Monoosook Valley — Elisabeth Hyde

In a small New Hampshire town, 35-year-old Shirley Morrison is raising two teenagers (from a marriage that ended with her husband's death in a freak boating accident) and running her business, the Curly Q beauty parlor. The year is 1971, and drugs, sexual freedom and anti-war fervor are in the headlines, as well as a presence in conservative little Monoosook. As Morrison seeks to keep her children on the straight and narrow (she checks the bathroom for tampon applicators ``just to make sure Joanie was still needing them'' and knows from reading Good Housekeeping that when Tucker comes home late and eats everything in sight, including the leftover tuna casserole, that something illicit is being smoked), she finds herself caught up in a new existence. Although she prefers single motherhood to her former life with her moody late husband, she is falling in love with Marty Schwartz, a frizzy-haired, marijuana-using New York writer seeking solitude in the Concord State. With wonderful detail and marvelous dialogue, Hyde ( Her Native Colors ) expertly chronicles the bittersweet liberation of Shirley Morrison. (Mar.)