California’s Over. Louis B Jones. 1997. 336p. Pantheon Books. The struggles of the proudly eccentric family of a once-famous poet who’s committed suicide lie at the heart of this kaleidoscopic comedy, which dazzlingly illuminates the exact moment when the ’60s disintegrated into terminal narcissism and gave birth to today’s entropic culture. Jones (Particles and Luck, 1993, etc.) spins out an audacious plot focusing on a pivotal four days in 1973 when the children of James Farmican, a beatnik who blew his brains out three years earlier, are finally compelled to give up their father’s decaying labyrinth of a Victorian mansion. “California’s over,” says their beautiful self-absorbed mother, Julia, now married to psychiatrist Faro Ness, whose oozing ’60s sensitivity can’t hide the fact that he has seized almost all of the family’s assets. Two children, Peter and Wendy, are casualties of too much Peter Pan whimsy; their long-lost brother Ed, given up for adoption to a “normal” family, has arrived to claim his inheritance. Observing all this is Steve, the callow 17-year-old who had been hired to clean out the house. Falling (naturally) under their spell, the interloper has already managed to impregnate Wendy; he follows her and her siblings to Nevada, where Ed wants to resurrect his father’s shuttered Cornucopia Casino. Writing 20 years later, Steve describes how Peter gambled himself into debt to gangsters, and how Wendy let a Christian cardsharp convince her that she could pay off her brother’s debt (and save her unborn child) by serving clients in the Ecstacy Ranch brothel. The novel circles around to Steve’s account of meeting Wendy again after 20 years, the two reuniting not because she loves him, but because she needs him to pose as her husband in order to contest Faro Ness’s control over the now sizable estate. Jones performs an act of alchemy here, burnishing the bitter and petty betrayals of an era with a lyrical anguish that makes Steve’s aching regret feel universal.—Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Can of Worms. Catherine Doherty. 1999. 88p. Fantagraphics Books, Inc. A powerful work of autobiography told in comics form as Catherine Margaret Flaherty searches for the truth about her own life. While looking through her parents’ dresser drawer, she discovered her own adoption papers. Now, as an adult, she finally begins the search for her birth mother. Doherty mixes careful juxtapositions of her past and present, visual echoes of earlier times in her own life and Imaginings she has of her mother as a young woman.

Captain & the Enemy, The. Graham Greene. 1988. 189p. Reinhardt Books (UK). Greene’s last novel is a memoir of a young man who recounts how the mysterious “Captain,” posing as a friend of his father, removed him from school one day and set him up in a residence with Liza, a kind but inscrutable woman. The Captain always maintained that he won Jim from his father at a game of backgammon. Fraud, adventurer, robber and thief, the Captain has as many tall stories to tell as Jim has had boarding-school dinners. Now aged twenty-two, a hack journalist and unwitting Judas, Jim attempts to piece together the Captain’s story.

Caraways, The. George Looms. 1925. Doubleday, Page. Young man, adopted by a wealthy and mysterious benefactor, falls in love with a young woman, only to find impediments to marriage.

Careful, He Might Hear You. Sumner Locke Elliott. 1963. 339p. Victor Gollancz Ltd (London). In Sydney during the depression era, two Aussie aunts, a working class housewife and a rich, sophisticated neurotic, fight for custody of their deceased sister’s sensitive 6-year-old son. About the Author: Sumner Locke Elliott (1917-1991) was born in Sydney and the son of the playwright and novelist Sumner Locke who died the day after the birth of her son. Like C. J. Dennis, he was raised by several aunts. After finishing school, he became an actor and wrote a number of plays. Elliott left for the US in 1948 and was a writer for American television of over 50 plays. He took out American citizenship in 1955 and, apart from two visits to Australia, resided in the States until his death. This is probably the primary reason for the lack of attention given to one of Australia’s finest writers within his native country. Over half of his ten novels are set in Australia. Elliott received the Miles Franklin Award for his first novel and the 1977 Patrick White Literary Award.

Carry Me Like Water: A Novel. Benjamin Alire Saenz. 1995. 512p. Hyperion Press. Beginning with Diego, a deaf-mute Mexican-American barely surviving on the BORDER in El Paso, Texas, and progressing to the posh suburbs of San Francisco (where Diego’s real sister, “Helen,” has long ago abandoned him and her Chicano roots), Carry Me Like Water is an epic and immensely moving story that bluntly confronts divisions of race, gender, and class, fusing cultures and personal stories of people born in different Americas. Helen and Eddie Marsh are living the pampered life of a yuppie couple expecting their first child—except that they’ve made a pact never to reveal anything about their childhood backgrounds. Everything seems to move along fine in their idyllic rendition of the world until Helen’s best friend, Lizzie, a dedicated AIDS nurse, begins to discover her own buried past after an unknown patient (who may or may not be her brother) blesses her on his deathbed with his remarkable telekinetic “gift” for out-of-body travel. Lizzie’s newfound power, in addition to her blossoming friendship with Jake and Joaquin—a young gay couple coping with AIDS—serves as a catalyst, bringing to light long-buried secrets and causing the disparate worlds of pain and privilege to collide.—From the Publisher

Cat’s Meow. Melissa De La Cruz. Illustrated by Kim Demarco. 2001. 224p. Scribner. Cat McAllister grew up as a Hollywood child star, spent her adolescence modeling in Japan, and now, as she celebrates her twenty-fifth birthday for the fourth time, she lives for velvet ropes, Moët & Chandon, gold-leaf invitations, and other fashionista prizes. But on her way up the social ladder, making her way past the who’s who and the what’s what, Cat finds herself stuck in that seventh circle of celebrity hell. What’s worse, her funds are running dry. What’s a girl to do? Marry rich. And so the ruckus begins, taking us from China for a baby adoption, to Paris for the couture shows, to the “it” world of Gotham. And that’s just the hors d’oeuvres. Punctuated with Kim DeMarco’s illustrations, Cat’s Meow is a spectacularly witty novel about a young woman looking for love, clothes, and what will make her truly happy in life.

Century: A Novel. Fred Mustard Stewart. 1981. 576p. William Morrow. This nationwide bestseller is the sage of a powerful and ambitious Italian-American family. Their story spans four generations and their adventures take them across two continents. It begins when a poverty-stricken gardener, Franco Spada, attempts to kidnap an Italian princess, Sylvia dell’Acqua. His crime is unsuccessful but a forbidden love springs up between the two to form the branches of a family tree that extends from old-world Europe to new-world America. From the plush offices of New York bankers to the glamorous film and fashion industries, the Spadas reach the heights of achievement and plunge into the depths of guilt and shame. But strong ties to their Italian heritage hold them together through the momentuous events of the century.

Chad Hanna. Walter Dumaux Edmonds. 1940. 548p. Little Brown. Chad Hanna, orphan, runs away from his duties as stable boy at the Yellow Bud Tavern and joins a traveling circus. The story is concerned mostly with circus folk and takes place in the Mohawk Valley in the 1930s. Made into a motion picture by the same name, starring Henry Fonda as Chad Hanna and Dorothy Lamour as Albany Yates, in the early 1940s.

Changed Man, A: A Novel. Francine Prose. 2005. 432p. HarperCollins. On an unseasonably warm spring afternoon, a young neo-Nazi named Vincent Nolan walks into the Manhattan office of World Brotherhood Watch, a human rights foundation headed by a charismatic Holocaust survivor, Meyer Maslow. Vincent announces that he wants to make a radical change in his life. But what is Maslow to make of this rough-looking stranger who claims to have read Maslow’s books, who has Waffen-SS tattoos under his shirtsleeves, and who says that his mission is to save guys like him from becoming guys like him? As he gradually turns into the sort of person who might actually be able to do that, Vincent also transforms those around him: Maslow, who fears that heroism has become a desk job; Bonnie Kalen, the foundation’s fund-raiser, a divorced single mother and a devoted believer in Maslow’s crusade against intolerance and injustice; and Bonnie’s teenage son, Danny, whose take on the world around him is at once openhearted, sharp-eyed, and as fundamentally decent as his mother’s. Masterfully plotted, darkly comic, A Changed Man illuminates the everyday transactions in our lives, exposing what remains invisible in plain sight in our drug-addled and media-driven culture. Remarkable for the author’s tender sympathy for her characters, A Changed Man poses the essential questions: What constitutes a life worth living? Is it possible to change? What does it mean to be a moral human being? The fearless intelligence, wit, and humanity that inform this novel make it Francine Prose’s most accomplished yet.

Charade. Sandra Brown. 1994. 405p. Warner Books. From Publishers Weekly: Weekly Soap opera star Cat Delaney gets a new heart—literally and figuratively speaking—in bestseller Brown’s latest contemporary romance. The heart transplant that beautiful, arrogant Cat endures in the first chapter transforms her soul along with her cardiovascular system. If Brown had first established Cat’s personality with some depth and credibility, that might have been the basis of an emotionally involving story. But since Cat is little more than a vessel for the concept, before we can blink, she is a good-hearted citizen who abandons stardom and Hollywood for San Antonio, TX., where she hosts a local TV program featuring children up for adoption. Cat hardly has a chance to enjoy her change of heart and her new heartthrob, bad-boy crime novelist Alex Pierce, because a stalker is after her. Whatever suspense might have been activated by this scenario is immediately stymied as Brown rushes through events whereby three potential heart donors are knocked down like dominoes: obviously the stalker is a bereaved nut determined to kill all the transplant recipients who might have received his lover’s heart. But Brown fails to develop even a modicum of tension, since the rushed pacing then slows to a crawl where nothing much happens except Cat’s cliche-ridden romance with Alex. Too late in the novel, we finally get a more full and sympathetic characterization of Cat. Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Chasing Fireflies: A Novel of Discovery. Charles Martin. 2007. 356p. Thomas Nelson. From Publishers Weekly: Just before T-boning her Impala into a train, a woman on a suicide run kicks her horrifically abused little boy, known only as Snoot—or to the state, John Doe 117—out of the car. Chase Walker, a reporter for the Brunswick Daily in Glen County, GA, is assigned to follow up on the boy, whose abandonment mirrors Chase’s own haunted past. The little boy, apparently mute, is an artistic prodigy who excels at chess and quickly works his way into Chase’s heart. Martin’s strength is in his memorable characters, especially Uncle Willie, whose fresh quips (“as out of place in South Georgia as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs”), penchant for Krispy Kreme doughnuts and mysterious past keep readers engrossed. Here, as in some of his other novels, Martin can’t resist piling on unnecessary tragedies; his characters and their issues are enough to keep the pages turning. Although the plot needs fine-tuning, Martin’s prose is lovely, and the flashback parallel stories of a grown man abandoned as a child and the neglected boy will ensure readers keep the Kleenex handy. © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Chesapeake Blue. Nora Roberts. 2002. 384p. Putnam Publishing Group. Seth Quinn is finally home. It’s been a long journey. After a harrowing boyhood with his drug-addicted mother, he’d been taken in by the Quinn family, growing up with three older brothers who’d watched over him with love. Now a grown man returning from Europe as a successful painter, Seth is settling down on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, surrounded once again by Cam, Ethan, and Phil, their wives and children, all the blessed chaos of the extended Quinn clan. Finally, he’s back in the little blue-and-white house where there’s always a boat at the dock, a rocker on the porch, and a dog in the yard. Still, a lot has changed in St. Christopher since he’s been gone—and the most intriguing change of all is the presence of Dru Whitcomb Banks. A city girl who’s opened a florist shop in this seaside town, she craves independence and the challenge of establishing herself without the influence of her wealthy connections. In Seth, she sees another kind of challenge—a challenge that she can’t resist. But storms are brewing that are about to put their relationship to the test. Dru’s past has made her sensitive to deception—and slow to trust. And Seth’s past has made him a target of blackmail—as a secret he’s kept hidden for years threatens to explode, destroying his new life and his new love. By the Same Author: Sea Swept (1998); Rising Tides (1998); Inner Harbor (1999).

Child Buyer, The. John Hersey. 1960. 258p. Alfred A. Knopf. Subtitled, “A Novel in the Form of Hearings before the Standing Committee on Education, Welfare, & Public Morality of a certain State Senate, Investigating the conspiracy of Mr. Wissey Jones, with others, to Purchase a Male Child, The Child Buyer is a biting commentary on some aspects of American education, on the uses of high intelligence, and oin the means of defending democracy. The hearings develop the suspense of a bizarre trial, and it soon becomes clear that Mr. Jones buys for his corporation children of a certain sort, and that he is eager to acquire a ten-year-old named Barry Rudd, who manifests the precocity of a potential genius.

Child of a Rainless Year. Jane M Lindskold. 2005. 400p. Tor Books. Middle-aged Mira Fenn knows she has an uncomfortably exotic past. As a small girl, she lived in a ornate old house in tiny Las Vegas, NM, tended by oddly silent servant women and ruled by her coldly flamboyant mother Colette. When Mira was nine, Colette went on one of her unexplained trips, only this time she never returned. Placed with foster parents, Mira was raised in Ohio, normal save for her passion for color. On gaining adulthood, she learned that she still owned the New Mexico house. She also learned that, as a condition of being allowed to adopt her, Mira’s foster parents had agreed to change their name, move to another state, and never ask why. Years later, going through family papers after the deaths of her elderly foster parents, Mira finds documents that pique her curiosity about her vanished mother and the reasons behind her strange childhood and adoption. Travelling back to New Mexico, she finds the house is and isn’t as she remembers it. Inside, it’s much the same. Outside, it’s been painted in innumerable colors. As Mira continues to investigate her mother’s life, events take stranger and stranger turns. The silent women reappear. Even as Mira begins to suspect the power to which she may be heir, the house itself appears to be waking up. Shot through with magic and the atmosphere of the Southwest, this singular fantasy novel has all the storytelling vigor of Jane Lindskold’s very popular Firekeeper series.

Child of Darkness. VC Andrews. 2005. 400p. Pocket. As a child, she was Baby Celeste, the one thing that kept her mother in touch with reality. But now her mother is in an institution, damaged by years of lies and secrets, and sixteen-year-old Celeste Atwell is alone in the world. Adopted by a wealthy couple, Wade and Ami Emerson, Celeste has everything a girl could desire: designer clothes, luxury cars, even a handsome boyfriend. But her new life is shrouded in mystery: Ami acts more like a girlfriend than Celeste’s adoptive mother—what mother would encourage her daughter to flirt outrageously and dress in racy outfits? Wade, meanwhile, stoically accepts his wife’s wild spending sprees and over-the-top behavior. Celeste is about to discover the true price of having it all—because the secrets hidden within the Emerson household are too dangerous to keep under wraps....

Child of Her People. Anne Cameron. 1987. 204p. Spinsters Ink. “For a story to be told, it must be told properly, and to tell a story properly, it must be told with respect.” In Child of Her People, an orphaned white infant, is found and adopted by Woman Walks Softly, the daughter of Strong Heart Woman. In her new family, Child of Her People is taught the ways of Cree warrior women through story and example. “She learned to talk the language of children, and all the games she played were preparation for the training she would need to become one of the adults.” Then Newcomer Crazies—incomprehensible beings who killed for no reason—flood onto the Good People’s lands. Through changes of season, age, time in life, and circumstance—those inevitable changes and the unexpected changes forced by the Newcomers—Child Of Her People is challenged, wounded, renewed, and challenged again. Child Of Her People is a story rich in captivating detail, ancient stories, and magic that imbues the strength and trust in the relationships between Cree mothers and daughters.—Jesse Larsen, from 500 Great Books by Women

Childforever. Ian McCulloch. 1996. 208p. The Mercury Press (Canada). After his father’s death, Will Sawnet learns that his mother was Native, and that he was adopted. Shocked and disoriented by the sudden discovery that his past was a lie, Will quits his newspaper job and takes to the road in desperate search of his real mother. This is a satisfying, compelling novel filled with humour, poignancy, tragedy, and caring detail, as Will drives north to the Red Clay Reserve, teetering between selves: is he Will Sawnet, the name his white parents always called him, or Billy Childforever, the ironic name his Cree girlfriend, Agnes, has given him? In Childforever, Cree-Scottish writer Ian McCulloch has created a powerful, urgent exploration of a crisis in identity and its resolution. About the Author: Ian McCulloch is a noted Canadian poet. His most recent collection is Parables and Rain (Penumbra Press, 1993). Other books include The Moon of Hunger and The Efficiency of Killers. He lives in North Bay, Ontario.

Childish Things. Marita van der Vyver. Translated from Afrikaans by Madeleine Biljon. 1996. 243p. Dutton. From the author of Entertaining Angels (1995), a bittersweet if at times pretentious evocation of adolescence in South Africa in the ’70s, a time of violent upheavals. Narrator Mart Vermaak, separated from her husband, is living in London with her young son in the 1990s, homesick but fearful of the violence that still threatens to destroy her native land. She begins her story with a recollection of her first day as a 16-year-old at the drab hostel attached to the local high school, when she met her roommate, the fearless and free-spirited Dalena. Mart’s recollections alternate with letters written in the recent past (1992-93) to a nameless figure who will soon be 17, the same age the child’s mother was when she was born. The letters, rounded out with newspaper quotes and political commentary, are with few exceptions sententious and self-conscious, and the identity of the child is soon apparent. The recollections, though, with their evocations of the Afrikaner noveau riche, and of the tedium and trauma of adolescence, give the story an appealing freshness. Mart’s parents live, like Dalena’s, on a farm; they are loyal Afrikaners who have never questioned apartheid, but their children are different. Simon, Mart’s elder brother (with whom Dalena falls in love), participates in South Africa’s incursion into Angola, then, disillusioned, joins the liberation struggle. His even more skeptical friend Pierre, Mart’s first love, is killed fighting; Dalena, pregnant, leaves school and gives up her child for adoption; and Mart, as riots break out in Soweto, sadly realizes that she is coming of age in a world where the usual teenage crises have been superseded by more urgent, and far more grave, realities. An engaging account of adolescence, those fraught years when everything is deadly serious and nothing can be taken for granted—especially in a place like South Africa. — From Kirkus Reviews. Copyright © 1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Children of the Night. Dan Simmons. 1992. GP Putnam’s Sons. Count Dracula kicks off the coffin lid again in this updated vampire tale, ready to stalk through the rubble of post-Communist Europe. This time, however, the count’s sanguinary tippling habits may hold the cure for both AIDS and cancer. The key lies with a Romanian orphan adopted by American hematologist Kate Neuman; the infant, Joshua, has a series of rare diseases, and can survive only because his body extracts and processes genetic material from blood transfusions. If the virus in his system responsible for this ability can be isolated, his diseases could be remedied and medical marvels would be within Kate’s grasp. The drawback is that Joshua has inherited his talents from the decrepit but murderous Vlad Dracula, and this patriarch of an accursed clan of blood-drinkers is more interested in perpetuating his power than in providing miracle cures for the masses. Simmons ( Song of Kali ) makes Children ’s fantastical scientific claims easy to swallow, although the medical jargon in some of the American scenes is thicker than Bela Lugosi’s accent (try out “hypogammaglobulinemia”). Still, the offers a mesmerizing tour through the ghostly, gray tatters of Romania.

Children of the Vampire. Jeanne Kalogridis. 1995. 352p. (The Diaries of the Family Dracul #2). Delacorte Press. From Publishers Weekly: Both a prequel to Bram Stoker’s Dracula and a sequel to Kalogridis’s own Covenant with the Vampire (1994), this second novel in a projected trilogy suffers by comparison to both. Arkady Tsepesh, the protagonist of Covenant, flees the castle of his great-granduncle, Vlad, Count Dracula, but he can’t elude the influence of the vampire bite that has bound him to his sire, as it has the first-born male of each generation of Tsepeshs for the past four centuries. Meanwhile, Arkady’s wife, Mary, who has given her husband up for dead, moves to Amsterdam and marries Doctor Jan Van Helsing. Neither Stefan, her son by Arkady, nor Abraham, whom the Van Helsings have adopted, have reason to suspect they are not blood brothers until the family curse draws Stefan to Vlad’s castle in Transylvania. Gratuitous scenes of sex and violence perpetrated by the merciless Vlad and Arkady’s hedonistic vampire sister, Zsuzsanna, fail to alleviate the tedium of the narrative, told in diary format through a number of voices. Notwithstanding its occasional plot twists, this novel does little more than rehash the plot elements of Covenant with the Vampire while setting the stage for events that will occur in the last book in the series. © 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Children of the Waters: A Novel. Carleen Brice. 2009. 336p. One World/Ballantine. Still reeling from divorce and feeling estranged from her teenage son, Trish Taylor is in the midst of salvaging the remnants of her life when she uncovers a shocking secret: her sister is alive. For years Trish believed that her mother and infant sister had died in a car accident. But the truth is that her mother fatally overdosed and that Trish’s grandparents put the baby girl up for adoption because her father was black. After years of drawing on the strength of her black ancestors, Billie Cousins is shocked to discover that she was adopted. Just as surprising, after finally overcoming a series of health struggles, she is pregnant—a dream come true for Billie but a nightmare for her sweetie, Nick, and for her mother, both determined to protect Billie from anything that may disrupt her well-being. About the Author: Carleen Brice was recently named 2008 “Breakout Author of the Year” by The African American Literary Awards Show for her debut novel Orange Mint and Honey, which was also a selection of the Essence Book Club. She is also the author of Walk Tall: Affirmations for People of Color, and Lead Me Home: An African American’s Guide Through the Grief Journey and edited the anthology Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number: Black Women Explore Midlife. She lives in Denver, CO, with her husband and two cats.

China Run: A Novel. David Ball. 2002. 384p. Simon & Schuster. For Allison Turk, the journey to China to claim the daughter she is adopting had been a trying experience, a series of false starts and long waits. Forced to travel without her husband, she makes the trip with her nine-year-old stepson. She hopes it will be a bonding experience, but so far this hasn’t happened. When she finally holds the little girl in her arms, however, she knows that the trip has been worth all the effort and aggravation. In only two days, she will board a plane for home, taking with her the greatest pride and joy she has ever known. Then suddenly everything unravels. Summoned to an emergency meeting of the adoptive parents, Allison is told a mistake has been made—a “clerical error.” The Americans have been given healthy infants rather than children with special needs, for which they are technically qualified, and they are told they must exchange their babies for different children. Allison is faced with a terrible decision: Should she capitulate and surrender the child she has come to love intensely, or risk an attempt to reach the American consulate in Shanghai, where she might at least have a chance to negotiate and keep her baby? Joining with several other American couples caught in the same dilemma, Allison chooses to run. There is a more sinister reason underlying the nightmare than they know about, and their flight spawns a massive manhunt led by a ruthless police colonel wielding all the terrifying apparatus of a police state. What ensues is tense, dramatic, and totally believable—a race in which Allison not only struggles with her infant daughter and recalcitrant stepson, but is caught in a political tug-of-war that forces her to display a depth of courage and a strength of will she had never known she possessed. Inspired by a true-life incident, China Run takes the reader on a breathtaking chase across China that is gripping, compulsively readable, and frighteningly real.

Chocolate Charlie Comes Home. Tom Fitzgerald. 1978. 350p. Warner Books. Charlie may have changed the lawyer into a bachelor-father and made an influence on his career and friends, but can his finances take it or will he lose Charlie forever?

Chosen Child. Vicky Maxwell. 1973. Ace Books. She was a chosen child, her adoptive parents said.  But a burning desire to find her real mother drives a beautiful young woman to the other side of the world.

Chosen Parents. Mel Arrighi. 1986. 163p. St Martin’s Press. Described as “a novel of deadly games and broken taboos,” this is the story of two wealthy young people, who, after their hated adoptive parents are killed in a plane crash, choose a new and ideal father and mother for themselves.

Christmas Bell, The. Ira Hughes. 2001. 134p. Cedar Hill Press. The Christmas Bell is the story of a young woman’s search for her roots and the secrets she uncovers one special Christmas. At Christmas time thirty years ago, Taylor Winfield, at three months of age, was adopted. She was told there was nothing known about her birth parents. However, when her adoptive mother lay dying, she told Taylor that the secret of where she came from was in a bell, a bell Taylor hadn’t known existed. This information sends Taylor on a search for the bell and her roots. What she finds on this journey is truly a Christmas story, as she uncovers secrets decades old. About the Author: Ira Hughes lives near Knighstown, Indiana. In addition to novels she writes poetry and short stories. The Christmas Bell is her second published novel.

Christmas Jars. Jason Wright. 2005. 122p. Shadow Mountain. From Library Journal: Journalist Hope Jensen is devastated when her adoptive mother dies from ovarian cancer shortly after Christmas. Adding to her woes, her apartment is broken into and all of her emergency cash stolen. Hope then discovers that someone has left her a gift-a glass mason jar labeled “Christmas Jar,” filled with money. Using her investigative skills, she learns that in recent years, several people have reported receiving these mysterious jars in times of need. Hope’s search leads her to the Maxwell family and their generous Christmas tradition—and to some truths about her birth mother. In the tradition of Catherine Ryan Hyde’s Pay It Forward, Wright’s holiday novel could inspire others to Christmas generosity. © 2005 Reed Business Information. About the Author: Jason Wright was raised in Charlottesville, VA, and attended college there. After completing his studies, Jason began an entrepreneurial career focused on building and selling businesses. He has since been active with a nonprofit organization in the Washington, D.C., area. His editorial articles on politics, pop culture, and public policy have appeared in nearly one hundred papers nationwide, and his work is featured in The 101 Best Opinion Editorials published by iUniverse. Jason resides near Washington, D.C., with his wife, Kodi, and their children, Oakli, Jadi, and Kason. By the Same Author: Christmas Jars Reunion (2009).

Christmas Wish, The. Rexanne Becnel. 1993. Dell Books. Supermodel Lucia V.—nee Lucy Ann Vargas—returns to her hometown of Waverly, RI, to look for the illegitimate daughter she gave up for adoption years earlier. Having run from a lonely childhood and an unplanned pregnancy at the age of 17, she found a surrogate mother and confidante in Angie, her manager, and acquired international fame and fortune. Her search for her daughter, Erin, is filled with painful memories and new discoveries as she gets to know Gil Cooper, the handsome young principal of Erin’s school, as well as Erin herself, from whom she conceals her true identity. Joe and Diane Fielding, Erin’s adoptive parents, are resistant to Lucy’s return, while struggling through a financial crisis. Meanwhile, Gil’s concern for the girl’s well-being, his own fears as a widowed adoptive parent and his feelings for Lucy intensify. Lucy also struggles with her attraction to Gil, and their relationship is tested when Lucy is forced to reveal her clandestine relationship with Erin. — From Publisher’s Weekly (Dec.)

Cider House Rules, The. John Irving. 1985. 560p. William Morrow & Co. [This book] is far from a total waste of time. Irving has studied up on apple-growing [this is interesting] and early 20th-century obstetrics [this is gruesome]. ... Irving has been praised by feminists. Am I entirely wrong in finding his gynecological details pruriently sadistic? His sentimentality is even harder to stomach. Homer saying “I love you” to Dr. Larch and then discovering he’s addressed a cadaver by mistake; lonely Dr. Larch kissing his orphans good night after Homer’s departure (“How he wished he had kissed Homer more, when he had the chance!”); the orphans conducting a little ceremony of farewell for one of their number who has been adopted; Homer having a cheery heart-to-heart pep talk with his adolescent son about masturbation—the sugar content in these scenes may be hazardous to your teeth.—Walter Clemons (Newsweek)

Circle of Friends, A. Maeve Binchy. 1990. 565p. Franklin Library. Big, soft-featured Benny, an adored only daughter, and Eve, the little bird-like orphan brought up by the nuns, are best friends in the small Irish town of Knockglen. On their first day at University College, Dublin, an accident brings the pair together with fellow students Nan Malone and Jack Foley, and new friendships are quickly struck. But beneath their carefree student existence, trouble is brewing for the circle of friends. Benny, the good-natured clown of the group, always seems to draw the short straw in life, while Nan, selfish and very attractive, takes what she wants without expecting to pay for it. And Eve, intensely loyal to Benny, and resentful of Nan’s careless optimism, becomes obsessed with the need to avenge Benny’s disappointments.

Circles of Stone. AJ Garrotto. 2003. 244p. Hilliard & Harris Publishers. A letter from a woman claiming knowledge about Natalia’s Peruvian birth mother begins the supermodel’s odyssey to the origins and meaning of her existence. Along the way she encounters a wise spiritual guide, Fr. Gregory Martindale, director of a Sedona retreat center. From the Red Rock country of Northern Arizona, Natalia is drawn to the orphanage in Lima where she was born. Her hope is that the nuns at Ángel Guardián can fill the gaps in her life story. As the tale of her birth and adoption unfolds, Natalia uncovers a conspiracy of carefully scripted secrets and lies that can possibly destroy the only family she has ever known. Upon returning to the States to face the consequences of what she has learned in Peru, the professional and economic priorities that have driven Natalia to elite status in the fashion industry begin to shift. Circles of Stone is an uplifting story of courage and love about an adoptee’s journey to the center of her being.

Citizen of the Galaxy. Robert A Heinlein. 1957. 302p. Scribner. SLAVE: Brought to Sargon in chains as a child—unwanted by all save a one-legged beggar—Thorby learned well the wiles of the street people and the mysterious ways of his crippled master ... OUTLAW: Hunted by the police for some unknown treasonous acts committed by his beloved owner, Thorby risked his life to deliver a dead man’s message and found himself both guest and prisoner aboard an alien spaceship ... CITIZEN: Unaware of his role in an ongoing intrigue, Thorby became one of the freest of the free in the entire galaxy as the adopted son of a noble space captain ... until he became a captive in an interstellar prison that offered everything but the hope of escape!

Civil Wars: A Novel. Rosellen Brown. 1984. 419p. Knopf. In this book, a couple who were active in the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s—so much so that they spent their honeymoon in jail on a hunger strike—have grown older, and apart, and their lives have not been as nearly as interesting or as satisfying as those early days. Then suddenly they are the guardians of two children who were raised in a racist home and their lives are turned upside down again. To quote, “ Rosellen Brown has written a large, passionate novel about a couple, Jessie and Teddy Carll, once heroically involved in the Civil Rights Movement and now staying in the Deep South, a couple who suddenly, just as their marriage is in crisis, are forced by a family disaster to take into their home a boy and girl brought up by emphatically segregationist parents.” This is Brown’s greatly admired third novel (she also has several books of short stories and poetry). By the Same Author: Tender Mercies.

Civil Wars of Jonah Moran, The: A Novel. Marjorie Reynolds. 1999. 336p. William Morrow & Co. A young woman fights to defend her disabled brother against charges of arson and finds the past intruding in bittersweet ways as her first love comes back into her life and she learns the truth about her long-dead father. This time out, the Washington-based Reynolds (The Starlite Drive-in, 1997) sets her story in a logging town on the Olympic Peninsula. Not only about love, romance, and family, the narrative also sympathetically examines the uneasy relations between the local whites and the Native Americans of a nearby reservation. Jessica Moran, now in her mid-30s, has returned home after leaving as a teenager to live in California. She’s not ready to forgive her mother, Lila, the local mill-owner, for her father’s death 19 years ago. She does want, however, to help her younger brother, Jonah, who has always had a condition similar to autism. Although Jonah doesnt relate well to people, hes an expert on the Civil War, whose battles he endlessly reenacts with miniature soldiers. When a suspicious fire kills three out of four paroled sex offenders living in a halfway house, the townspeople are not unhappy, but, worse, Jonah is suspect number one. The evidence? A model soldier found on the premises. Callum Luke, a Native American lawyer now working for the government, arrives to investigate. In addition, he’s Jessica’s first love and the father of the daughter she gave up for adoption in Californiaat her mothers insistence. As Jessica fights to protect Jonah, she’s harassed by the fire’s lone survivor, a molester. Plus, she clashes with Callum; they later make love, only to quarrel again, when she reveals the daughters existence. Eventually the facts about the fire and her fathers drowning bring vindications and reconciliationsand with Callum ready to forgive, Jessica wins some civil wars of her own. Well-done characters in an unevenly paced tale that takes its time but still delivers. About the Author: Marjorie Reynolds was born in Indiana, where her novel takes place, and later earned a degree in journalism from Indiana University. Formerly the regional advertising director of Cineplex Odeon, she now works at a movie advertising agency. She lives with her family on Mercer Island, Washington.—Description from Kirkus Reviews; ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Claire Voyant. Saralee Rosenberg. 2004. 384p. Avon Trade. Of course the future is a mystery. But the past? This is nuts! Talk about ruin-your-day flights. I’m headed to Florida, when the elderly man seated next to me collapses on my tray table. I swear, if I’d known this was his final boarding call, I would have offered him my pretzels or my New York Times. But no, I was too busy feeling bloated, anxious, depressed, unloved, a failure, and did I mention bloated? You’d be bummed too if you were almost thirty, living back home in Plainview, Long Island, with your at-war parents and loser siblings. If your acting career was such a bust your last film was an X-ray. If your boyfriend and your agent dumped you the same week, but great news!—They’re in love with each other. Could things possibly get any worse? Do you even need to ask? That man on the flight? We were related. And my life story? Nothing like I thought. Oh, and then this fall in the shower? Opened up my psychic senses. Bottom line? I knew nothing about my real past, but suddenly my future was coming in loud and clear! You’ve got to follow me on this amazing spiritual adventure that sent my life into a tailspin. I promise you love, laughter, oh-my-God secrets, and a ride to the “other side” you’ll never forget. But lock the bathroom door. You’re not coming out until you’ve heard it all. Love, Claire. About the Author: Saralee Rosenberg is the author of A Little Help from Above, Claire Voyant, and Fate and Ms. Fortune. She lives on Long Island (where else?) with her husband and three children.

Cold Moon Honor. Lauri Olsen. 1998. 182p. Avalon Books. Game management officer Terra Bartlett loves two things above all else: her work with wildlife in Montana’s majestic mountains, and the family who adopted her as an infant from the Crow Indian reservation. When Whitman Bull Chief, who blends traditional Native American culture with contemporary non-Indian ways, steals Terra’s heart, he is eager to introduce her to Crow traditions. Refusing to go to the reservation with him, Terra resents her unknown birth parents, who she feels rejected her. A life-threatening experience jolts Terra into realizing she cannot move forward in her life with Whit until she addresses the issue of her adoption. Returning to the Crow reservation, Terra confronts the people who hold the key to the past and, ultimately, to her future. About the Author: Lauri Olsen is inspired by three things: her love for animals, the beauty of Montana sunrises, and the excitement each day brings. Lauri’s first novel, Big Sky Dreams, showcased the splendor of southwestern Montana. Currently researching her next novel, Lauri encourages readers to explore their heritages, practice tolerance, and dream on every sunset.

Color Blind. Sammy Weygand. 1999. 235p. Windsor House Publications. The story of a poor black farmer, who has lost his wife and child through a tragic storm, the following years of lonely desperation and a stark realistic night when a man comes to a finalization his life has no meaning are just some of the things that makes my book unique. The story of simple times and people, the willingness to give of himself to raise a child of a different race alone, in hard and desperate times. To withstand the barrage of confusion, to endure the pain of rejection and still love someone are just more reasons Color Blind is unique. A man who is gentle in spite of his size, yet strong as anyone when it comes to protecting his ward, a boy that has to walk a mile in the other man’s shoes. A story of love that has no equal. A story of values, honestly, hope and days gone by. A time when neighbors cared and helped each other. This is Color Blind.

Coming Home: A Novel. Jennie L Hansen. 1998. 189p. Covenant Communications, Inc. Susan MacKendrick is a top-notch trauma surgeon with a haunting secret. As a young girl she made a decision, and despite her resolve never to look back, a tragic shooting one night reawakens the buried regrets. Now her life is forever changed by two young boys, one with every advantage, the other with none at all. Since he lost his wife in a tragic accident, Dr. Brad Williams has felt his life spiraling out of control. His five daughters are growing up and away from him, and he can only watch helplessly. Some days the only thing that keeps him going is the knowledge that one day he will see his beloved wife again. Then one night, he meets Dr. Susan MacKendrick. With her latest novel, Coming Home, best-selling author Jennie Hansen once again creates an intriguing drama for every woman who still believes in love.—Publisher’s Blurb

Coming Unglued. Rebeca Seitz. 2008. 312p. (Sisters, Ink Series #2). B&H Publishing Group. Coming Unglued is the second book in the Sisters, Ink series of novels for women (Sisters, Ink [2008]; Perfect Piece [2009]; and Scrapping Plans [2009]). At the center of the creativity and humor are four unlikely young adult sisters, each separately adopted during early childhood into the loving home of Marilyn and Jack Sinclair. Ten years after their mother Marilyn has died, the multi-racial Sinclair sisters (Meg, Kendra, Tandy, and Joy) still return to her converted attic scrapbooking studio in the small town of Stars Hill, Tennessee, to encourage each other through life’s highs and lows. They’ve even turned their artistic passion into a new local scrapbooking business known as Sisters, Ink. Coming Unglued focuses on painter and musician Kendra who struggles with her sense of self-worth—a struggle that only intensifies when she realizes a “friendship” developed with a guy at a jazz club is actually an emotional affair. With her sisters’ help, Kendra strives to do what’s right, embracing the call to safeguard her heart and mind and hold fast to God’s truth and grace. About the Author: Rebeca Seitz is the author of Prints Charming and the founder and president of Glass Road Public Relations, a company dedicated solely to representing novelists who write from a Christian worldview. She has previously worked with authors including Ted Dekker, Frank Peretti, Robin Jones Gunn, and Brandilyn Collins. Seitz lives with her husband and son in Fulton, KY.

Confession, The. Beverly Lewis. 1997. 286p. (The Heritage of Lancaster County Series, No. 2). Bethany House. Katie Lapp’s identity was shattered when she found out she was adopted. She left behind the Amish ways to pursue a life she’d never know. By the Same Author: The Shunning and The Reckoning, volumes 1 and 3 in the series.

Confinement. Carrie Brown. 2004. 368p. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. On a snowy night in the winter of 1946, Arthur Henning arrives at a New York banker’s country estate. All he has with him are his young son, his sewing machine, and the painful history of the refugee—the home in Vienna he left behind, the wife and infant daughter who perished in London’s blitz, and the relatives and friends who disappeared into the abyss of the Holocaust. He has come to begin a new life and to forget. Once an expert tailor, now he is employed as a chauffeur. He drives Mr. Duvall to work in the city, Mrs. Duvall to her shopping, their daughter, Agatha, to school. The job gives Arthur solace. There’s a cottage for him and his son, Toby, to live in, congeniality in the mansion’s kitchen with the other servants, pleasure in watching Toby grow up alongside charming little Agatha. And so there he has remained for nearly a decade, hidden, unable to confront his shattered faith, his fear, and the measure of everything he has lost. Hidden, that is, until life steps in to release Arthur from his seclusion. On orders from Mr. Duvall, he must drive Agatha to her own confinement in that peculiarly American institution of the 1950s, a home for unwed mothers. The Duvalls’ plan to give the baby away shocks Arthur from his emotional slumber. The story of these two people—a man who has lost his past and a girl who is forced to give up her future—winds its way to a conclusion that is both inevitable and wholly unpredictable.

Constancia Herself. Margaret Widdemer. 1945. Farrar & Rinehart. Constancia Hartt, beautiful young socialite of Westchester and New York, finds out on the eve of her marriage to a famous geneticist, that she is an adopted child of very dubious parentage.

Consuelo. George Sand (Pseudonym of Amandine Lucille Aurore Dupin) (1804-1876). 1842. Originally published in France. Although she is an orphan, Consuelo’s voice wins her a place in a convent music school. Later she becomes a music tutor for a Bohemian aristocratic family. About the Author: Sand was a prolific (nearly 60 novels) writer who shocked Paris with her own sexual escapades, but in her writing dealt with the serious issues of her time and was identified with the Romantic literary movement. Sand’s strong, independent women characters would win her both the adoration of many other writers (mostly women) and the wrath of many reviewers (mostly men). She and her characters are enthusiastic, outspoken, sententious, with a bold manifesto of women’s independence and a legitimate claim to emotional and sexual fulfillment. She was unique in her approach as a woman who refused to trivialize her craft because of her gender. Sand became known more for her eccentric lifestyle and love affairs with famous contemporaries, such as Alfred de Musset and Frederic Chopin, than her career as a writer. [Pictured: 2004 paperback edition; 808p.; Fredonia Books].

Corridor of Storms. William Sarabande. 1988. 432p. Bantam. Panoramic, authentic, explosively dramatic—this is the breathtaking new series “The First Americans,” which began with Book I, Beyond the Sea of Ice. Now the heroic great hunter Torka, his woman Lonit, and his adopted son Karana emerge from a land forbidden to all men, a land where mountains walk and spirits speak. Across the fierce glacial tundra Torka leads his people—survivors of a horrifying natural disaster—to a winter camp where many bands gather to hunt the great mammoth.

Cradle, The. Patrick Somerville. 2009. 208p. Little, Brown & Co. Early one summer morning, Matthew Bishop kisses his still-sleeping wife Marissa, gets dressed and eases his truck through Milwaukee, bound for the highway. His wife, pregnant with their first child, has asked him to find the antique cradle taken years before by her mother Caroline when she abandoned Marissa, never to contact her daughter again. Soon to be a mother herself, Marissa now dreams of nothing else but bringing her baby home to the cradle she herself slept in. His wife does not know—does not want to know—where her mother lives, but Matt has an address for Caroline’s sister nearby and, with any luck, he will be home in time for dinner. Only as Matt tries to track down his wife’s mother, he discovers that Caroline, upon leaving Marissa, has led a life increasingly plagued by impulse and irrationality, a mysterious life that grows more inexplicable with each new lead Matt gains, and door he enters. As hours turn into days and Caroline’s trail takes Matt from Wisconsin to Minnesota, Illinois, and beyond in search of the cradle, Matt makes a discovery that will forever change Marissa’s life, and faces a decision that will challenge everything he has ever known. Elegant and astonishing, Patrick Somerville tells the story of one man’s journey into the heart of marriage, parenthood, and what it means to be a family. Confirming the arrival of an exuberantly talented new writer, The Cradle is an uniquely imaginative debut novel that radiates with wisdom and wonder. About the Author: Patrick Somerville grew up in Green Bay, WI, attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and later earned his MFA in creative writing from Cornell University. He is the author of the story collection Trouble (Vintage, 2006), and his writing has appeared in One Story, Epoch and Best American Nonrequired Reading 2007. He lives with his wife in Chicago, and is currently the Blattner Visiting Professor of Creative Writing at Northwestern University.

Cradle of Dreams. Joseph Bentz. 2001. 366p. Bethany House. The medication brought on depression, irritability, and insomnia—misery beyond what she had imagined. Yet Laura is willing to endure that and more, if only it will lead to a child. But hope fades with each new phone calll—each prognosis another blow to endure. Unwilling to give up until she has seen the last expert on earth, Laura becomes consumed with overcoming her empty arms. But why is it that she seems to struggle alone, while her husband drags his heels at every turn? Isn’t this their dream she’s fighting to fulfill? Humiliation. For Paul, that word describes the whole unpleasant process. And for what? To achieve a dream no one can guarantee? He and his wife have rewarding careers, common interests and hobbies, nieces and nephews to enjoy. Now all that was good and right and comfortable about their marriage has faded with the realization of this one strike against them. Against him. Paul, feeling he owes his wife something that can never be repaid, simply wants to see Laura smile again. But at what cost? About the Author: Novelist and free-lance writer, Joseph Bentz is also a professor of American literature and journalism at Azusa Pacific University in Southern California. The family lives in California where Joseph is already at work on his third novel.

Cries in the Drizzle: A Novel. Yu Hua. Translated by Allan H Barr. 2007. 320p. Anchor. Yu Hua’s beautiful, heartbreaking novel Cries in the Drizzle follows a young Chinese boy throughout his childhood and adolescence during the reign of Chairman Mao. The middle son of three, Sun Guanglin is constantly neglected ignored by his parents and his younger and older brother. Sent away at age six to live with another family, he returns to his parents’ house six years later on the same night that their home burns to the ground, making him even more a black sheep. Yet Sun Guanglin’s status as an outcast, both at home and in his village, places him in a unique position to observe the changing nature of Chinese society, as social dynamics—and his very own family—are changed forever under Communist rule. With its moving, thoughtful prose, Cries in the Drizzle is a stunning addition to the wide-ranging work of one of China’s most distinguished contemporary writers. About the Author: Yu Hua was born in 1960 in Zhejiang, China. He finished high school during the Cultural Revolution and worked as a dentist for five years before beginning to write in 1983. He has published four novels, six collections of stories, and three collections of essays. His work has been translated into French, German, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Japanese, and Korean. In 2002 Yu Hua became the first Chinese writer to win the prestigious James Joyce Foundation Award. His novel To Live was awarded Italy’s Premio Grinzane Cavour in 1998, and To Live and Chronicle of a Blood Merchant were named two of the last decade’s ten most influential books in China. Yu Hua lives in Beijing. Allan H. Barr is the translator of a collection of short stories by Yu Hua, and his research on Ming and Qing literature has been published both in the West and in China. He is Professor of Chinese at Pomona College.

Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard, The. Anatole France (pseudonym for Jacques Anatole François Thibault). Translation and introduction by Lafcadio Hearn. 1881. When first published in French in 1881, this novel made its author famous; it is the story of a man who sells his library to provide a dowry for the daughter of his former lover, whom he has “rescued” from an abusive boarding school. About the Author: Anatole France was Writer, critic, one of the major figures of French literature in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1921. France’s skepticism appears already in his early works, but later the hostility toward bourgeois values led him to support French Communist Party. In the 1920 his writings were put on the Index of Forbidden Books of the Roman Catholic Church. [Pictured: 1931 Dodd Mead edition]. Read it On-Line!

Crimson Angels. Susan Turner. 2001. 255p. iUniverse.com. Crimson Angels is a touching story of a small town couple going through the adoption process. However, somewhere along the line something went terribly wrong. Crimson Angels is a must-read for anyone interested in international adoption. The story will take the reader along the process. However, the ending may surprise you. Sometimes, things don’t always happen the way they should.

Crossing By Night. David Aaron. 1993. 363p. William Morrow & Co. Grand espionage-adventure at the dawn of WW II, with the lovely wrinkle that the spy is a woman: American-born Elizabeth Pack, whose real-life exploits on behalf of the British take on stirring fictional form courtesy of Aaron. It’s unclear how close Aaron sticks to the facts: One doubts that the real Elizabeth Pack found herself locked in a dungeon, forced to whip a naked Polish foreign minister as he begged, “Be cruel to me!” But no matter. There’s historical ambience to spare here, starting in 1935, when Elizabeth—the pregnant, spunky young wife of British diplomat Arthur Pack—attends a dinner thrown by Vita Sackville-West and hears Winston Churchill warn of global conflict to come. After Arthur—fearing disgrace because Elizabeth became pregnant before they married—gives up their newborn for adoption, Elizabeth plunges into the bloody cusp of current affairs, accompanying Arthur to Spain and tending the wounded on both sides of the Civil War. There, she falls in love with a Spanish diplomat and daringly rescues him from prison—a feat noted by British spymaster William “Intrepid” Stephenson, who recruits her to ferret out Polish advances in cracking the Nazi coding machine known as “Enigma.” In Warsaw, Elizabeth beds and falls for a Polish count, whom she turns, garnering much spy-data. She returns to England in triumph, only to be asked by Churchill to go back to Poland to steal a new-model Enigma. Hence the rendezvous with the Polish foreign minister, who in thanks for her strong wrist gives her an Enigma. In an extended, white-knuckle climax, Elizabeth smuggles the machine by train through Germany; dinner with a grateful King George VI follows. Great fun, featuring one of the strongest, most appealing heroines in recent thrillerdom. Aaron’s best yet. —Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Crossley Baby, The. Jacqueline Carey. 2003. 287p. Random House Publishing Group. Bridget, Jean, and Sunny Crossley grow up in modest circumstances on Long Island, and all end up in the New York City of the 1980s. Free spirit Bridget, the oldest, is a well-traveled, sometime massage therapist in the East Village. Outspoken and ambitious Jean is a corporate headhunter in double-breasted power suits who lives in a gleaming Upper East Side tower. Harvard-educated Sunny, the youngest and sweetest sister, drifts from eligible boyfriend to eligible boyfriend until she falls for Leon, a Harlem real estate developer, and starts a family. When Bridget dies unexpectedly during what should have been a routine operation, she leaves behind a ten-month-old girl named Jade. The big question becomes: Who should take the baby? The obvious and expert Sunny, or the never-at-home career woman Jean? The answer is, of course, more complicated than either sister could have anticipated.

Cry of the Dove, The. Fadia Faqir. 2007. 304p. Grove Press, Black Cat. Timely and lyrical, The Cry of the Dove is the story of one young woman and an evocative portrait of forbidden love and violated honor in a culture whose reverberations are felt profoundly in our world today. Salma has committed a crime punishable by death in her Bedouin tribe of Hima, Levant: she had sex out of wedlock and became pregnant. Despite the insult it would commit against her people, Salma has the child and suddenly finds herself a fugitive on the run from those seeking to restore their honor. Salma is rushed into protective custody where her newborn is ripped from her arms, and where she sits alone for years before being ushered to safety in England. Away from her Bedouin village, Salma is an asylum-seeker trying to melt into the crowd, under pressure to reassess her way of life. She learns English customs from her landlady and befriends a Pakistani girl who is also on the run, with whose help Salma finally forges a new identity. But just as things settle, the need to return for her lost daughter overwhelms her, and one fateful day, Salma risks everything to go back and find her. Visit the Author’s website.

Crying in the Dark. Ann Halam (pseudonym of Gwyneth Jones). 1998. 170p. Orion Children’s (London). Bullied and abused by her adoptive family, Elinor retreats into the restless vengful past that haunts thier 17th century home. At first it’s a way to esacpe, but soon she’s a prisoner and her struggle for freedom almost ends in tragedy. But at the last moment, she is rescued by her mother who has finally come to look after her herself.

Crystal. VC Andrews.1998. 192p. (Orphans Series #2). Pocket Books. Crystal is the brains of the gang, always thinking on her feet, and almost always correct in her suspicions. Unlike Janet, her foster experience isn’t so bad. She’s taken in by a couple who admittedly seem to be lost in their own world, but they certainly treat her with love. However, an unexpected horrible event turns Crystal’s okay scenario into a nightmare.

Curling. Robert Boles. 1967. 259p. Houghton Mifflin. Author’s second novel, about Chelsea Meredith Burlingame, a young black man who had been raised as a son by a wealthy white man and his second wife. It is in the acquisition of his peculiar name that the conflicts of his life originate.

Dalva. Jim Harrison. 1988. 324p. Dutton/Lawrence. The celebrated author of Legends of the Fall has produced a masterpiece in this magnificent full-scale novel portraying five generations of a pioneer American family. This is the story of Dalva, and the story is told in her voice, seen through her eyes, and expressed with her passion and strength. Dalva has many lovers but her first and great love is a half-Sioux whose illegitimate child she bears. This is the story of Dalva’s search for her lost son who was given away for adoption. It is also the tempestuous and strange history of Dalva’s family as told by her pioneer ancestor, a naturalist and explorer who vividly re-creates in his diary the trials of the Indians with the invasion of the white man. By the Same Author: The Road Home.

Daniel Deronda. George Eliot (pseudonym of Mary Ann Evans, 1819-1880). 1876. 274p. William Blackwood & Sons. George Eliot’s final novel and her most ambitious work, Daniel Deronda contrasts the moral laxity of the British aristocracy with the dedicated fervor of Jewish nationalists. Crushed by a loveless marriage to the cruel and arrogant Grandcourt, Gwendolen Harleth seeks salvation in the deeply spiritual and altruistic Daniel Deronda. But Deronda, profoundly affected by the discovery of his Jewish ancestry, is ultimately too committed to his own cultural awakening to save Gwendolen from despair.

Dark Angel. Karen Harper. 2005. 400p. Mira. One morning Leah Kurtz goes to wake her adopted infant daughter and instantly knows something is terribly wrong. She is convinced that her baby has been switched with another child. Afraid that no one will believe her, Leah turns to an unlikely ally, despite the fact that her Amish community frowns on its members seeking help in the outside world. Dr. Mark Morelli studies the genetic illnesses that plague the Amish, but he has other, private reasons for coming to Maplecreek—reasons that may be tied to the mysterious disappearance of Leah’s daughter. Together, Leah and Mark must uncover a conspiracy—before there are deadly consequences.

Dark River Passage. J Larry Jacobson. 2006. 325p. Taproot Books. A youth, torn from his Virginia frontier family during the Revolutionary War, is adopted into a radically different culture—not once, but twice. A true-to-history novel based on the early years of Wm. Walker of the peaceful Delaware (Lenape) and warring Wyandotte (Huron) Nations of Ohio. About the Author: J. Larry Jacobson and his wife, Sara, are both Methodist ministers. They have served people in Oklahoma—once called Indian Territory—for nearly 50 years. They value friendships and experiences with many Native Americans. In addition, they have ministered in the Philippines and have roots in NC, VA, KY, and OH—states involved with the “first frontier.”

Dark Star. Lorna Moon. 1929. The Bobbs-Merrill Co. The story of a dockside bar owner who tries to keep the girl she has raised from infancy, this novel served as the basis for the motion picture “Min and Bill” (1931), adapted by Frances Marion and Marion Jackson, directed by George W. Hill, and starring Marie Dressler, Wallace Beery, Dorothy Jordan and Marjorie Rambeau. At the time this book was published, its author, the Scottish-born novelist and screenwriter Lorna Moon (1886-1930), was in dire straights, despite having borne a child out of wedlock with director William DeMille, the unhappily married older brother of Cecil B. DeMille, who raised the boy as his own son after a carefully arranged adoption from a Southern California orphanage (See, My Secret Mother: Lorna Moon by Richard de Mille). Thanks largely to the promotional efforts of her friends Mary Pickford and Frances Marion, Moon’s novel became a popular success and was optioned by MGM, though Moon died of tuberculosis before the film’s release.

Darkness. John Saul. 1991. 341p. Bantam Dell Publishing Group. From Publishers Weekly: The prologue of veteran horror writer Saul’s (Second Child) new novel is wonderfully scary: A pregnant teenage “swamp rat” of the Everglades, spying on a secret meeting of “the Dark Man” and “his children,” sees a friend offer up her newborn baby, whereupon the masked Dark Man plunges a knife into the infant. Right after that, the teenager’s husband promises to deliver his own child “the night he’s born.” The story proper begins when 16-year-old Kelly Anderson, all her life having suffered nightmares of a menacing old man and now sure she’s pregnant by him, tries to kill herself. She recovers and moves from Atlanta with her adoptive parents to her grandfather’s house just north of the Everglades. Kelly becomes friends with Michael, her age and also adopted, who admits to similar nightmares and a sense of dread. Michael’s adoptive mother, meanwhile, feels a strange kinship to Kelly. The secrets of the Dark Man—his identity and his fountain-of-youth formula—are revealed halfway through the book, and thenceforth the story slides into descriptions of relatively tame to-and-fro-ing, mostly in the swamp, and the revolting revenge of “the children” on a group of nasty but well-preserved old men. Saul’s ending is cozily sentimental. Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Daughter of Anderson Crow, The. George Barr McCutcheon. Illustrations by B Martin Justice. 1907. 346p. Dodd Mead & Co. The story centers about the adopted daughter of the town marshall in a western village. Her parentage is shrouded in mystery, and the story concerns the secret that deviously works to the surface.

Daughter of Fortune. Isabelle Allende. 1999. 416p. HarperCollins. Her sixth work of fiction, Daughter of Fortune, shares some characteristics with her earlier works: The canvas is wide, the characters are multigenerational and multiethnic, and the protagonist is an unconventional woman who overcomes enormous obstacles to make her way in the world. Yet one cannot accuse Allende of telling the same story twice; set in the mid-1800s, this novel follows the fortunes of Eliza Sommers, Chilean by birth but adopted by a British spinster, Rose Sommers, and her bachelor brother, Jeremy, after she is abandoned on their doorstep. “You have English blood, like us,” Miss Rose assured Eliza when she was old enough to understand. “Only someone from the British colony would have thought to leave you in a basket on the doorstep of the British Import and Export Company, Limited. I am sure they knew how good-hearted my brother Jeremy is and felt sure he would take you in. In those days I was longing to have a child and you fell into my arms, sent by God to be brought up in the solid principles of the Protestant faith and the English language.” The family servant, Mama Fresia, has a different point of view, however: “You, English? Don’t get any ideas, child. You have Indian hair, like mine.” And certainly Eliza’s almost mystical ability to recall all the events of her life would seem to stem more from the Indian than the Protestant side. As Eliza grows up, she becomes less tractable and when she falls in love with Joachin Andieta, a clerk in Jeremy’s firm, her adoptive family is horrified. They are even more so when a now-pregnant Eliza follows her lover to California where he has gone to make his fortune in the 1849 goldrush. Along the way Eliza meets Tao Chi’en, a Chinese doctor who saves her life and becomes her closest friend. What starts out as a search for a lost love becomes, over time, the discovery of self; and by the time Eliza finally catches up with the elusive Joachin, she is no longer sure she still wants what she once wished for. Allende peoples her novel with a host of colourful secondary characters. She even takes the narrative as far afield as China, providing an intimate portrait of Tao Chi’en’s past before returning to 19th-century San Francisco, where he and Eliza eventually end up.

Daughters of Captain Cook. Linda Spaulding. 1988. 218p. Birch Lane Press. A couple moves to Oahu to reclaim the husband’s ancestral estate from his adopted Hawaiian sister, and find themselves torn apart by infidelity and cultural conflict.

David Copperfield. Charles Dickens. 1849. J Wiley. Dickens’s favorite of all his novels, David Copperfield is the story of a boy who loses his parents at an early age, and who escapes the torture of working for his pitiless stepfather to try to make something of himself and, with any luck, find true happiness. Written in the first person—Dickens called it an “interweaving of truth and fiction”—David Copperfield is perhaps this great author’s most autobiographical novel. David Copperfield features an unforgettable gallery of characters, including David’s cruel stepfather, Mr. Murdstone; the treacherous Uriah Heep; the amiable Mr. Micawber, whom Dickens based on his father; and Dora Spenglow, whom David marries and calls his “child-wife.” But it is the youthful curiosity, candor, and goodness of David himself that give the story its indelible charm. Virginia Woolf called this “the most perfect of all the Dickens novels.”

Daybreak. Belva Plain. 1994. Delacorte. Few writers can move and captivate readers as Belva Plain can. In Daybreak, perhaps her best and boldest work yet, she creates a living, breathing portrait of two families joined by a devastating childhood illness, yet divided by the politics of hatred and by the sons they love. In a doctor’s office, a man and a woman sit stunned as the doctor speaks: Blood tests show without a shadow of a doubt that the son they love so dearly, and who is now dying, is not their child. Incredible as it seems, there must have been a mix-up in the hospital where he was born. Enduring the pain of Peter’s death is a blow they must bear, but Margaret and Arthur Crawfield must also confront the realization that somewhere their biological child still lives. And although they know their search will tear apart another family, they feel compelled to look for the child who has grown up in another home. At the same time that the Crawfield family’s world is turning upside down, Laura Rice—Mrs. Homer “Bud” Rice—looking around her elegant home at her beloved piano and ancestral portraits, realizes that after nineteen years of marriage she and her husband are fundamentally strangers. Bud Rice is respectable and respected in their small southern town, a good father to their two sons—bright, healthy Tom and eleven-year-old Timmy, who despite his chronic illness is a gift of joy. But Bud is the reason, Laura believes, for Tom’s involvement with a campus group of terrifying bigots. Now the Crawfield and the Rice families will come together, putting emotions in upheaval and leaving lives forever changed. Somewhere in the days ahead a mother must tell her son that he was born to another woman and has another family. And no one foresees the events gathering force to explode with violence in the quiet town as a political candidate plays on prejudice and fear. Newly discovered truths rock a family already under siege in Daybreak’s jolting, soul-shattering conclusion.

Dear Bobby. Laura Roybal. 2008. 204p. BookSurge Publishing. When he was ten, Billy was kidnapped from his adoptive family by his father, a professional rodeo rider from New Mexico. Five and a half years later, just as suddenly, he was returned. A little over a year after this second upheaval, Billy seems to be adjusting to his new life, until his best freind from New Mexico kills himself. Traveling back for the funeral, Billy finds himself in a situation much like that of his freind: two fathers face to face, two sets of hopes and ambitions for his own future. And Billy must now cope not just with the death of his freind, but also with the realization that his own life is spiralling into the same abyss that took Bobby’s life.

Dear Eliza. Esosa Daniel-Oniko. 2006. 234p. Tate Publishing & Enterprises, LLC. Readers quite simply have not read a story like Dear Eliza before! Author Esosa Daniel-Oniko weaves a tale that takes place in the spellbinding city of Lagos, Nigeria. As the curtain is pulled back on twists of traditions and customs, it reveals a family torn apart by a series of events that include misplaced priorities, which eventually lead to a crime. Eliza is a warm, witty, and likeable twenty-something who comes from a shadowy background of a “limited information” adoption. Despite the obstacles this presents, she lives a happy, cosmopolitan life that is nevertheless occasionally influenced by very traditional values and beliefs. Her life, in all, seems to be on an even keel, until she gets a letter. A maze of events will keep you guessing at what is around every corner—so make sure you are able to find the end! Dear Eliza is that feel-good book you’ve been longing to read!

Dear Enemy. Jean Webster (1876-1916). 1915. 350p. The Century Co. A sequel to Daddy-Long-Legs (1912). In Dear Enemy, Sallie McBride, the dear friend of Judy Abbot (heroine of Daddy Long-Legs), accepts an appointment as superintendent of an orphanage and promptly embarks on a program of much needed reform. The book, while touching on serious social issues, does so in an entertaining manner. About the Author: A Vassar graduate and daughter of Mark Twain’s publishing partner Charles Webster, Jean Webster acquired the firm conviction, over the course of numerous visits to homes for the destitute and delinquent, that underprivileged children could succeed in life with the proper guidance and support. She wrote a number of short stories and novels for younger readers including her most famous work, Daddy-Long-Legs.

Dear Strangers: A Novel. Meg Mullins. 2010. 304p. Viking Adult. In the high desert of the American southwest during the summer of 1982, the Finley family is awaiting the arrival of the baby boy they’re due to adopt. Oliver, just seven, is eager for another playmate to join him and his sister in their idyll of swimming pools, climbing trees, and playing tag. But one hot afternoon, Dr. Finley dies suddenly and everything changes. Mrs. Finley, newly widowed, decides she cannot proceed with the adoption alone. Twenty-one years later, Oliver believes he has finally found the brother his family was meant to adopt. Along the way, he also finds Miranda, an eccentric, charming photographer whose subjects are consenting strangers in their own homes after dark. Oliver and Miranda’s love story collides with catastrophe when their worlds intersect in ways they could never have predicted. A luminous, moving portrait of grief and atone­ment, romance and longing, Dear Strangers unearths the possibilities of hope and renewal in the unexpected bonds forged with family and strangers alike. About the Author: Meg Mullins holds an MFA from Columbia University. The short story that became the first chapter of her debut novel, The Rug Merchant, was selected by Sue Miller for The Best American Short Stories 2002.

Debby. Max Steele. 1950. 304p. Harper & Brothers. Little Old Debby, her adopted family called her. By fortune or misfortune—the reader must judge—she could never grow old but was locked forever in a child’s world; and to the Merriall children, one after another, she was the most perfect and delightful of companions. South Carolina-born author’s first novel, winner of the 1950 Harper Prize. Pictured at right: Louisiana State University Press’s 1997 reprint edition.

Debt, The. Angela Hunt. 2004. 400p. Thoms Nelson. After fleeing a painful and compromising past, Emma Rose Howard settled eagerly into the role of a pastor’s wife. She and her husband, Abel, dedicated themselves to parenting a mega-church and influenced thousands of lives through its related ministries. But when Emma Rose receives a phone call from a living, breathing remnant of her troubled past, she finds herself wondering if something in her life is woefully out of balance. The presence of this unexpected intruder soon threatens everything Emma Rose has believed about her calling, her marriage, and her relationship with God. The Debt not only invites readers to embrace the painful heartache and incomparable joy that accompany a soul’s redemption, but it challenges us to follow Christ to new and unexpected places.

Decay of the Angel. Yukio Mishima. Translated from the Japanese by Edward G Seidensticker. 1974. 256p. Knopf. The last novel in the famed Japanese author’s “Sea of Fertility” tetralogy, which inlcudes Spring Snow, Runaway Horses, and The Temple of the Dawn. The dominant themes of the story cycle are brought together as Honda discovers and adopts a 16-year-old orphan, Toru, as his heir. Is Toru destined to die young, as did each of the tragic protagonists of the three previous novels?

Desert Prophecy, The. HD Rogers. 2008. 313p. BookSurge Publishing. More than an international mystery-adventure, The Desert Prophecy is a new genre of fiction that explores the boundaries between science and religion, between miracles and technology, and between good and evil. It is also the story of Paul Swanson, a young American who accurately predicts the shocking destruction of a famous Islamic shrine and the inexplicable deaths of over two thousand Islamic terrorists. The seemingly miraculous circumstances surrounding these events compel American and Israeli investigators to examine their own religious beliefs - or disbelief - and to engage in arguments that are both humorous and profound. As the investigation of terrorist deaths unfolds, so does the mystery surrounding the life of Paul Swanson, an adopted child of unknown parentage. From early childhood, Paul Swanson’s life seems to have been directed and protected by powerful, unseen forces. But are they divine forces, as Paul Swanson claims, or are they evil? After the CIA discovers Paul Swanson’s possible relationship to the mysterious founder of a group called the “Doomsday Committee,” the CIA is convinced that his latest prophecy is intended to precipitate a nuclear holocaust in the Middle East. Is Paul Swanson, who claims to be a messenger of God, leading the world toward peace, or does he serve a different master, one bent upon annihilation of the nations of Islam?

Destiny. Chris Johnson. 2009. 292p. BookSurge Publishing. A renegade member of the New Orleans Mafia forces Lee Farrell to participate in a criminal scheme involving rare African gemstones, hallucinogenic South American tree frogs, and a Mississippi Gulf Coast casino. Trying to find his origins among the voodoo secrets of the New Orleans French Quarter, Farrell must save his failing marriage while outmaneuvering the mob and the FBI. Is his life being controlled by an ancient curse, or is he being overtaken by the darkness of his own past? About the Author: The author practices law on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Destiny. Tim Parks. 1999. 249p. Secker & Warburg Ltd. From Publishers Weekly: As Inside the head of yet another overheated, middle-aged Englishman in Italy, effortlessly inventive Parks ratchets up the tragedy and tones down the laughs for a portrait of a man plunged into despair by a schizophrenic son’s suicide. A respected journalist who, seeking deeper meaning, turned from coverage of Italy’s endless political intrigues to a book-length treatment of “national character”, Chris Burton is in London with his wife, Mara, when he receives the phone call reporting the death of their only son, Marco. His first thought, the most abiding one in the fog of days to follow, is that his 30-year marriage is over. Mara is larger-than-life, theatrically Italian, a downtrodden Roman aristocrat and a shameless flirt who for years has charmed and overpowered him and everyone else she encounters as she demonstrates at Heathrow by a performance that gains them seats on the first available plane home. Burton cannot bring himself to tell her they’re through, not even when they visit the morgue and she refuses to let him see Marco with her. Instead, grief takes them on separate trajectories, as Burton goes to stay with their adopted daughter, estranged from Mara, and discovers he’s seriously ill, while his wife takes over the funeral arrangements and has Marco shipped to Rome. Meanwhile, Burton proceeds with his plan to interview disgraced former Italian prime minister Andreotti, the capstone of research for his book, while his physical condition deteriorates. Only after Marco is buried does Burton see his spouse again. Following a volatile exchange in the cemetery, he realizes their tragedy is shared and that they have somehow, impossibly, arrived at a new understanding.

Digging to America. Anne Tyler. 2006. 288p. Knopf. In what is perhaps her richest and most deeply searching novel, Anne Tyler gives us a story about what it is to be an American, and about Maryam Yazdan, who after thirty-five years in this country must finally come to terms with her “outsiderness.” Two families, who would otherwise never have come together, meet by chance at the Baltimore airport—the Donaldsons, a very American couple, and the Yazdans, Maryam’s fully assimilated son and his attractive Iranian American wife. Each couple is awaiting the arrival of an adopted infant daughter from Korea. After the babies from distant Asia are delivered, Bitsy Donaldson impulsively invites the Yazdans to celebrate with an “arrival party,” an event that is repeated every year as the two families become more deeply intertwined. Even independent-minded Maryam is drawn in. But only up to a point. When she finds herself being courted by one of the Donaldson clan, a good-hearted man of her vintage, recently widowed and still recovering from his wife’s death, suddenly all the values she cherishes—her traditions, her privacy, her otherness—are threatened. Somehow this big American takes up so much space that the orderly boundaries of her life feel invaded. A luminous novel brimming with subtle, funny, and tender observations that cast a penetrating light on the American way as seen from two perspectives, those who are born here and those who are still struggling to fit in. About the Author: Anne Tyler was born in Minneapolis in 1941 but grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. She graduated at nineteen from Duke University and went on to do graduate work in Russian studies at Columbia University. This is Anne Tyler’s seventeenth novel; her eleventh, Breathing Lessons, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1988. She is a member of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. She lives in Baltimore.

Disguise. Hugo Hamilton. 2008. 272p. HarperCollins. In his first novel since the bestselling memoir The Speckled People, Hugo Hamilton has created a truly compelling story of lost identity and a remarkable reflection on the ambiguity of belonging. At the end of the Second World War, a young mother loses her two-year-old boy in the bombings of Berlin. She flees to the south, where her father finds among the refugee trains a young foundling of the same age to replace his grandson. He makes his daughter promise never to tell anyone, including her husband—still fighting on the Russian front—that the boy is not her own. Nobody will know the difference. Sixty-three years later, Gregor Liedmann is an aging Jewish rocker who ran away from home, a trumpet player, and a revolutionary stone-thrower left over from the 1968 protests. On a single day spent gathering fruit in an orchard outside Berlin with family and friends, Gregor looks back over his life, sifting through fact and memory in order to establish the truth. What happened on that journey south in the final days of the war? Why did his grandfather Emil disappear, and why did the Gestapo torture Uncle Max? Here, in the calmness of the orchard, along with his ex-wife Mara and son Daniel, Gregor tries to unlock the secrets of his past.

Disturbing the Peace. Nancy Newman. 2002. 302p. Avon. Disturbing the Peace an engaging whirlwind through the life of a vivacious English teacher who realizes, as she faces her thirty-fifth birthday, that she must find her biological mother in order to put her life together. Sarah Bridges has committed her life to three things: helping her foreign students create “new American” lives; documenting their struggles in a book of interviews; and avoiding all thoughts about the birth mother she has never known. But when she conducts a heated interview with Alex Astor, a sexy and mysterious Romanian emigre, and accidentally blurts out the family secret that she has never shared with a single friend or lover, his reaction shatters her carefully constructed self-image, and forces her to recognize that there is a gaping hole in the center of her life. It is a hole that cannot be filled by her boss, students, lover, friends, book, or vices. As her carefully constructed world begins to unravel, she feels compelled to uncover the truth about her family, and embarks upon a touching, and sometimes comical, journey to find her birth mother and make peace with the past.

Diviners, The. Margaret Laurence. 1974. 382p. McClelland & Stewart Ltd. The culmination of the Manawaka cycle (A Bird in the House, A Jest of God, The Fire Dwellers, Stone Angel, and The Diviners), and Laurence’s final novel, The Diviners is an epic tour de force. It is the story of Morag Gunn, an independent woman who refuses to abandon her search for love. We follow her from her lonely childhood in a small town on the Canadian prairie through her demeaning marriage and escape from it into writing, fiction, and finally back to rural Canada, where she faces a different challenge - the necessity to understand, and let go of, the daughter she loves. Throughout, Morag is forced to test her strength against the world—and at last achieves the life she had determined would be hers. In Morag Gunn, Laurence has created a figure whose experience emerges as that of all dispossessed people in search of their birthright, and one who survives as an inspirational symbol of courage and endurance.

Divisadero. Michael Ondaatje. 2007. 272p. McClelland & Stewart (Canada). The spellbinding story begins in the 1970s, in the western U.S.—on a farm in northern California near to what had been Gold Rush country, and then moving into the raucous world of Nevada’s casinos. There is a father; a daughter, Anna; an adopted sister, Claire; and an enigmatic young man named Coop. A traumatic event unexpectedly shatters their makeshift family and sets each of them on a separate course until, years later, the past once again enters their lives. The novel’s breathtaking second part unfolds in the stark landscape of south-central France, where Anna discovers echoes of old memories in the story of a well known writer, Lucien Segura, who lived at one time in the small, isolated house she occupies—a story that leads back to the early part of the century. About the Author: Michael Ondaatje is the author of the novels In the Skin of a Lion, Coming Through Slaughter, The English Patient and Anil’s Ghost. His other books include Running in the Family, The Cinnamon Peeler and Handwriting. He lives in Toronto

Divisible by One: A Novel. Richard Lyons. 2001. 152p. Van Neste Books. From Kirkus Reviews: Henry Starr, at 16, is upbraided by his father for hugging his young mother far too often and deeply, hip to hip. At last Henry makes love to his mother, or so it looks, then finds she’s not his mother but only his stepmother! As if struck by the Furies, he scalds her with words and leaves home to seek his real mother, about whom he knows almost nothing. His search deepens to monomania as he forgoes love, marriage, children, and home to rip up the land for long years looking for mother. If he finds her, will he find that he’s been looking blindly for his beloved stepmother whom he grew up so deeply attracted to and had first sex with? A subplot focusing on his close cousin Annie tells what might be seen as Electra’sstory.Demandingly original but heavy going. — Allan Mallinson

Doctor Thorne. Anthony Trollope (1815-1882). 1858. 480p. Chapman & Hall (UK). Doctor Thorne is the third novel in the “Barsetshire” series. Doctor Thorne adopts his niece Mary, keeping secret her illegitimate birth as he introduces her to the best local social circles. There she meets and falls in love with Frank Gresham, heir to a vastly mortgaged estate; yet Frank is obliged to find a wealthy wife, jeopardizing Mary’s happiness until fate extends an obliging hand. Where fiery passion fails, understated English virtues of patience, persistence and good humor could yet prevail in this most appealing of Trollope’s comedies.

Double Stitch. John Rolfe Gardiner. 2003. 318p. Counterpoint Press. In 1926, Rebecca and Linda Carey arrive at a progressive orphanage outside of Philadelphia. They’re identical twins, ten years old, copper skinned and beautiful, with perfectly matched faces and manners that doom them to a mischief of switched identities. Drayton Orphanage is a wealthy campus of fairy-tale stone cottages and modern education, but these girls are unimpressed. They want to get as far away “as a dollar will send a post card.” Implacably sharp-tongued, confident and aloof, they enthrall everyone at the orphanage but bridle under the attention, drawn only to each other. While their guardians wage war with their own divided personalities, Becca and Linny battle for control of their twinned life. Locked in a paired world, they can’t help themselves from switching names and clothes and tricking their teachers, house mothers, and peers. But when their black grandmother turns up unexpectedly, one twin imagines herself colored, the other white, and a painful rift grows between the two who had often before not known which one was which. When the apostate Freudian Otto Rank comes to Philadelphia and becomes interested in the twins, he and his prodigy (and lover) Anais Nin, see what no one else does—that the twins are becoming dangerous to each other: “We must all recognize the double who stalks us. Guilt is shifted to the shoulders of the double. Fear, too. In the end there may be paranoia, extreme mistrust. And if the other haunts relentlessly it must of course, in the end, be destroyed.” Far from blind to the threat they hold for each other, the twins live in a nightmare of broken mirrors. As they come of age, they choose to separate from each other as well as thestifling world of the Orphanage. But, when at age seventeen they finally do escape, one to China, the other to California, their lives, still parallel, turn horrific—their shared willfulness and naivete lead them to similar straits. Together and apart, each is caught in a struggle to survive the fate of the double.

Dove. Barbara Hanrahan (1939-1991). 1982. 203p. Olympic Marketing Corp. Believing the stories about her birth, Dove Sparks is disappointed when her husband does not live up to the heroic ideals she feels are her due.

Drag Queen. Robert Rodi. 1995. 272p. Plume. From Booklist: The same day his mother announces to Chicago attorney Mitchell Sayer that she’s joining a Buddhist convent and giving away all her money, she tells him he’s adopted and has an identical twin he’s never met. Later, as Mitchell waits for his brother at the Tam-Tam Club, he hears himself called from the stage and learns thereby that brother Donald Sweet is also drag performer Miss Kitten Kaboodle. Mitchell runs in shock and embarrassment from the club. He thinks that drag queens hinder society’s acceptance of “normal” gay people like himself. There follows a series of misadventures such as Miss Kitten coming to visit Mitchell at his conservative law firm and meeting one of Mitchell’s matronly adoptive sisters. Camp novelist Rodi’s drag romp ends up with Mitchell not only overcoming his prejudice against drag queens but riding as one in a gay pride parade. Rodi scores again with another highly appealing read for gay and gay-friendly readers. — Charles Harmon; By the Same Author: Fag Hag (1991); Closet Case (1992); What They Did to Princess Paragon (1994); Kept Boy (1996); Bitch Goddess (2002); and When You Were Me (2007), among others.

Drama Factor. Wanda M Toby. 2003. 251p. Writersandpoets.Com. Xavier, a star football player, finds his nigh starting off badly when his girlfriend’s husband charges up a flight of stairs after him and forces him to climb out onto a fire escape in order to avoid confrontation. The night is equally bad for Grace when her horrendous date assaults her, triggering her to make a mad escape. Xavier thinks it’s getting better when they meet, but things only seem to get worse after his night with her. He finds himself unable to play ball and caught in between his matchmaking mother and sister, and a paternity suit. In the midst of his teetering life, Xavier is facing an identity crisis that he continually ignores by relying on friends and family. With Grace and her ex-convicted sister in the fray, Xavier soon learns that someone has to be brave enough to face the shadows of his pain in order to save him from further disaster. About the Author: Haitian-American author Wanda Toby is driven to write by the passion of creation. Wanda received a Masters of Health Science from the University of Florida, and is a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor working with a statewide private rehabilitation company. She is also a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. Wanda lives with her husband in South Florida and looks forward to writing many more stories about love, loss, relationships, and family. Visit the Author’s Website.

Dreaded Journey to Doniphan County. Florence B Smith. 1999. 262p. Prickly Press. Buff Templeton is a Kickapoo who was adopted as a toddler. He is now a teacher in a girl’s school in Vermont. Buff is successful and engaged to be married. He lives free of prejudice because of his education, and the reputation of his respected father. Buff realizes that he has clairvoyance that others don’t. Strange recurring dreams haunt him. One day his sweetheart is spirited out of town by her father who has suddenly began to question Buff’s Indian heritage. Marrietta has other ideas and defies her father. That same day Buff sees a vision of his father’s murder. Broken-hearted, he leaves on a dreaded journey to find the killer. All clues lead to the Kickapoo around Highland, Kansas. This journey takes Buff into a world he has only dreamed about—a world in which there is no escape. About the Author: Florence B. Smith began telling stories as a child. She always loved to escape back in history to the 1800’s. She has since written more than 50 books and has published many historical novels, articles, and short stories. Married at sixteen, Mrs. Smith was for 56 years with her husband Ike, who was her biggest fan and constructive critic. Grieving for the loss of her life partner, Florence stopped writing for over a year, but her passion for life ultimately brought her back to recounting stories that Ike himself would have loved to read and to have her tell.

First Paperback Edition

Dreaming Jewels, The. Theodore Sturgeon (1918-1985). 1950. 217p. Greenberg. The first novel of one of the greatest science fiction writers of the 20th century, The Dreaming Jewels (also published under the title The Synthetic Man), is considered one of Sturgeon’s three best books. Eight-year-old Horty Bluett is mocked by his classmates and abused by his adoptive parents until the day his father severs three of his fingers (which, to his surprise, grow back). He runs away, taking only a gem-eyed doll he calls Junky, and joins a carnival. Finding acceptance at last, Horty never dreams that Junky is more than a toy, nor does he realize that a threat far greater than his cruel father inhabits the carnival and has been searching for Horty longer than he has been alive. Though less well-known than Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, or Robert A. Heinlein, Theodore Sturgeon is even more important to the development of literary and humanistic science fiction. He received the Hugo, Nebula, and International Fantasy Awards, and the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award. — Cynthia Ward [Compiler’s Note: The Complete Works of Theodore Sturgeon are presently being pubished by North Atlantic Books in a multivolume series: The Ultimate Egoist (Volume 1, 1937-1940); Microcosmic God (Volume 2, 1940-1941); Killdozer! (Volume 3, 1941-1946); Thunder & Roses (Volume 4, 1946-1948); The Perfect Host (Volume 5, 1948-1950); Baby Is Three (Volume 6, 1950-1952); A Saucer of Lonliness (Volume 7, 1953); Bright Segment (Volume 8, 1953-1955); And Now the News... (Volume 9, 1955-1957); The Man Who Lost the Sea (Volume 10, 1957-1960).]

Dreams of Leaving. Rupert Thomson. 1987. 435p. Bloomsbury (UK). Moses Highness, a habitue of the clubs and all-night parties of London in the 1980s, is searching for his past. For many years in the village of New Egypt, run by the sadistic Chief Inspector Peach, his parents had harboured one fervent wish—that their baby son Moses should escape. His father puts his son, appropriately, into a basket and floats him down a river. Moses grows up never knowing his real past (being the only one to ever “escape” from the village). After Moses moves to London, he begins to unearth the bizarre and chilling secrets of his past: of his mother, who ate raw yeast to rise out of her misery; and his father, who stayed in bed for 15 years.

Drowning the Hullabaloo Blues. Michael O’Dwyer. 1995. 244p. Basement Press (UK). Drowning the Hullabaloo Blues is a blackly funny and hilariously dark novel from one of Ireland’s most exciting young writers. Alex was three and a bit when he killed his parents. He didn’t mean to. If he’d known that he would end up being adopted by his father’s ex-mistress he’d have done things differently. If he’d known that his adopted family included a temperamental artist, a pair of silent twins, a drug-addicted butler called Mister Goodley and the monolithic and incompetent nurse McMurphy, he wouldn’t have gone near the Wave Monster at the end of the world. Alex has the Hullabaloo Blues and wants his mum and dad back. All he has to remind him of them is a trunk full of old photographs and Jasper God Walker.

Duke of Gallodoro, The. Aubrey Menen. 1952. 274p. Chatto & Windus (UK). Set in Gallodoro, a small township near Naples, this novel revolves around the narrator, an English writer, who’s come to Gallodoro to do research, and three of its colorful inhabitants—Salvator, the old scholar, and Peppin, the tough ragamuffin, adopted by the Duke of Gallodoro.

Duncton Rising. William Horwood. 1992. 500p. HarperCollins (UK). This novel continues the story of a community of moles in Duncton which featured in the books Duncton Wood, Duncton Quest and Duncton Found. As Privet, scholar and scribemole, and her adopted son Whillan, escape from Duncton Wood, the Newborn Inquisitors seek to take over the system.

Dutch Uncle. Marilyn Durham. 1973. 303p. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Fleeing the wiles of a San Francisco woman in March 1880, Jake Hollander arrives in a New Mexico mining town as the incredulous and outraged custodian of a pair of Mexican orphans. He’s a hard, mean man of forty-five, former gun-slinger, present cardsharp, whose plan is to dump the orphans and keep right on going to El Paso and a new career as saloonkeeper. What with one thing and another, he settles down for a spell in Arredondo, takes up his old calling of marshall, and finds his hands full with a whole lot more than just gun butts. There’s the proprietress of the Golden Moon and there’s Carrie Hand, a spinster of unexpected spirit. There’s a complicated matter of some mail-order brides, long overdue. There is at large a desperado named Frank Becker, escaped from the Territorial Prison in Yuma, and there are always those two Mexican orphans... By the Same Author: The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing.