Ocean State Libraries

A realistic and emotional look at a woman battling mental illness and societal pressures written by iconic American writer Sylvia Plath.

"It is this perfectly wrought prose and the freshness of Plath's voice in The Bell Jar that make this book enduring in its appeal." — USA Today

The Bell Jar chronicles the crack-up of Esther Greenwood: brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented,

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"When Margaret's fiancé, John, is hospitalized for depression in 1960s London, she faces a choice: carry on with their plans despite what she now knows of his condition, or back away from the suffering it may bring her. She decides to marry him. Imagine Me Gone is the story of what unfolds from this act of love and faith. At the heart of it is their eldest son, Michael, a brilliant, anxious music fanatic who makes sense of the world through parody....

"After her fiancé's brother convinces him to break up with her before the wedding, Athena Greydon moves into a ten-foot-wide Spite House between the two and engages in some well-deserved payback. "--

At the center of winter, in Motley, Minnesota, Arnold Schiller gives in to the oppressive season that reigns outside and also to his own inner demons — he commits suicide, leaving a devastated family in his wake.

Claire Schiller, wife and mother, takes shelter from the emotional storm with her husband's parents but must ultimately emerge from her grief and help her two young children to recover. Esau, her oldest, is haunted by the same

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During the years he spends in a neural health facility, Pat Peoples formulates a theory about silver linings: he believes his life is a movie produced by God, his mission is to become physically fit and emotionally supportive, and his happy ending will be the return of his estranged wife, Nikki. When Pat goes to live with his parents, everything seems changed: no one will talk to him about Nikki; his old friends are saddled with families; the Philadelphia...

Forced to abandon his ornithology work after being wounded in combat, World War II veteran Jim Carroway secludes himself on a tiny island off the coast of Maine, where an old friend's captivating daughter draws him out of isolation during the month before she starts college.

As the youngest of the five Walsh girls, Helen has had a tough time finding her way in the world; at thirty-three, she has her job as a private investigator that has proven less than fruitful and after losing her flat, she has moved back in with Mammy Walsh. Her hunky new boyfriend, Artie, and his three adorable children are a great distraction, but his beautiful ex-wife lives a little too close for comfort. Meanwhile, Helen runs into her ex-boyfriend...

"Molly suffers from depression, and when she finds out that the exotic fishstore she works at is closing down, her whole life, which is already hanging on a thread, starts to crumble"--