In 1974 Manhattan, a radical young Irish monk struggles with personal demons while making his home among Bronx prostitutes; a group of mothers shares grief over their lost Vietnam soldier sons; and a young grandmother attempts to prove her worth.

The summer following her father's death, Macy plans to work at the library and wait for her brainy boyfriend to return from camp, but instead she goes to work at a catering business where she makes new friends and finally faces her grief.

After losing both her mother and her daughter in the Japanese tsunami of March 2011, Yui continues on, alone with her grief, but when she hears about a man with an old disused telephone booth in his garden where those who have lost loved ones can speak to them and start to come to terms with their grief, Yui makes her own pilgrimage to the phone booth.

"Summer begins with Mary Kay Andrews, in this delightful summer read about flipping houses, and finding true love. Hattie Kavanaugh went to work helping clean up restored homes for Kavanaugh & Son Restorations at eighteen; married the boss's son at twenty; and was only twenty-five when her husband, Hank, was killed in a motorcycle accident. Broken hearted, but determined to continue the business of their dreams, she takes the life insurance money,...

"After she discovers her sister Tanya dead on the floor of her fashionable New York City townhouse, Letty Carnahan is certain she knows who did it: Tanya's ex; sleazy real estate entrepreneur Evan Wingfield. Even in the grip of grief and panic Letty heeds her late sister's warnings: 'If anything bad happens to me-- it's Evan. Promise me you'll take Maya and run. Promise me.' So Letty grabs her sister's Mercedes and hits the road with her wailing 4-year-old...

"A thrilling departure: a short, piercing, deeply moving novel about the death of Shakespeare's 11 year old son Hamnet--a name interchangeable with Hamlet in 15th century Britain--and the years leading up to the production of his great play. England, 1580. A young Latin tutor--penniless, bullied by a violent father--falls in love with an extraordinary, eccentric young woman--a wild creature who walks her family's estate with a falcon on her shoulder...