In the tradition of Mary Karr's "The Liars' Club" and Rick Bragg's "All Over But the Shouting," Jeannette Walls has written a stunning and life-affirming memoir about surviving a willfully impoverished, eccentric and severely misguided family. The child of an alcoholic father and an eccentric artist mother discusses her family's nomadic upbringing, during which she and her siblings fended for themselves while their parents outmaneuvered bill collectors...

"Marlena Wenger, a young aunt from the Beachy Amish caring for her infant niece, finds comfort and hope from an Old Order Amish mother and her family who extend friendship to a homeless man, whose few possessions include a collection of love letters"--

As she struggles to recover and survive, seventeen-year-old homeless Charlotte "Charlie" Davis cuts herself to dull the pain of abandonment and abuse.

Four determined homeless children make a life for themselves in Chennai, India.

"A story about a homeless boy and his imaginary friend that proves in unexpected ways that friends matter, whether real or imaginary"--

In nineteenth-century England, after her father's disappearance Nan Sparrow, ten, works as a "climbing boy," aiding chimney sweeps, but when her most treasured possessions end up in a fireplace, she unwittingly creates a golem.--

Michael was a rising star at Drake and Sweeney until a violent encounter with a homeless man stopped him cold. Michael survived but his assailant did not. He did some digging and found that the man was a deranged Vietnam veteran with a connection to Drake and Sweeney. Michael bolts the firm, with a top-secret document and becomes an advocate for the homeless...and a thief.

Living in the family car in their small North Carolina town after their father leaves them virtually penniless, Georgina, desperate to improve their situation and unwilling to accept her overworked mother's calls for patience, persuades her younger brother to help her in an elaborate scheme to get money by stealing a dog and then claiming the reward that the owners are bound to offer.

"Reluctant lawyer Andy Carpenter doesn't usually stop to help others, but seeing a dog next to a homeless man inspires him to give the pair some money to help. It's just Andy's luck that things don't end there. Soon after Andy's encounter with them, man and dog are attacked in the middle of the night on the street. The dog defends its new owner, and the erstwhile attacker is bitten but escapes. But the dog is quarantined and the man, Don Carrigan,...

Los Angeles Times reporter Lopez develops an unlikely friendship with a homeless musician.