Tall, trusted Tandy Caide, CPA, is a long-time patron of the arts in her town, which is why you will find her sitting in the front row of the high school's annual musical production. This year is an Annie year--and it would be no different than other years were it not for the high school's hiring of a new vocational agriculture (Vo-Ag) teacher. With his beguiling ponytail and decorative beaded belt, Kenny catches Tandy's eye immediately. Ignoring the fact of her slovenly husband--who takes most of his meals in their hot tub--Tandy decides to entertain Kenny's advances. Trusted community pillar that she is, Tandy's affair has instant repercussions. People are talking and her husband's subsequent breakdown and check-in to a mental institution doesn't help. At her regular meeting with the Order of the Pessimists--comprised of her deceased father's disgruntled and drunken best friends--she is asked to step down as treasurer. Not only that, but her old lover is keeping a secret somehow connected to the Vo-Ag teacher. And meth labs--fueled by the abundance of fertilizer present in the region--keep blowing up. Somehow, it is all connected to Tandy's ex-bestfriend's daughter--the star of this year's Annie. As Tandy pieces together the puzzle that has become her life, it becomes clear she must embark on a journey of self-discovery that might even include leaving town for good.

People Magazine Book of the Week A Best Book of the Year at Kirkus Reviews, Book Riot, The Chicago Review of Books, Minnesota Public Radio, and more An Indies Introduce and Indie Next Pick Fans of Maria Semple's Where'd You Go Bernadette and and Kevin Wilson's The Family Fang will delight in Annie Hartnett's debut, a darkly comic novel about a young girl named Elvis trying to figure out her place in a world without her mother. Elvis Babbitt has a head for the facts: she knows science proves yellow is the happiest color, she knows a healthy male giraffe weighs about 3,000 pounds, and she knows that the naked mole rat is the longest living rodent. She knows she should plan to grieve her mother, who has recently drowned while sleepwalking, for exactly eighteen months. But there are things Elvis doesn’t yet know—like how to keep her sister Lizzie from poisoning herself while sleep-eating or why her father has started wearing her mother's silk bathrobe around the house. Elvis investigates the strange circumstances of her mother's death and finds comfort, if not answers, in the people (and animals) of Freedom, Alabama. As hilarious a storyteller as she is heartbreakingly honest, Elvis is a truly original voice in this exploration of grief, family, and the endurance of humor after loss.

Liza begins to doubt her feelings for Annie after someone finds out about their relationship, and realizes, after starting college, that her denial of love for Annie was a mistake. Reprint.

Have you ever wondered if your lost loved ones can look down on you from Heaven? Annie Langdon can. And what she sees is a family falling apart. It's been a year since her tragic death and still her husband and three children can't seem to get it together. Help comes when three kooky blonde bombshells move in next door and turn their lives upside down. In her latest novel, Annie's Heaven, Karla Clark intimately explores the themes of life and afterlife, family secrets, sibling rivalry, and death-defying love.