Family Matters: Lise Haines at the Coop tomorrow

The unspoken rule of “chicks before dicks” doesn’t seem to mean very much to Mattie and Jane, the two leading ladies in LISE HAINES’s second novel, Small Acts of Sex and Electricity. Both of them are in love with the same man, and in a bizarre, Wife Swap–esque switch, Jane takes a few weeks off from her family to indulge in some singleton adventures while unmarried college friend Mattie takes care of Jane’s two daughters and tries to rekindle an old relationship with Jane’s husband.

It sounds dramatic because it is, and perhaps Haines will tell you which girl got the guy when she reads tomorrow night at the Harvard Coop, 1400 Mass Ave, Cambridge | 7 pm | free | 617.499.2012.