The quickening

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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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Marie Ferrarella

Big-city radiologist Dan Davenport is ready to take New York by storm. But when an accident robs him of the most important person in his life, he decides to honor his brother by taking his place as the town physician in Forever, Texas—temporarily. He's never been fond of commitment, but when he meets a beautiful young mother struggling to get back on her feet, he reconsiders. Tina Blayne can't afford to open her heart to another man, especially one itching to leave town at the first opportunity. Yet when she begins working at Dan's clinic, she realizes the doctor's got wounds of his own…wounds that require her special brand of healing.

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Carol Dawson

The first one was her true soul mate, her mentor in everything from art to sex. The second was practical, a whiz with numbers, and with a bigger heart than Lulu ever imagined. The third could cast terrifyingly powerful spells, though they weren't enough to save the marriage. The fourth kept her at arm's length. The fifth was a haunting presence, a constantly unsettling force in Lulu's life. And then there were the husbands, no small handfuls themselves, each as complicated as their mothers. But the real forces in Lulu's life, no matter the men, have been the mothers-in-law that came along with them. Now, with her son's unexpected marriage, Lulu has become the sacred mother to whom the daughter-in-law must bow, the source for secrets about her own son - his sins, his past, his potential.

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Paul Auster

Marco Fogg, loner and dreamer, is forced from his Manhattan apartment and roams Central Park as a vagrant until he is rescued by gentle Kitty Wu. He ends up as the live-in helper to an invalid old man, the recording of whose life story becomes Marco's obsession.