Beloved author Elizabeth Gilbert returns to fiction with a unique love story set in the New York City theater world during the 1940s. Told from the perspective of an older woman as she looks back on her youth with both pleasure and regret (but mostly pleasure), City of Girls explores themes of female sexuality and promiscuity, as well as the idiosyncrasies of true love. In 1940, nineteen-year-old Vivian Morris has just been kicked out of Vassar College,...

Evelyn Couch hears 80 year old Ninny Threadgoode's life story which centers on a cafe in the railroad town of Whistle Stop, Ala., and on Idgie and Ruth, the two women who own the cafe.

Mr. Putter thinks he is too old to celebrate his birthday, but when he remembers some of his past birthdays, he changes his mind.

Mr. Putter's love of toys is almost as strong as his affection for his cat--but are he and she too old to play with a toy airplane?

In nineteenth century China, in a remote Hunan county, a girl named Lily, at the tender age of seven, is paired with a laotong, or "old same," in an emotional match that will last a lifetime. The two women exchange messages written on silk fans and handkerchieves using nu shu, a unique language that women created in order to communicate in secret, sharing their experiences, but when a misunderstanding arises, their friendship threatens to tear apart....

A young python does not want to grow slow and boring like the older snakes he sees in the tropical jungle where he lives.

When grumpy Old Man Fookwire builds feeders to try to keep birds--the only creatures he likes--from leaving for the winter, he finds himself in a battle with clever, crafty squirrels who want a share of the abundant food.

When their neighbor Mrs. Teaberry hurts her foot, Mr. Putter and his cat Tabby agree to walk her dog for a week, not knowing what they are in for.

In 1949, four Chinese women--drawn together by the shadow of their past--begin meeting in San Francisco to play mah jong, invest in stocks and "say" stories. They call their gathering the Joy Luck Club--and forge a relationship that binds them for more than three decades.

Marilynne Robinson discusses and reads from her book Gilead with James Wood.