The Nix

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Noley Reid

It's the summer of 1982 in Blacksburg, Virginia--seven years after the suspicious death of a son and sibling--and the Sobel family is hungry. Francie dresses in tennis skirts and ankle socks and weighs her grams of allotted carrots and iceberg lettuce. Her semi-estranged husband Tate prefers a packed fridge and hidden doughnuts. Daughters Enid, ten, and Vivvy, almost thirteen, are subtler versions of their parents, measuring their summer vacation by meals had or meals skipped. But at summer's end, secrets both old and new emerge and Francie disappears, leaving the family teetering on the brink. Told from alternating points of view by the four living Sobels, Pretend We Are Lovely is a sharp and darkly funny story of forgiveness, family secrets, and the losses we inherit. At its core is the ever-complicated and deeply-devoted bond of sisterhood as the girls, left mostly to their own devices, must navigate their way through middle school, find comfort in each other, and learn the difference between food and nourishment.

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Jimmy Gownley

"With her new spot on the cheerleading squad, Aunt Tanner's hoards of adoring fans, and Reggie's successful mission to mold young superheroes into productive--and cool--members of society, Amelia's sailing is remarkably smooth. But when Tanner disappears, humiliated by an ex-boyfriend's tell-all book, Amelia goes into full panic mode. And when she boards a bus on an epic journey to find Tanner--with frenemy Rhonda in tow, and a little help from a certain boy she never thought she'd see again--it quickly becomes clear that if Amelia has learned anything in her eleven years, it's that life is never through with surprises."--

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Brendan O'Carroll

The New York Times Book Review praised Brendan O'Carroll's first novel, The Mammy, as "Cheerful...as unpretentious and satisfying as a home-cooked meal...with a delicious dessert of an ending." With the forthcoming second book in the trilogy, The Chisellers, and a movie about The Mammy (entitled Agnes Browne) on the horizon, the world is discovering O'Carroll's uniquely Irish blend of warmth and grittiness, comedy and pathos, as he elevates the lives of ordinary working-class Dublin people--and one extraordinary family--into tales that are small in size but epic in emotion. With the final installment, The Granny, our comedic and lovable heroine, Agnes Browne, has a French lover, six children in their twenties--including one in prison--and a wee grandchild of her own. But the world is spinning fast for Agnes--especially considering that her lover wants her to become "a sexual animal" and that her family's far-flung fortune is beyond her control. The members of the Browne family...

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Tim Sandlin

Picking up the characters from his GroVant trilogy, published 15 years ago, Sandlin returns to the small Wyoming town where it all began. Narrator Sam Callahan is managing the Virgin Birth Home for Unwed Mothers, while his aimless adult daughter, Shannon, is having a nervous breakdown; and his mother, Lydia, is on parole after time serverd for attempting to poison Ronald Reagan's dog. Lydia's parole requires writing the life story of centenarian, Oly Pedersen, but then she hatches a scheme for a road trip to California (taking along Oly) so Roger, a young man unofficially adopted by Sam, might discover his origins. Meanwhile, the terrifying Leroy, who dumped Roger off on friends years ago, is hunting him now, believing Roger must die for the universe to achieve balance.