A HOLE IN THE EARTH BY ROBERT BAUSCH

Henry Porter's summer begins when his daughter Nicole, who he hasn't seen since his wife divorced him five years ago shows up on his doorstep. Nicole is a surprise. She just graduated high school and is almost an adult. The gap between the little girl that Henry once knew and the woman she has become leaves him fumbling for words. The very evening of Nicole's arrival, Henry's girlfriend, Elizabeth, reveals that she is pregnant, leaving Henry speechless once more. He deals best with situations like these by heading to the racetrack in time for the daily double and to place a few bets.

At the heart of this compelling and thought-provoking look at family, relationships and why men act the way that they do is the profound and affecting story of a family piecing itself back together.

SOUTH OF BROAD BY PAT CONROY

Against the sumptuous backdrop of Charleston, South Carolina, South of Bend gathers a unique cast of sinners and saints. Leopold Bloom King, the narrator is the son of an amiable, loving father who teaches science at the local high school. His mother, an ex-nun, is the high school Principal and a respected Joyce scholar. After Leo's older brother commits suicide at the age of ten, the family struggles with the shattering effects of his death and Leo, lonely and isolated, searches for something to sustain him. Eventually, he finds his answer when he becomes part of a tightly knit group of high school seniors that include Sheba and Trevor Poe, glamorous twins with an alcoholic mother and a prison-escapee father; hard scramble mountain runaways Niles and Starla Whitehead, socialite Molly Huger and her boyfriend, Chadworth Rutledge. The ties among them last for years. The final test of friendship brings them to San Francisco and is something that no one is prepared for.