Something terrible has happened on the declining estate where two elderly sisters live. Beyond the stone wall surrounding it lies something so terrible that Evelyn and Lily won’t even look in that direction.

More disturbing things are happening. The food seeds and flowers they plant are blooming late. The seasons aren’t right. Something’s wrong with the weather. The sisters live and sleep in the kitchen because most of the house is boarded up to protect them from “man things.”

And now, someone...

There is no author who gets into a character’s head better than Anne Tyler. That’s why she’s got twenty-four successful novels and a Pulitzer Prize to her credit.

In Earthly Possessions she pairs a woman fleeing her husband with a young man fleeing the law. The latter, Jake Simms, kidnaps Charlotte Emory when his bank robbery attempt fails. On their cross-country flight he tells her of his bungled attempt to do the right thing by his pregnant girlfriend. Charlotte, the narrator, tells us of...

Author Gary D. Schmidt has captured my heart with yet another of his stories about boyhood, although this is the darkest of the four I’ve read. Jack Hurd, a middle-schooler, is a farm boy whose family offers foster care to a troubled boy named Joseph Brook. Joseph comes from a juvenile detention facility after a traumatic life with his abusive father and a tragic incident involving a girl his age.

Initially withdrawn, Joseph becomes accustomed to living on the farm, helping with chores, and...