J. Courtney Sullivan

"The crumbling Victorian had been abandoned long before Jane ever discovered it as a child. It was painted a sweet violet color, and the gingerbread trim was blue and green, but inside was shambles--broken glass, a dollhouse ravaged by mice, bedsheets twisted as though someone had left in a hurry. Still, the house became a hideaway whenever Jane needed to escape her volatile mother. Twenty years later, now a Harvard archivist, she returns home to...

Three generations of women converge on the family beach house in this wickedly funny, emotionally resonant story of love and dysfunction from the author of Commencement. By turns uproarious and achingly sad, Maine reveals the sibling rivalry, alcoholism, social climbing, and Catholic guilt at the center of one family, along with the abiding, often irrational love that keeps them coming back, every summer, to the family house and to each other.

Ex-New Yorker Elisabeth, an accomplished journalist and new mother, is struggling to adjust to life in a small town. Alone in the house with her infant son all day, she feels uneasy, adrift. She neglects her work, losing untold hours to her Brooklyn moms' Facebook group, her "influencer" sister's Instagram feed, and text messages with the best friend she never sees anymore. She hires Sam, a senior at the local women's college, to babysit. Sam is struggling...

Collects particular moments in the authors' lives when they realized they were feminists.