A story of a young woman's awakening as an artist and her struggle to escape the constraints of a small town in Colorado.

I am convinced that at birth the cake is already baked. Nurture is the nuts or frosting, but if you’re a spice cake, you’re a spice cake, and nothing is going to change you into an angel food.
Tall, slender Violet Mathers is growing up in the Great Depression, which could just as well define her state of mind. Abandoned by her mother as a child, mistreated by her father, and teased by her schoolmates (“Hey, Olive Oyl, where’s...

It is 1939. Lavender--La to her friends--decides to flee London, not only to avoid German bombs but also to escape the memories of her shattered marriage. Settling in as small town, she organizes an amateur orchestra from the village and the local RAF base and falls in love with one of her prized recruits.

Set during the 1920s, Prairie Nocturne finds Susan Duff, the young songbird from Doig's Dancing at the Rascal Fair, now a middle-aged singing coach living in Helena. When her old flame Wes Williamson asks her to mentor his black chauffeur, Monty, she agrees. But racial tensions erupt when Susan's private lessons with Monty attract the attention of the KKK.

Winner of the American Book Award and the Murray Morgan Prize, Sherman Alexie's brilliant first novel tells a powerful tale of Indians, rock 'n' roll, and redemption Coyote Springs is the only all-Indian rock band in Washington State-and the entire rest of the world. Thomas Builds-the-Fire takes vocals and bass guitar, Victor Joseph hits lead guitar, and Junior Polatkin rounds off the sound on drums. Backup vocals come from sisters Chess and Checkers...

Leaving L. A. 's Parker Center, Shane Scully and his wife, Alexa, agree to meet at home in one hour. Shane gets there; Alexa doesn't. In the middle of the night, he's called to a crime scene on Mulholland Drive: The African-American victim, who appears to be a Crip gangbanger, has been executed gangland style. Shockingly, the body is in Alexa's car and her gun is found nearby. But Alexa is missing. Shane's frantic investigation into his wife's disappearance...