Family Dog

Ten-year-old twins Lacey and Casey Nicefolk have always wanted to fly, but kids can't fly...or can they? They can if they know the mysterious Sucoh Sucop, a man who claims to have an enchanted box that can transform any toy into the real thing! Before you know it, the twins, along with their droopy-eared basset hound, Floopy, are soaring cross-country in a real-live Wright brothers biplane, which they name Vin Fiz (after Casey's favorite grape soda). But dangers lurk everywhere....

Life is pretty bad when you’re jealous of an old mutt and an autistic brother, Benjamin thinks to himself. If only he knew how to talk to girls, he could achieve both his goals: get a reasonably hot-looking girlfriend and thus get respect from his wrestling teammates. But communication doesn’t come easy in the McDowell family.

For 16 years, Ben Shepard loyally served the Long Beach Police Department. Then he took a bullet to the head, and his life was shattered. No one expects much of anything from him anymore - except his father, an old man receding into a fog of his own. And except maybe his tenant, Grace, who's been a warm and friendly constant in his and his father's bleak lives. Until the day she vanishes. After an official investigation stalls, Ben moves forward on his own. But stepping into Grace's past - and all she was hiding - is a dangerous move for a man who can't trust his memories from one day to the next.

In April of 1985, Buzz Legare went fishing. The next day all that was found was his boat and his waiting, faithful dog. Twenty years later, his daughter Hannah still finds hope in believing, alone among her family, that he's still alive somewhere. She has a smart husband, a thriving business, a beautiful home in San Francisco-and a huge hole in her troubled heart. True to her trademark talent for self-sabotage, she finds herself one starry night climbing up the fire escape in a desperate (and drunken) attempt to win back her own husband.

One of the sharpest attorneys in Charleston, SC, Sally Baynard isn't your typical Southern belle. She's certainly not what her mother hoped she'd grow up to be, especially since she divorced her husband, family court judge Joe Baynard, and his historic family with their historic wealth and historic houses. Maybe Sally was never going to be a proper society lady, but her success as a public defender and family lawyer have been enough for her.

Former fireman Larry Davison covers his burn scars well, by working at an elementary school as a custodian, where he finds a lost hound dog behind the dumpster. Fashion designer Jenna Hart is in town to do a charity fashion show, when she loses her top model, Little Treat. When Larry turns up with the puppy, she asks him to be in the show and bachelor auction. Larry's not sure he belongs in a fashion show, and balks at being her good deed. Can Jenna convince Larry, beauty is never skin deep, and love's arrow strikes not only the beautiful, but the bold?

Rebel Bulldog tells the story of Preston Davidson, a Northerner who fought for the Confederacy, and his family who lived in Indiana and Virginia. It is a story that examines antebellum religion, education, reform, and politics, and how they affected the identity of not just one young man, but of a nation caught up in a civil war. Furthermore, it discusses how a native-born Hoosier reached the decision to fight for the South, and the postwar life of a proud Rebel who tried to remake his life in a very different state and nation than the ones he had left in 1860.

This is not a book about a dog. I really do prefer my husband - honest. But it's hard to tell the story of our journey into the empty nest, and leave out one particular animal. Which kind of illustrates the problem.

Anytime Josie Shilling’s large family gets too chaotic, volunteering at the local animal clinic is the one place she can escape - and she loves working with the animals. But when a box mysteriously appears on the clinic’s front steps, Josie suddenly becomes responsible for seven adorable puppies! Taking care of her pig, Hamlet, last fall was a bit harder than she thought. So how is she ever going to handle a whole litter of mischievous pups and find the right homes for them all?

Eustace is the undisputed patriarch of the Farquhar family - that is, he would be if everyone left him alone so he could get on with things, like shaving and finding his way downstairs. It's not Henry's fault that he snores and that his marriage has collapsed. Or that he failed to get into the cricket team. But he has made up for it and is now a faster motorist than ever he was a bowler. He is a good father, too, and one day when he wakes up from daydreaming his son, Kenneth, will thank him.

When she moves her Alzheimer’s-afflicted dad into the home she shares with her husband and elderly dog, Rachel Morgan expects some complications, but she never imagines the biggest one will occur on the first day, threatening her best-intentioned caregiving plans. Her normally sweet-natured dad - a former mailman who experienced too many run-ins with biting dogs - is adamant about wanting nothing to do with her big black Labrador. But as Rachel tends to the escalating physical and emotional needs of each, she realizes these two souls whom she loves deeply are on the same journey.

It’s a life-altering New Year for 13-year-old Lydia when she uproots to a Connecticut farm to live with her aunt following her mother’s death. Aunt Brat and her jovial wife, Eileen, and their ancient live-in landlord, Elloroy, are welcoming - and a little quirky. Lydia’s struggle for a sense of belonging in her new family is highlighted when the women adopt a big yellow dog just days after the girl’s arrival.

When Todd’s father passes away, he feels no sadness. He feels free, for the first time in his life, to tell those he loves who he really is, a secret he has kept hidden since he was a teen out of necessity. That sense of freedom is quickly extinguished when he’s asked to eulogize the man who tortured him and his family for a lifetime. Forced to dig through his past looking for fond memories of a war hero, he quickly realizes there aren’t any to be had. As the day of the funeral looms, Todd seeks the assistance of his brothers, whose own experiences only create more problems.

Sasha is the story of a very remarkable dog: a Staffordshire Bull Terrier abandoned close to death at the age of six weeks old. Rescued from a street gutter, she had the good fortune to be adopted by author Brian L. Porter and his family. Despite suffering from a catalogue of injuries, including two broken legs and skin allergies, and eventually being diagnosed as a serious epileptic at just two years old, Sasha's story is one of triumph over adversity; of love, happiness, and inspiration.

Hendrika de Vries is a protected “daddy’s girl”, until her father is deported from Nazi-occupied Amsterdam to a POW camp in Germany and her mother joins the resistance and hides a Jewish girl in their home. As she and her mother experience escalating brutality at the hands of men with swastika armbands who aim to exterminate those they deem “inferior” and those who do not obey, Hendrika learns about moral choice, forced silence and female strength, and through it all discovers the woman she wants to become.

When Azi’s grandfather leaves their small Mediterranean island, Azi waits every day for him to return. The arrival of a nesting turtle and a tall sandy dog convinces Azi that it must mean that Grandfather is on his way. As Azi digs deeper into the past, he begins to unravel hidden secrets and starts to find out just how alike he and his grandfather really are. And without him, Azi knows, he will never feel complete....

"We must be ruthless," Edward snarls, "because we lead ruthless lives: you, of anyone, should understand that. This is our existence, Jordan, this house, this land, that father, that mother - there's no pity, there's no mercy, there's probably no escape. It is hard, Jordan, and we have to be hard to survive it, and the best we can do is fight anything that threatens to make it worse."

Meet the Dearings, a crazy, loving, boisterous family in small-town Mississippi. There's mom and dad, three daughters and their families, and the youngest - 25-year-old Ben. Oh, and the family dog, a Yorkie who thinks she's royalty.

Young Kase and his faithful partner Murdox who just happens to be a talking wolf-dog are agents for the Incantation Enforcement Agency, Counter-Curse Division. In a world where magic and technology are intertwined, they have the unpleasant job of righting magic that has gone wrong.

When Juliet Porter saw an advertisement for "Puppies for Sale", little did the author expect that instead of one puppy, they would end up adopting three adorable little pups from the same litter.