Durable Goods (Katie Nash, #1)

In the sweltering heat of a Southwestern summer, on a small army base in rural Texas, Katie waits impatiently for her life to change. Though battered by the recent death of her mother, her spirit remains miraculously stong. She is filled with longings: for a boy to fall in love with her the way Dickie Mac has fallen for her sister; for her father to stop hitting her; for her life to become less uncertain. And she knows that day is coming soon.

Durable Goods is a poignant and enduring novel by Elizabeth Berg -- author of the New York Times bestseller Talk Before Sleep and Joy School -- a masterful work that gently captures the subtle nuances of childhood's end...and the pain, sorrow and stirring hope of inevitable transformation.

With an unerring ability to capture the sweet sadness of growth, the pain of change, the barely visible vibrations that connect people, Berg's beautiful novel reminds us of how wonderful, and wounding, a deeper understanding of life can be.