A cold snap has everyone in the town of Toby Mills feeling down, until the mayor's wife thinks of a way to warm things up again.

A little girl's small act of kindness after a storm spreads throughout her town so that the next time there is a storm, her community comes together to make a big difference.

Rick Grannis is assistant professor of sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. Where do neighborhoods come from and why do certain resources and effects--such as social capital and collective efficacy--bundle together in some neighborhoods and not in others? From the Ground Up argues that neighborhood communities emerge from neighbor networks, and shows that these social relations are unique because of particular geographic qualities....

"Darcy Clipper, prodigal daughter, nearly thirty, has returned home to Murbridge, Massachusetts, after her life takes an unwelcome left turn. Murbridge, Darcy is convinced, will welcome her home and provide a safe space in which she can nurse her wounds and harbor grudges, both real and imagined. But Murbridge, like so much else Darcy thought to be fixed and immutable, has changed. And while Darcy's first instinct might be to hole herself up in her...

Following a tragic schoolbus accident, high-profile lawyer Mitchell Stephens descends upon a small town. With promises of retribution and a class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of the grieving community, Stephens begins his investigation into the details of the crash. But beneath the town's calm, he uncovers a tangled web of lies, deceit and forbidden desires that mirrors his own troubled personal life. Gradually, we learn that Stephens has his own...

Compares the structures and functions of trees to human bodies, shows the interconnectness and dependence of trees in a forest, and urges readers to communicate, share, and care for one another. Includes notes on the anatomy of a tree, ways to help save trees, and how to help in one's community.

Defines what a suburb is and describes its main characteristics.

"Nineteen-year-old Little Lea lives in a rural town where life ends at the edge of the forest. When a stranger loses his dog on the first day after the end of the world, Little Lea warns him not to follow it into the forest, that people who enter never come out. Over a shared joint, she tells him about the burning in her gut, winding a tale of loss, desire, and conspiracies. Little Lea sees the world through backcountry eyes that distrust the outsiders...

Marcia Muller, bestselling author of the acclaimed series starring San Francisco P.I. Sharon McCone, returns to the remote northern California coast of Point Deception and Cyanide Wells with an exciting new novel. A riveting mystery full of atmosphere and suspense, this tale explores the dark heart of a small town where passion-and murder-runs as deep as the river that flows through it... Amid ancient redwoods and sun-dappled reeds, the Perdido River...

A bestselling novel of suburban daydreams and the magic of one woman who makes her own way in the world  On Hemlock Street, the houses are identical, the lawns tidy, and the families traditional. A perfect slice of suburbia, this Long Island community shows no signs of change as the 1950s draw to a close-until the fateful August morning when Nora Silk arrives.   Recently divorced, Nora mows the lawn in slingback pumps and climbs her roof in the...