L.A. Sweeney

Eliza De La Cruz knows what she wants: a high-powered job in academia; to finally go public with her (married) Senator boyfriend James Holbrooke; and to upend the nepotism and inequity in higher education.

Two terminally ill hospice residents conspire to make their spouses fall in love with each other to lessen the impact of their death. Things go awry when they themselves fall in love and one of them begins to feel better.

Jean is the provider and (over)protector of her two teen children, Tamika and Tristin, and begrudgingly lives with her mother in a crowded Lawrence Heights apartment complex. Despite the kids learning to become more self-sufficient, Jean’s vision is too clouded by the past to see that they're growing. She is haunted by violence in both their past and their present, and must help her children cope. Expertly using sound and flashbacks to construct a layered and full portrait of this woman's life, Chapman reveals the trials and tribulations that women in Jean’s family carry with them.

The eclectic staff and patrons in the underfunded Jameson branch of the Metropolitan Public Library deal with the community and each other’s eccentricities.