THE FLOAT TEST by Lynn Steger Strong 

Four siblings converge on their parents' home in Florida after the death of their mother, the  "litigator" of the family. High demanding of herself (she suffers a stroke while running) and her grown children, who have avoided one another. The father, in his own health crisis, relies on the favorite child of the moment to communicate with. Jenn, the oldest, has six kids and expects her siblings to follow her lead, just as her children do. Fred, a writer, has used her family's drama in her work, much to their distaste, has left her husband, and is suffering from writer's block. Jude, the family's narrator, like her mother, is a "recovering corporate lawyer," and the youngest, George, has secrets and self-doubts (his wife left him and he's lost his job) and is too embarrassed to share with his sisters and father the spiral he's in. In addition to all that, Fred finds a gun in her mother's dresser. Why did she have a gun? Strong asks who really owns a story and what it means to accept the family you're given.

Favorite line(s): Once before Tess died, Fred had brought her and Hal and Oona down to Florida. Mom and Dad had let them stay at their house and had worked all day, and Tess and Fred and Hal and Oona had the place mostly to themselves. How awful! Tess said every morning, sitting outside and looking at the water, drinking coffee. February, 80 degrees and sunny, a breeze off the water. They watched the herons glide by, the water ebb and glint. I can't fathom how you ever survived this awful place, Tess said. Torture, Fred said. Indictable, said Tess. I'm glad to get to have you here, said Fred. She'd taken about a thousand furtive pictures of Tess and her kids at the beach. In the ocean, Tess had shown both kids how to float. Don't overthink it! Tess said, laughing at Fred. Water is the kindest element. It's because you trust the world too much, Fred said, unwilling to stretch her body out the way Tess told her. Silly me, said Tess. I trusted the world, and now I'm almost dead. Before Fred could respond, Tess put her hands under Fred to float her, the kids swimming up to help. Fred flailed, though, kept sinking, kicking. Oona, Hal, and Tess all laughed. Tess swam up next to Fred, who couldn't quite look at her. We're alive right now, Tess said.

BLUE SISTERS by Coco Mellors

The four Blue sisters couldn't be more different from one another and their parents. Avery, the oldest and a recovering addict turned lawyer, has always felt responsible for her siblings, especially after their beloved Nicky overdoses after self-medicating for endometriosis pain. They all deal with the ensuing grief in their own ways. Bonnie, a professional boxer, works as a bouncer in LA after a humiliating defeat in the ring and unrequited love outside it. Lucky, a model since her mid-teens, has always taken care of herself. However, her hard-partying and ambivalent feelings about her career leave her adrift in Paris. They all meet in NYC to clear out and get ready to sell the family apartment where Nicky lived until her death. After a year of trying to run and then hide from their grief,  together in NYC, they confront the secrets and demons haunting them.  

Favorite line(s): It was true. Being one of four sisters always felt like being part of something magic. Once Bonnie noticed it, she saw the world was made up of fours. The seasons. The elements. The points on a compass. Four suits in a pack of cards. Four chambers of a human heart. Bonnie loved being a part of this mystical number, this perfect symmetry of two sets of two. Until you know my sisters, she used to say to Pavel, you don't know me.

1000 WORDS: A WRITER'S GUIDE TO STAYING CREATIVE, FOCUSED, AND PRODUCTIVE ALL YEAR ROUND by Jami Attenberg  

Attenberg organizes an online 1000 Words of Summer session a couple of times a year. Writers from all over the world and from every genre write 1,000 words a day for fourteen days. It's designed to motivate writers to prioritize their work, stop making excuses, and grow as writers alongside a community of thousands who share the same goal. It's worked for me. Usually, with new work, not revision. But I guess you could revise 1000 words, too. This motivational book has craft advice from more than fifty writers who have contributed to Attenberg's 1,000 Words newsletter. If you're a writer, keep this book close at hand. There's so much wisdom in the vulnerability of other writers as they tackle the problems of staying on the creative path year-round.

Favorite line(s): How do you know when a book is done? It took me a few novels to figure out how to answer that questions, at least in terms of fiction. As someone who writes character-driven fiction, I like to go around to all my characters and check in with them, ask them if they have anything else to say, if there's anything else they want to add to the conversation. Plot so often exists for me as a place to hang the growth of a character. So I need to know: Did I take your story as far as it could go? Did you get to where you needed to be in this book? And they'll tell me.