The story of Jack Gladney, his fourth wife, Babette, and four ultramodern offspring as they navigate the rocky passages of family life to the background babble of brand-name consumerism. When an industrial accident unleashes an "airborne toxic event," a lethal black chemical cloud floats over their lives. The menacing cloud is a more urgent and visible version of the "white noise" engulfing the Gladneys-radio transmissions, sirens, microwaves, ultrasonic...

"It's December 23, 1971, and heavy weather is forecast for Chicago. Russ Hildebrandt, the associate pastor of a liberal suburban church, is on the brink of breaking free of a marriage he finds joyless -- unless his wife, Marion, who has her own secret life, beats him to it. Their eldest child, Clem, is coming home from college on fire with moral absolutism, having taken an action that will shatter his father. Clem's sister, Becky, long the social...

"Set in Iowa and Minnesota in the 60s and 70s, Little Miseries is a Midwestern Gothic where sometimes the misery is just that -- little -- and sometimes it is epic and yawning, capable of swallowing every childhood memory. There are the miseries the Castles will talk about -- old family lore about a great, great, great uncle who was split in two while connecting railroad cars -- and the misery none of them will face. There are days at the lake, placid...

"This heartwarming, feel-good holiday romance brings together a loveable cast of characters who find hope where they thought it had been lost and romance where no one ever expected it. Returning home to her family's farm in the Midwest for her Christmas wedding was never Beth Dean's plan. But it's the only way her beloved grandmother will be able to attend. And even her New York City friends will find the family's old barn elegant. But when her fiance's...

"When Nurse Keate arrives at the Thatcher estate to care for a man with a bullet in his shoulder, she's told that he shot himself accidentally--but when the convalescing man is murdered soon thereafter, it becomes clear that the only "accident" was his not being fully killed the first time around. A murderer stalks the manor and yet the rest of the family isn't the slightest bit alarmed; instead, they seem intent on concealing the crime and adding...