The Big 5-0 by Lynn Johnston, 128 pages

 For Better or For Worse reflects universal family feelings so well it's translated from English into eight languages. What makes creator Lynn Johnston's portrayal of the Patterson family and friends so beloved shines once again in The Big 5-0. This book follows the blooming romance of son Michael and his girlfriend, Deanna, daughter Elizabeth's last year in high school, and John, the father, turning 50. The book overflows with the heartwarming and realistic family exchanges that have become For Better or For Worse trademarks.

Women of Means: Fascinating Biographies of Royals, Heiresses, Eccentrics, and Other Poor Little Rich Girls by Marlene Wagman-Geller, 294 pages

 The Grass Isn't Greener on the Other Side: Heiresses have always been viewed with eyes of envy. They were the ones for whom the cornucopia had been upended, showering them with unimaginable wealth and opportunity. However, through intimate historical biographies, Women of Means shows us that oftentimes the weaving sisters saved their most heart-wrenching tapestries for the destinies of wealthy women.

Happily Never After: From the author of Behind Every Great Man, we now have Women of Means, vignettes of the women who were slated from birth—or marriage—to great privilege, only to endure lives which were the stuff Russian tragic heroines are made of. They are the nonfictional Richard Corys—those not slated for happily ever after.

Women of Means is bound to be a non-fiction best seller, full of the best biographies of all time. Some of the women whose silver spoons rusted include:

Almira Carnarvon, the real-life counterpart to Lady Cora of Downton Abbey Liliane Bettencourt, whose chemist father created L’Oreal... and was a Nazi collaborator Peggy Guggenheim, who had an insatiable appetite for modern art and men Nica Rothschild, who traded her gilded life to become the Baroness of Bebop Jocelyn Wildenstein, who became a cosmetology-enhanced cat-woman Ruth Madoff, the dethroned queen of Manhattan Patty Hearst, who trod the path from heiress... to terrorist

In the Land of Second Chances by George Shaffner, 296 pages

 Meet Wilma Porter, the plucky and kindhearted owner of the only bed and breakfast in Ebb, Nebraska. Wilma knows everybody in town and everybody is in a bit of trouble. No one more so than Calvin Millet, though. His wife has up and left him and their ailing daughter. His department store is close to bankruptcy. His house has been destroyed by a tornado. The folks of Ebb, including Wilma and her indomitable gang of friends, watch Calvin's fortunes wane with great dismay, for in Ebb, everyone's fate is connected to his.

When a handsome stranger named Vernon L. Moore comes to town selling games of chance, more than a few eyebrows are raised. A consummate salesman, he befriends the troubled townspeople one by one. He listens to their stories and asks them intriguing questions that make them see their situations differently. The father of a dying child, the reclusive widow who's taken permanent board at the B & B, the banker with ulterior motives, and the outspoken Wilma Porter are all changed by their encounters with this mysterious man who seems not of this world. After all, no one has seen a traveling salesman in Ebb for more than thirty years. But wherever he's from and whoever he is, he leaves behind a town where second chances are not only possible, they can--and do--happen.

Sunshine & Shadow by Lynn Johnston, 128 pages

 In Sunshine and Shadow, Johnston's approach again radiates truth, humor, and compassion as the Pattersons deal with the illness and death of Elly's mother. Readers mourn with the Pattersons as they gather for a loving tribute, wishing their cherished mother could be there with them. "You know what, Dad?" Elly says to her father. "I bet she was." The family also watches as life goes on: college student Michael's love life heats up and Elizabeth has begun the transformation into a young adult. Through it all, John and Elly raise their brood-Michael, Elizabeth, and April, as well as Edgar the dog-with a liberal mix of love and laughter. Heartwarming and humorous, the Pattersons give readers a reason to smile while emphasizing what's really important in life.

Adler by Lavie Tidhar and Paul McCaffrey, 128 pages

 It's the League of Extraordinary Gentlewomen, as Irene Adler teams up with a host of famous female faces from science, history and literature to defeat the greatest criminal mastermind of all time!

At the start of the 20th Century, Jane Eyre returns home to Britain after serving as a nurse during the Boer War. Grieving the loss of her sweetheart and left traumatized by the fighting, she finds her world upended when she is introduced to Irene Adler - and is propelled into a world of intrigue, espionage and murder! The duo is soon racing to stop the radioactive secrets of Marie Curie, intended for good, being turned into weapons of mass destruction! 

The Beans of Egypt, Maine by Carolyn Chute, 282 pages

 There are families like the Beans all over America. They live on the wrong side of town in mobile homes strung with Christmas lights all year around. The women are often pregnant, the men drunk and just out of jail, and the children too numerous to count. In the 'Beans of Egypt', Maine, we meet the God-fearing Earlene Pomerleau and experience her obsession for the whole swarming Bean tribe. There is cousin Rubie, a boozer and a brawler, tall Aunt Roberta, the earth mother surrounded by countless, clinging babies, and Beal, sensitive, often gentle, but doomed by the violence within him. 

Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters, 304 pages

 Such is the lament of George Trimble, just one of the many good folk of Spoon River--late of the grave and raised from the dead to bear witness to life. Whether minister or judge, housewife or mayor, clerk or carpenter, banker, lawyer, or town drunk, these monologues form an unforgettable legacy of the private hopes, the dreams, and the aspirations, the successes and the failures, the jealousies and the betrayals, the prejudices and the disillusionments of the people of spoon river.