The Order of Things — Lynne Hinton

An out of sorts librarian finds support and friendship in the most unlikely place--a new novel from the national bestselling author of Friendship Cake Andreas Jay Hackett is a university librarian known for her love of keeping things organized. But one summer, she finds herself falling away from a sense of well being, depressed, "out of order." Her work doesn't give her pleasure, her friends worry about her, and her own voice begins to frighten her. Therapy, pills and doctors visits don't help, so Andreas checks herself into a psychiatric facility. There, she finds herself in a room next door to a prison inmate who has also been hospitalized. As she talks with her new neighbor, Andreas begins to come out of her despair--ultimately finding the healing she needs through a friendship that develops in the darkest of circumstances, and despite boundaries of race, gender, education, and age.