In The Christmas Letters, three generations of women reveal their stories of love and marriage in the letters they write to family and friends during the holidays. It's a down-home Christmas story about tradition, family, and the shared experiences of women. Here, in a letter of her own, Lee Smith explains how she was inspired to write this celebrated epistolary novel: Dear Friends, Like me, you probably get Christmas letters every year....

The mother of an incarcerated teenager who murdered seven of his fellow high school students tells of his upbringing and her own shortcomings in a series of letters to her estranged husband.

A monster created by scientist Victor Frankenstein from parts of corpses and brought to life develops loathing for himself and hatred for his creator as he learns to think for himself.

As London is emerging from the shadow of World War II, writer Juliet Ashton discovers her next subject in a book club on Guernsey--a club born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi after its members are discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island.

"Welcome to Lockwood, proud home of The Fairway Players, who, under the creative control of Martin Hayward, the owner of the local country club, are putting on a production of Arthur Miller's "All My Sons." The star, as always: Martin's wife, Helen, the only person in the troupe with any real acting talent. But this is not a production like any other: just as rehearsals get under way, tragedy strikes: Poppy Reswick, Martin and Helen's beloved granddaughter,...

" Ironside Lake, Minnesota, January 1944. Headstrong and determined, linguistics student Johanna Berglund has very definite plans for her future . . . plans that do not include returning to her hometown and the secrets and heartaches she left behind. But when the only way to her intended future is through undertaking a translator position at a nearby camp for German POWs, she reluctantly accepts. Johanna arrives to find the once-sleepy Minnesota town...

Between friends: "Jillian Lawton and Lesley Adamski. Two girls from very different backgrounds become best friends in the turbulent '60s, but their circumstances and choices--and their mistakes--take them in opposite directions. Lesley stays in their hometown. She marries young, living a life defined by the demands of small children, never enough money, and an unfaithful husband. Jill lives those years on a college campus shaken by the Vietnam War,...

Chris Cleave's debut novel Incendiary-winner of the Book-of-the-Month Club's First Fiction Award and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize-is sure to captivate the same people who made Little Bee one of the most talked-about novels of the last decade. Written as an open letter to Osama bin Laden from a distraught woman whose husband and son were killed in a massive suicide bombing, Incendiary was published in the UK on July 7, 2005- eerily, the day of the...

"Friendship Letters Series - Doretta Schwartz has always enjoyed writing letters and feels her letters can be a bit of a ministry to her friends. In this series, exchanging letters that contain open and honest feeling and struggles helps Doretta and two of her best friends through the darkest challenges of their lives. A Simple Letter Carries Inspiration for Healing. Life is good on their Pennsylvania Amish farm for newlyweds Vic and Eleanor Lapp-until...