New York Times bestseller that has taken the world by storm! In this “charming debut” (People) from one of Sweden’s most successful authors, a grumpy yet loveable man finds his solitary world turned on its head when a boisterous young family moves in next door.Meet Ove. He’s a curmudgeon—the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict...

A novel written by more than twenty-five major literary voices follows the tenants of a Lower East Side apartment building in Manhattan during the COVID-19 shutdown, as they gather on the roof, share stories, and become real neighbors

Welcome to the eclectic Brooklyn neighborhood of Cobble Hill. Ex-groupie Mandy, underwhelmed by motherhood and her current physical state, fakes a debilitating disease to get the attention of her skateboarding, ex-boyband member husband Stuart. He has a crush on the school nurse, Peaches, whose husband Greg wears noise-canceling headphones-- everywhere. A few blocks away Roy, a newly transplanted British novelist, has lost the thread of his next novel......

"Henry can't wait to take his first solo bike ride. When Mom says he may go only around his block, Henry discovers that there are lots of fascinating things to see close to home--from a hot dog truck to cement mixers."--Dust jacket