"Sally Milz is a sketch writer for The Night Owls, the late night live comedy show that airs each Saturday. With a couple of heartbreaks under her belt, she's long abandoned the search for love, settling instead for the occasional hook-up, career success, and a close relationship with her stepfather to round out a satisfying life. But when Sally's friend and fellow writer Danny Horst begins dating Annabel, a glamorous actress who guest-hosted the...

The time is 1946 until the present. The town is Elmwood Springs, Missouri, right in the middle of the country, in the midst of the mostly joyous transition from war to peace, aiming toward a dizzingly bright future. Once again, Fannie Flagg gives us a story of richly human characters, the saving graces of the once-maligned middle classes and small-town life, and the daily contest between laughter and tears.

"When it came time for Will and Elizabeth to leave, Jayson felt like a lost child, alone and terrified. Elizabeth whispered near his ear, "I will be praying for you constantly. God will get you through this, Jayson. Nobody else can. He will give you the peace and the strength you need." Jayson nodded but couldn't speak. He turned and walked away, feeling as if he were about to literally descend into the depths of hell. And nobody could spare him from...

When Abigail Kelly leaves Los Angeles for the sunny beaches of Florida to find peace after her brother's death and avoid her controlling manager, she meets Todd an ex-marine who helps her find the balance she's been missing.

"Soho, London, 1967. Folk-rock-psychedelic quartet Utopia Avenue is formed. Guitarist Jasper de Zoet, a shy, half-Dutch public-school musical prodigy, was hearing voices long before he dropped acid. Keyboardist Elf Holloway must defy the prejudices of her bank manager father, her housewife mother, and her age to forge her own career. Bassist Dean Moss cannot, will not, spend his life on the factory floor like everyone else in Gravesend. Band manager...

"Opal is a fiercely independent young woman pushing against the grain in her style and attitude, Afro-punk before that term existed. Coming of age in Detroit, she can't imagine settling for a 9-to-5 job--despite her unusual looks, Opal believes she can be a star. So when the aspiring British singer/songwriter Neville Charles discovers her at a bar's amateur night, she takes him up on his offer to make rock music together for the fledgling Rivington...

Felicity, seventeen, has struggled to meet her mother's expectations since her older sister disappeared but when she connects with a famous band member at a charity ball, she begins to consider what will make her truly happy.

Zoe Maisey is a seventeen-year-old musical prodigy with a genius IQ. Three years ago, she was involved in a tragic incident that left three classmates dead. She served her time, and now her mother, Maria, is resolved to keep that devastating fact tucked far away from their new beginning, hiding the past even from her new husband and demanding Zoe do the same.

Tonight Zoe is giving a recital that Maria has been planning for months. It needs

...

Pigs dance the night away when a polka band plays at the annual hootenanny.