"When Vivien Walker left her home in the Mississippi Delta, she swore never to go back, as generations of the women in her family had. But in the spring, nine years to the day since she'd left, that's exactly what happens--Vivien returns, fleeing from a broken marriage and her lost dreams for children. What she hopes to find is solace with "Bootsie," her dear grandmother who raised her, a Walker woman with a knack for making everything all right....

"The Hope Chest is a deeply emotional novel about three people who have seemingly lost all hope until one woman's heirloom hope chest is rediscovered in the attic, along with its contents and secrets. Mattie is a fiercely independent woman battling ALS; Don, her deeply devoted husband is facing a future without his one true love; and Rose, their struggling caregiver, is a young, single mother who feels trapped in her life. With each item that is discovered--including...

"Herb has a secret: he's not quite the man he once was. And when his children learn of this, they decide it is time to move him and his wife, Susan, who is slipping into early Alzheimer's herself out of their Key West home and into assisted living. But curmudgeonly Herb--annoyed with his kids and unsettled by the ever-changing world--is not going quietly. He has one trusted friend, a young woman named Renee who has been helping to care for Susan....