This lovely novel tracks the lives of five friends as the life-changing events of the 70's unfold. Their lives evolve as the country expands into women's rights, diversity and space exploration. If you do not identify with at least one of the women in this book, then you did not live through this era. And, if you did not, this novel will help you, perhaps, understand some of the issues your own mother dealt with as traditional ways of being female were changing dramatically.

This book covers a wide variety of topics, including Ron Popeil, the homeless and how to evaluate a good teacher. Surprisingly, each chapter brought new information and insight that had us saying: "I never knew that!" As with all of Malcolm Gladwell's books, he talks about complex issues in a reader-friendly way. What he writes about has consistently created wonderful discussion for our book club.

The most striking aspect of this book was noticing how much legal and cultural views towards people with disabilities has changed in recent years. The setting of this book is an institution that in 1968 still warehoused disabled individuals in unsafe, unclean and abusive situations.