American Towns

Sugar arrives in the small town of Bigelow, Arkansas, like an ominous storm. She saunters down the street in a blonde wig and spiked heels, cigarette dangling between red-painted lips. Without even speaking to her, the women in town hate her. But when she moves in next door to Pearl, a woman who tragically lost her daughter 15 years earlier, the two women bond over tragic pasts.

Sundown Towns examines thousands of all-white American towns that were - and still are, in some instances - racially exclusive by design.

On November 8, 2018, the people of Paradise, California, awoke to a mottled gray sky and gusty winds. Soon the Camp Fire was upon them, gobbling an acre a second. Less than two hours after the fire ignited, the town was engulfed in flames, the residents trapped in their homes and cars. By the next morning, eighty-five people were dead.

Some places are too good to be true. Under a pink moon, there is a perfect little town not found on any map. In that town, there are quiet streets lined with pretty houses, houses that conceal the strangest things. After a couple years of hard traveling, ex-cop Mona Bright inherits her long-dead mother's home in Wink, New Mexico. And the closer Mona gets to her mother's past, the more she understands that the people of Wink are very, very different....

In 1958 Georgia, the shade of a 13-year-old black girl's skin can make the difference in her fate. Tangy Mae is the smartest of her mother's 10 children, but she is also the darkest complected. The Quinns - all different skin shades, all with unknown fathers - live with their charismatic, beautiful, and tyrannical mother, Rozelle, in poverty on the fringes of a Georgia town where Jim Crow rules. Rozelle's children live in fear of her mood swings and her violence, but they are devoted to her. Rozelle pulls her children out of school when they are 12 years old so that they can help support her by going to work.

Set against the backdrop of an American town that without its consent had become a vast social experiment, Outcasts United follows a pivotal season in the life of the Fugees and their charismatic coach. Warren St. John documents the lives of a diverse group of young people as they miraculously coalesce into a band of brothers, while also drawing a fascinating portrait of a fading American town struggling to accommodate its new arrivals.

Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Build American Prosperity is a book of forward-thinking ideas that breaks with modern wisdom to present a new vision of urban development in the United States. Presenting the foundational ideas of the Strong Towns movement he cofounded, Charles Marohn explains why cities of all sizes continue to struggle to meet their basic needs, and reveals the new paradigm that can solve this longstanding problem.

The ritual killing of a young Apache girl on a reservation in rural Arizona takes the listener through many complex layers of relationships between Apache and Anglo cultures. The myth and spiritual fabric of the Apache community pulls Zeb Hanks, a small town sheriff, through a personal journey, making the murder not just a crime to solve but a cathartic passage. The dead never leave us but they do whisper ghost stories that bring the past back to life. Jake Dablo is a drunken, washed up lawman because of his inability to solve the murder of his only granddaughter.

Marisol Rivera barely survived being abused with nowhere to turn. So there's nothing she won't do to keep her Lower East Side women's health clinic open and give disadvantaged women new lives. Running an exclusive escort service for New York City's rich and powerful 1 percent is the perfect way to bankroll her business - not to mention the perfect cover for robbing corrupt CEOs.

Justin and Toni were friends. Besties, with a whole list of life rules developed over a friendship that started when they were kids. As long as they stuck to the rules, even when they blended a business relationship into the friendship, things went off without a hitch. But then one of them broke the rules - it was Justin. Justin broke the rules - and Toni has been mad about it ever since.

A collection of stories capturing what it means to be a cowboy.

Ever since his mother passed away two years ago, Caleb Pine has been stuck while the rest of his family seem to have moved on. Alone at Christmas, he finds himself drawn back to Martha’s Vineyard and the Gingerbread Inn, where his family spent a wonderful Christmas holiday when he was a teen. To his surprise, the local girl he almost kissed under the mistletoe all those years ago is now grown up and running the Inn.

Two arsonists are at work in Smoke Tree. One is a slick professional; the other is an evil pyromaniac using fire to settle old scores. One would be bad enough, but two? Captain Carlos Caballo, commander of the Smoke Tree substation of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, is fighting to save the town he loves. If that weren't enough for Captain Caballo and his deputies to contend with, illegal drugs are arriving in Smoke Tree. The source seems to a motorcycle gang operating from the river bottom on the Arizona side of the Colorado River.

Nailed It meets You’ve Got Mail in Batch of Love A small-town baker with dreams of moving out of the mall’s food court and opening her own brick-and-mortar bakery enters a baking competition for a chance to win $25,000. But instead of winning the grand prize, she finds herself in the middle of her ex’s plan to acquire her business for a big box retailer. Two years ago, Ginger opened a bakery, Ginger’s Goodies, to honor a promise she made to her late mother. Ready to take her business to the next level, Ginger enters a baking competition hosted by big box retailer, Decadent Dough. ...

His mail-order bride is his best friend . . . When Jeremiah Wiley advertises for a mail-order bride, all he wants is a lady who can impress his parents. If he succeeds, he’ll secure the loan he needs to buy into the livery stable where he works. But he doesn't expect for the woman who answers his advertisement to be someone he already knows—much less his closest friend. Deirdre Hannan is certain Jeremiah is the man for her. But the only way she can seem to convince him is to marry him. She secretly responds to his advertisement under a name he won’t recognize, but worries he’ll turn...

After finding out that my boyfriend cheated on me, I packed my bags and moved to Sunshine Falls. My uncle's ready to retire, and he has always dreamed of me taking over his partnership at the animal clinic in town. My surprise came when he introduced me to my new partner—and it's the cute guy I was talking to at the coffee shop. It's okay, though. I'm not looking for a relationship. My priorities are my career and starting over. Ivan and I clash at every turn, and our transition is anything but smooth. Throw in the exotic animals that keep showing up, and I think we're doomed.

In the foothills of the desert mountains west of Smoke Tree, someone has murdered Caleb and Eunice Clovis. They were impoverished squatters living a life of bare subsistence far off the beaten track in a miserable lean-to made of discarded lumber and cast off building materials. Who would want to kill them? And why? There seems to be no motive for the crime. Lieutenant Carlos Caballo, known throughout the Lower Colorado River Basin simply as “Horse,” is charged with solving the crime. A crime that might not have been discovered for months or even years except for a minor twist of fate. ...

It is 1952, and nearly all the girls 16-year-old Bertha Harding knows dream of getting married, keeping house, and raising children in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan. Bertha dreams of baseball. She reads every story in the sports section, she plays ball with the neighborhood boys—she even writes letters to the pitcher for the Workington Sweet Peas, part of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

There's no place like home for the holidays ... especially for Lesley Carver. Life in the big city just wasn't her jam and now she's back in Hickory Falls, working at the family diner and helping her mom after she took a tumble. Lesley longs to build a life here, working at the cafe, selling her handmade ornaments and ... er, apparently reviving her high school crush on her best friend’s older brother. Only one problem, her mom wants her to leave Hickory Falls far behind.

Falling for the Rancher A steamy, small-town cowboy romance featuring an alpha rancher, a strong-willed city girl, and an undeniable love worth fighting for… Edye Dolson never planned on staying in Texas. She came to check on her sister, not fall for a ruggedly handsome cowboy who pushes all her buttons—good and bad. But Luke Stanley isn’t like the men she’s used to. He’s intense, protective, and knows exactly what he wants. And what he wants is her. Luke knew from the moment he laid eyes on Edye that she was trouble—the kind that tempts a man to risk it all. She’s independent...