Sixth-grader Marty and his family try to help their rough neighbor, Judd Travers, change his mean ways, even though their West Virginia community continues to expect the worst of him.

Daniel Defoe (1660?-1731) was a prolific English writer who became one of the first Western writers to write novels and turn them into a sought after literary genre. During his life, Defoe wrote more than 500 books, pamphlets and journals on topics as wide ranging as politics, crime, religion, psychology, supernatural events, and even economics.

While those are all impressive accomplishments, Defoe's name has lived on through Robinson Crusoe,

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"Spring flowers may be about to bloom in Crozet, Virginia, but Harry is thinking about snow. Her dear friend Ned Tucker is in the House of Delegates, advocating for a bill to improve road clearing during bad weather, and Harry and Ned's wife, Susan, have gone down to the statehouse to support him. Tensions are high between political parties, and no one can agree on anything for long enough to get something done. The bill's chief detractor is the glamorous...

"Virginia is for lovers--and Storyton Hall is its best vacation spot for lovers of books. The big event this summer at Jane Steward's resort is A Bookish Cook-Off. It's a blend of the literary and the culinary--but someone's headed for the mortuary ... Six chefs are preparing to compete in an outdoor tent at Storyton Hall for prizes that will boost their careers--but is there someone who can't stand the heat? It looks that way when one of the contestants...

Shortly before the 5K Run for Breast Cancer Awareness, Harry and her pets find the corpse of well-liked OR nurse Paula Benton, one of the event's organizers, who appears to have died of anaphylactic shock from a hornet's sting. But was it murder?

Back in the United States and ensconced in a new home on Big Pine Mountain in North Carolina, Myra, Kathryn, Annie, Alexis, Isabelle, Yoko, and Nikki of the Sisterhood are meeting their new employers, who have a dangerous new assignment in mind.

After a 20-year marriage, an army colonel's wife is abandoned by her husband, who empties their bank account. In the next eight years Kristin Kelly finds another man, gets a divorce and her three children are adjusting, when the husband appears on the doorstep, asking to resume the marriage. By the author of Finders Keepers.

The year is 2008 and Samantha Kofer's career at a huge Wall Street law firm is on the fast track -- until the recession hits and she gets downsized, furloughed, escorted out of the building. Samantha, though, is one of the "lucky" associates. She's offered an opportunity to work at a legal aid clinic for one year without pay, after which there would be a slim chance that she'd get her old job back. In a matter of days Samantha moves from Manhattan...

"Longtime personal assistant Georgie Mulcahy has made a career out of putting others before herself. When an unexpected upheaval sends her away from her hectic job in L.A. and back to her hometown, Georgie must confront an uncomfortable truth: her own wants and needs have always been a disconcertingly blank page. But then Georgie comes across a forgotten artifact--a "friendfic" diary she wrote as a teenager, filled with possibilities she once imagined....

When mean and angry Judd, who has never known kindness, takes to drinking and mistreats his dogs, Marty discovers how deep a hurt can go and how long it takes to heal.