"Hart Ralston is a marshal, tasked with patrolling the wasteland of Tanria, hunting for drudges. It's an unforgiving job, and Hart's got nothing but time to ponder his loneliness. Mercy Birdsall never has a moment to herself. She's been single-handedly keeping Birdsall & Son Undertakers afloat - despite definitely not being a son - in defiance of sullen jerks like Hart Ralston, who seems to have a gift for showing up right when her patience is thinnest....

"Broken Wheel, Iowa, has never seen anyone like Sara, who traveled all the way from Sweden just to meet her pen pal, Amy. When she arrives, however, she finds that Amy's funeral has just ended. Luckily, the townspeople are happy to look after their bewildered tourist--even if they don't understand her peculiar need for books. Marooned in a farm town that's almost beyond repair, Sara starts a bookstore in honor of her friend's memory. All she wants...

When Giraffe decides to write a letter and send it to the other side of the horizon, he finds a penguin pen pal and the two curious animals begin to exchange letters to try to learn more about each other.

"When Ava writes a thank you to Santa in January, he writes back and sets off a year's worth of correspondence where they exchange information about their daily lives and discuss their shared love of Christmas"--

As letters flow back and forth--between the prairies of Illinois and the mountains of Afghanistan, across cultural and religious divides--sixth-grader Abby, ten-year-old Amira, and eleven-year-old Sadeed begin to speak and listen to each other.

"A heartening and uproariously funny novel of high hopes, bad choices, book love, and one woman's best--and worst--intentions. Through emails, journal entries, combative online reviews, texts, and tweets, Fawn plans her next move to reclaim her beloved business--and her life"--

"It's summer 1977 and closeted lesbian Tammy Larson can't be herself anywhere. Not at her strict Christian high school, not at her conservative Orange County church and certainly not at home, where her ultrareligious aunt relentlessly organizes antigay political campaigns. Tammy's only outlet is writing secret letters in her diary to gay civil rights activist Harvey Milk--until she's matched with a real-life pen pal who changes everything. Sharon...

"Herman the bear and Henry the raccoon are best friends. But Henry's moving far, far away! So what do they do? Promise to write each other all the time and stay best friends forever, that's what. But being pen-pals is easier said than done, especially when your best friend seems to be having way more fun than you are. . . "--

The setting is pre-World War II Budapest. Bickering co-workers in a gift shop don't realize they are penpals.