"The Candy House opens with the staggeringly brilliant Bix Bouton, whose company, Mandala, is so successful that he is "one of those tech demi-gods with whom we're all on a first name basis." Bix is 40, with four kids, restless, desperate for a new idea, when he stumbles into a conversation group, mostly Columbia professors, one of whom is experimenting with downloading or "externalizing" memory. It's 2010. Within a decade, Bix's new technology, "Own...

"At 19, she was an Instagram celebrity. Now, at 35, she works behind the cosmetic counter at the "black and white store," peddling anti-aging products to women seeking physical and spiritual transformation. She too is seeking rebirth. She's about to undergo the high-risk, elective surgery Aesthetica, a procedure that will reverse all her past plastic surgery procedures, returning her, she hopes, to a truer self. Provided she survives the knife. But...

Reeling from deceptions involving the people she loves, Poppy feels as if her world has tipped sideways. Maybe her colleague Annalise is right - Poppy needs to let loose and blow off some steam. What better way to vent than social media? With Annalise, she creates a private Facebook group that quickly takes off. Suddenly, Poppy feels like she's back in control. She has a place in the world again and she's learning that her life choices are worth celebrating...