Oprah's book club

Tells the story of Marie Fermoyle, a lonely divorcee, who in the summer of 1960 falls prey to a dangerous con man while struggling to keep her family together against a variety of obstacles.

March Murray returns to her New England hometown with her teenage daughter, supposedly to attend the funeral of her old housekeeper, but in the back of her mind March knows she is headed for a reunion with Hollis, the boy she has loved since childhood.

Julie Harmon, having taken over the work of a man after her father gets ill and dies, imagines that marriage will be different, but she and her young husband Hank discover their life together is also full of struggles.

A series of tragedies, including the death of her baby brother, her parent's divorce, her mother's nervous breakdown, and her own rape at the age of thirteen, leaves Dolores Price wounded both mentally and physically, but she miraculously finds the strength to give herself one more chance at life and love.

The life of Jewel Hilburn, a mother living with her husband and children in the backwoods of Mississippi in 1943, undergoes a drastic change when her sixth child, Brenda Kay, is born without the gift of common sense.

Julie Harmon, having taken over the work of a man after her father gets ill and dies, imagines that marriage will be different, but she and her young husband Hank discover their life together is also full of struggles.

Explains that the current state of humanity is erroneously and dangerously ego-centric and argues for a shift in consciousness that can reveal how the modern world can become more sane and loving.

A fictional narrative in which Fran Benedetto, a woman who was abused by her husband, examines the reasons why she stayed in her marriage for so long, and ponders whether leaving was the right thing to do.

March Murray returns to her New England hometown with her teenage daughter, supposedly to attend the funeral of her old housekeeper, but in the back of her mind March knows she is headed for a reunion with Hollis, the boy she has loved since childhood.

A fact-based novel in which the author draws upon her own family history to trace four generations of African-American women from slavery on a Creole plantation to the pre-civil rights South.