The Atomic City Girls by Janet Beard, 353 pages

What'ss a real family like? These days it'ss bound to resemble the lovable clan in Stone Soup. Stone Soup is a funny, irreverent, sympathetic comic strip read by more than 8 million people every day. This first collection, with forward by Lynn Johnston, creator of For Better or For Worse, will help you find the humor in modern family.

Stone Soup by Jan Eliot, 128 pages

What's a real family like? These days it'

s bound to resemble the lovable clan in Stone Soup. Stone Soup is a funny, irreverent, sympathetic comic strip read by more than 8 million people every day. This first collection, with forward by Lynn Johnston, creator of For Better or For Worse, will help you find the humor in modern family.

Giant Days by Allison, Sarin, Fleming & Cogar, 112 pages

Esther, Susan, and Daisy have moved into their beautiful new house off campus, but the new living situation creates new challenges for the girls.
Second year begins and Daisy, Susan, and Esther have taken their friendship commitment to the next level by moving into their “beautiful home” off-campus. But the keys didn’t come without new responsibilities. Unwanted suitor visits, a robbery, and Susan living only a few blocks apart from her ex-boyfriend, McGraw, has made the dorms feel like a haven. The girls are in for a dose of reality when they learn that there’s more to being an adult than paying your own rent.
Eisner Award nominee John Allison (Bad Machinery, Scary Go Round) and illustrators Max Sarin and Liz Fleming welcome you back to Sophomore year in Giant Days Volume 6, collecting issues #21-24 of the critically acclaimed series.

Giant Days, Volume 5 by Allison, Sarin, Fleming & Cogar, 112 pages

Going off to university is always a time of change and growth, but for Esther, Susan, and Daisy, things are about to get a little weird.

Their freshman year is finally coming to a close and Daisy, Susan, and Esther say goodbye to Catterick Hall forever. Literally forever. It’s being bulldozed and re-purposed as a luxury dorm next semester. But as one door closes, another opens and between end of semester hookups, music festivals, and moving into their first home together, the life experiences are just getting started.

Written by Eisner Award nominee John Allison (Bad Machinery, Scary Go Round) and illustrated by Max Sarin, Giant Days Volume 5 finishes off freshman year in style, collecting issues #17-20 of the Eisner and Harvey Award-nominated series.

Raspberry Danish Murder by Joanne Fluke, 529 pages

Thanksgiving has a way of thawing the frostiest hearts in Lake Eden. But that won’t be happening for newlywed Hannah Swensen Barton—not after her husband suddenly disappears . . .
 
Hannah has felt as bitter as November in Minnesota since Ross vanished without a trace and left their marriage in limbo. Still, she throws herself into a baking frenzy for the sake of pumpkin pie and Thanksgiving-themed treats while endless holiday orders pour into The Cookie Jar. Hannah even introduces a raspberry Danish pastry to the menu, and P.K., her husband’s assistant at KCOW-TV, will be one of the first to sample it. But instead of taking a bite, P.K., who is driving Ross’s car and using his desk at work, is murdered. Was someone plotting against P.K. all along or did Ross dodge a deadly dose of sweet revenge? Hannah will have to quickly sift through a cornucopia of clues and suspects to stop a killer from bringing another murder to the table . . .

The Magdalen Girls by V.S. Alexander, 294 pages

Dublin, 1962. Within the gated grounds of the convent of The Sisters of the Holy Redemption lies one of the city’s Magdalen Laundries. Once places of refuge, the laundries have evolved into grim workhouses. Some inmates are “fallen” women—unwed mothers, prostitutes, or petty criminals. Most are ordinary girls whose only sin lies in being too pretty, too independent, or tempting the wrong man. Among them is sixteen-year-old Teagan Tiernan, sent by her family when her beauty provokes a lustful revelation from a young priest.

Teagan soon befriends Nora Craven, a new arrival who thought nothing could be worse than living in a squalid tenement flat. Stripped of their freedom and dignity, the girls are given new names and denied contact with the outside world. The Mother Superior, Sister Anne, who has secrets of her own, inflicts cruel, dehumanizing punishments—but always in the name of love. Finally, Nora and Teagan find an ally in the reclusive Lea, who helps them endure—and plot an escape. But as they will discover, the outside world has dangers too, especially for young women with soiled reputations.

Told with candor, compassion, and vivid historical detail, The Magdalen Girls is a masterfully written novel of life within the era’s notorious institutions—and an inspiring story of friendship, hope, and unyielding courage.

Rose is Rose by Pat Brady, 128 pages

Pat Brady's comic strips send readers to another plane. That's quite an accomplishment for a simple story line centered on a two-parent, single-child family. But Brady's readers soar, through both the laughs and a visual visceral connection to the feelings the characters themselves experience. "Rose is Rose Right on the Lips: A Rose is Rose Collection" continues the tales of the Gumbo family. Rose is the wife and mother, a child at heart who just happens to have a biker chick alter ego. Husband Jimbo, a "decent Neanderthal," looks like an average blue-collar dad, but he's actually an incurable romantic. And Pasquale, their son, is an imagination-fired kid who loves Peekaboo, the family cat, and is often saved from trouble by his guardian angel. Brady swirls this familial mix into seemingly endless recipes of fun, adventure, and fantasy, but he adds a special magic with his original sense of perspective and space that makes readers feel as though they, too, are part of the action. This collection of daily and Sunday strips is a great introduction to those new to "Rose is Rose" and a surefire winner with longtime Gumbo-family fans. The creator adds value for all readers by including two flip books in the pages' lower corners, delightfully animating the characters right in front of their eyes!