Sunday, August 31, 2008

The Wednesday Sisters

The Wednesday Sisters: A Novel The Wednesday Sisters: A Novel by Meg Waite Clayton

rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

I heard a lot of great buzz about this book, so I was excited when I managed to mooch an ARC copy of it a little while back.

The Wednesday Sisters is set in Palo Alto, California beginning in 1969. It is the story of five women who meet at the park on Wednesdays with their kids and discuss books and work on writing samples. The friends help each other through tumultuous periods in their personal lives as well as addressing pertinent issues of the time such as the war in Vietnam, the Equal Rights Amendment, and racial and ethnic stigmas. I LOVE books set in this time period. It always makes me appreciate the brave men and women who worked so hard to change social perceptions.

I found this book a little hard to get into. It took me awhile to keep all five women straight in my head and I'm not sure that I ever felt like I fully understood each one of them. In addition to the social issues, each one of the women had their own "problem" to deal with which was a little over the top for me.

However, the book definitely moved well for me in the second half and I would read more by the same author in the future. I would especially recommend it as a book club read because I think there is a lot to discuss.

They also reviewed it: Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin'? and Lesa's Book Critiques
Let me know if you did too so I can add you!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have this one on my TBR pile, but who knows when I'll get to it.

Corinne said...

I saw the author over at Book Blogs - I didn't realize it took place during that time period.

Anna said...

I think the book sounds interesting. Not sure when I'll get a chance to read it though.

--Diary of an Eccentric

trish said...

I can see how it would have been hard to keep track of everyone in the beginning...I know I had the same problem but it didn't seem to bother me as much as it did you. :)