Birds of Paradise / Diana Abu-Jaber / 362 pages

Avis is an artist working in pastry.  From her state-of-the-art professional at-home kitchen she creates heavenly pastries sought after by all the elite of Miami Beach.  Her husband, Brian, is a lawyer for a huge corporation, and her son, Stanley, owns his own organic food market.  Her daughter, Felice, has run away repeatedly and has been gone 5 years.  Birds of Paradise focuses chapter by chapter on the different characters as they struggle with the difficult demands of life.