Crank. Glass. Ice. Crystal. Whatever you call it, it's al the same: a monster. And once it's got hold of youo, this monster will never let you go. Kristina thinks she can control it. Now with a baby to care for, she's determined to be the one deciding when and how much, the one calling the shots. But the monster is too strong, and before she knows it, Kristina is back in its grips. She needs the monster to keep going, to face the pressures...

After chess led to the destruction of her family four years earlier, Mallory Greenleaf's focus is a dead-end job that keeps the lights on for her mother and sisters. When she plays in a charity tournament and wipes the board with current world champion Nolan Sawyer, the victory opens the door to sorely needed cash prizes. Mallory struggles to keep her family separated from the game, but she soon realizes that the games aren't only on the board. The...

Kristina Snow is the perfect daughter, but she meets a boy who introduces her to drugs and becomes a very different person, struggling to control her life and her mind.

"When Sam Capra's best customer--and friend--is murdered outside his Miami bar, Sam decides to seek justice. Determined to find out the connection between his friend's death and a beautiful stranger, Sam infiltrates the Ligeras, one of Miami's most prominent and dangerous families"--Provided by publisher.

Told in alternating voices, relates the story of best friends and neighbors Joan Harris and Daisy McNamara and the year that everything in their lives came apart.

With their parents struggling to make ends meet, Lily and Ryan grow tired of always eating macaroni and cheese for supper and having their Grandma stay with them, but when Grandma hears their complaints she tells a story about the magic that snow angels can bring.

In the tradition of Mary Karr's "The Liars' Club" and Rick Bragg's "All Over But the Shouting," Jeannette Walls has written a stunning and life-affirming memoir about surviving a willfully impoverished, eccentric and severely misguided family. The child of an alcoholic father and an eccentric artist mother discusses her family's nomadic upbringing, during which she and her siblings fended for themselves while their parents outmaneuvered bill collectors...

Before Camelia and Ben can fully grasp the powerful bond brought about by their psychometry, an unresolved family tragedy resurfaces in Camelia's life, irrevocably changing everything she cares about.

In the summer of 1974 Nellie turns thirteen, her best friend has a crush on a boy, her mom has run off, the money for their family road trip to see Mt. Rushmore is missing, and her dad has crawled into bed and will not get up, but when Nellie decides the trip out West will fix her family, she will do almost anything to come up with the cash.

The family routine is upset during Ramona's year in second grade when her father unexpectedly loses his job.