Ruby Sisson Library

A tale told from rotating viewpoints traces seven days of bitterly comic family dynamics and confrontation when a wealthy doctor invites his estranged sister's family to join his newly blended one at a vacation home in the English countryside.

Anna has two rules for the annual Pace family destination vacations: Tread lightly and survive. It isn’t easy when she’s the only one in the family who doesn’t quite fit in. Her twin brother, Benny, goes with the flow so much he’s practically dissolved, and her older sister, Nicole, is so used to everyone―including her blandly docile husband and two kids―falling in line that Anna often ends up in trouble for simply asking a question....

Doug and Abi take their kids on a family vacation. Surrounded by relatives, the kids innocently reveal the ins and outs of their family life and many intimate details about their parents. It's soon clear that when it comes to keeping a big secret under wraps from the rest of the family, their children are their biggest liability.

"Seven-year-old Wen and her parents, Eric and Andrew, are vacationing at a remote cabin on a quiet New Hampshire lake. One afternoon, as Wen catches grasshoppers in the front yard, a stranger unexpectedly appears in the driveway. Thus begins an unbearably tense, gripping tale of paranoia, sacrifice, apocalypse, and survival that escalates to a shattering conclusion, one in which the fate of a loving family and quite possibly all of humanity are entwined"--...

"Summer's looking forward to a break when she, her husband Gabe, and Gabe's nine-year-old son arrive at the annual family get-together at her in-laws' sprawling Pennsylvania estate. On the agenda are leisurely gourmet meals, tennis matches, and plenty of relaxation by the pool. But this year, Gabe's brother Nick has invited his new flame Hannah, whom Summer immediately recognizes from an acting gig they both did a few years before. Oddly, Hannah claims...

For the Posts, a two-week trip to the Balearic island of Mallorca with their extended family and friends is a celebration: Franny and Jim are observing their thirty-fifth wedding anniversary, and their daughter, Sylvia, has graduated from high school. The sunlit island, its mountains and beaches, its tapas and tennis courts, also promise an escape from the tensions simmering at home in Manhattan. But all does not go according to plan: over the course...

"Meg's grandfather has been booked to give lectures on a cruise as part of the education/entertainment itinerary, and he's arranged for a passel of family members to join him. The passengers' vacation quickly becomes a nightmare when they wake up to find themselves broken down and in need of repairs. Things get even worse when a crew member announces to all that a woman has jumped overboard, leaving behind her shoes, shawl, and a note. The note reveals...

"When the Chicken Squad goes on a family vacation to a farm, there is a looming dark shadow that is pestering Sugar"--

Amber Brown is driven crazy by her best friend's little brother when the two families spend two weeks together in the Poconos.

A playful follow-up to Mr. Postmouse's Rounds traces a family vacation for Mr. Postmouse, who embarks on a round-the-world tour by hot-air balloon, cruise ship, camel and other transportation methods, making deliveries along the way.