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.

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....

Folksy and fresh, endearing and affecting, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe is a now-classic novel about two women: Evelyn, who’s in the sad slump of middle age, and gray-headed Mrs. Threadgoode, who’s telling her life story. Her tale includes two more women—the irrepressibly daredevilish tomboy Idgie and her friend Ruth—who back in the thirties ran a little place in Whistle Stop, Alabama, offering good...

"Seventeen-year-old Lenni Pettersson has been told she's dying, but still has plenty of living to do. She lives on the Terminal Ward at the Glasgow Princess Royal Hospital. In their arts and crafts class she meets Margot, an 83-year-old, purple-pajama-wearing, fruitcake-eating rebel. Their friendship blooms, and though their days are dwindling both are determined to leave their mark on the world. With the help of Lenni's doting palliative care nurse...

The ritual is the same every December: 12 handmade paper ornaments and a small plastic Christmas tree. Twelve days for Sarah to remember her long-ago love. Twelve chances for Sarah to sing her song once more...

Living alone in her Stockholm apartment, a ninety-six-year-old woman reminisces through the pages of a long-kept address book before starting to write down stories from her past, unlocking family secrets in unexpectedly beneficial ways.

If you had to pick five people to sum up your life, who would they be? If you were to raise a glass to each of them, what would you say? And what would you learn about yourself, when all is said? At the bar of a grand hotel in a small Irish town sits 84-year-old Maurice Hannigan. He's alone, as usual, though tonight is anything but. Pull up a stool and charge your glass, because Maurice is finally ready to tell his story. Over the course of this evening,...

Upon her death in 1919, Mrs. Francis Anderson, a wealthy and powerful dowager in San Francisco society, leaves behind a scandalous memoir revealing her former life as a prostitute and madame. Born Arabella Goodwin to a rich and respected abolitionist family in New York City, she is suddenly orphaned at age nine and shipped off with her beloved youngest brother, Lewis, to live with her aunt and uncle on their hardscrabble farm. When her nemesis --...

The Sweet By and By is the story of five southern women of different ages and from very different backgrounds whose lives come together in a journey of courage, hope, and humor. First-time author Todd Johnson-who was a co-producer with Oprah Winfrey of Broadway's The Color Purple-makes an indelible literary mark with a stunning debut novel.