Bandon Public Library

In his classic guide to understanding the opposite sex, Dr. John Gray provides a practical and proven way for men and women to improve their communication and relationships by acknowledging the differences between them. (Amazon.com)

"Juno was wrong about Winnie Crouch. Before moving in with the Crouch family, Juno thought Winnie and her husband, Nigel, had the perfect marriage. Only now that Juno's living in their beautiful house, she sees the cracks in the crumbling facade are too deep to ignore. Still, Juno isn't one to judge. After her grim diagnosis, the retired therapist simply wants a place to live out the rest of her days in peace. But that peace is shattered the day Juno...

In the mid 1930's two well-educated sisters from Shanghai go to Los Angeles to become brides of the "Gold Mountain men" when their family is on the verge of bankruptcy. When the get there they are detained, interrogated, and humiliated for months. When one of the sisters becomes pregnant they vow that no one will ever know

Catherine Morland meets all the trappings of Gothic horror and imagines the worst. Disaster does eventually strike, as it does in the real world as distinct from the romantic one, but without spoiling the wonderful atmosphere of this story.

"Psychopaths are manipulative, remorseless. They feel no guilt. What would happen if you thought you might be married to one? Jen Waite loves her husband. Marco is sexy, funny, her best friend--and he makes her feel like the most important person in the world. When they have their first baby, her life feels perfect. But then, just three weeks later, she accidentally reads an e-mail that she was never supposed to see, and it is as if someone has aimed...

"When clever, headstrong Kaveri moves to Bangalore to marry handsome young doctor Ramu, she's resigned herself to a quiet life. But that all changes the night of the party at the Century Club, where she escapes to the garden for some peace and quiet--and instead spots an uninvited guest in the shadows. Half an hour later, the party turns into a murder scene. When a vulnerable woman is connected to the crime, Kaveri becomes determined to save her and...

Jude the Obscure, the semi-autobiographical final novel from Thomas Hardy explores notions of surprising candor; within the eponymous protagonist lies the tragic truth of failed ambitions and relationships. In a fierce exploration of the darkness of love and the intellect, this is one of the great tragic novels of English literature. Jude Fawley, an earnest boy from a rural English village, dreams of a life of academia despite his working-class background....

"At twenty-five, as her wedding date approached, [the author] began to feel trapped ... by the unsettling idea that it was hard to be at once married and free. [She] wanted her life to be different. She wanted her marriage to be different. And she found in the strangely captivating story of another restless young woman determined to live without constraints both an enticement and a challenge, Barbara Newhall Follett ... [who] in December 1939, when...

You might expect the fact of dying-the dying of a beloved wife and fellow poet-to make for a bleak and lonely tale. But Donald Hall's poignant and courageous poetry, facing that dread fact, involves us all: the magnificent, humorous, and gifted woman, Jane Kenyon, who suffered and died, the doctors and nurses who tried but failed to save her, the neighbors, friends, and relatives who grieved for her, the husband who sat by her while she lived and...

In his stunning new book, Marriage and Civilization, author William Tucker looks at the evidence from biology, evolution, anthropology, history, and culture to come to a remarkable conclusion: it was the monogamous pairing of male and female - unusual among mammals - that led to human evolution. Moreover, it is monogamous marriage that has shaped Western Civilization, giving us our sense of justice, undergirded Western democracy, and is the greatest...