A reminder of just how much the world has changed in such a short time.

The time period and the events discussed in the book were so familiar to all of our members and we had a lively and spirited discussion of the book. We all enjoyed the book - it was easy to read, kept our interest, and brought back many memories of times not that long ago when women were mainly thought of in terms of what their husbands did.

If you like "The Friday Night Knitting Club" and "The Help", you will like this book.

The book is really slow in the beginning (almost half way through) but then it gets better and the end is very fast sa it is difficult to put it down.

Great kick off to our book club as we could each identify with the characters. They seemed a little slow to develop, but great ending.

You find yourself relating to all of the women in this book, when you start thinking back over your life experiences. We loved the historical events that were mentioned in it. It brought back memories for all of us, and we are a variety of ages. It's a great book to bring women together.

This book was very well recieved by our book club. Our members were able to related to so many aspects: the hardships of women during that time, giving up dreams to conform to society, the awkwardness of living in a paradigm shift. It was well written and easy to get hooked into. A great book for groups!

It took a while to get into this book, and once you start to care about the characters the author slaps everything together with the most unplausible ending ever. Had the potential to be a great book, but the author needed to spend more time thinking about character development. She needs to speak with the author of The Help.

It was the typical female bonding story of a group of housewives who abandoned their dreams to raise their families, with hearfelt stories of hardships endured and memories shared. I loved this book!

We liked that it was about the lives of different women intertwining.

The Wednesday Sisters was slow to start but picked up towards the end. It was also confusing with all the sisters and their spouses and their children. I could never remember who belonged together.

I did like how the author began tying everything together and how she brought in historical elements.

Our book club could not get into this book at all. When we got in touch which each other to plan our meet, it turned out no one had finished the book. The character's were hard to relate to and unconvincing.

I found this book uninspiring and could not relate to the characters although I grew up at the same time. Their characters were not memorable and the plot was unrealistic.

A fun read!

An easy breezy beach-chair read that kept my interest. The characters were layered and I liked the setting of the late 60s. The climax made me think, for whom would I shave off all MY hair for?

starts very slow with a lot of background information, hard to keep the characters straight. Great ending, not very believable or realistic but an inspiring look at how your girlfriends can inspire you to new levels and challenge you to achieve more than you ever thought you could

Great story of friendship that begins in the early 60's. Through trials, loves and loss they stick it through and support each other regardless of their differences. Great book for book club.

We felt that the book raised a lot of interesting issues about how times were in the 70s and how much we now take for granted. It also explored how five women came together from different backgrounds and areas of the country to form a friendship that lasted 35 years and how they each inspired the others to dream and make those dreams reality. Great read and even better the second time its read.

Okay, but nothing extraordinary...some good moments, but not enough to be one of those truly great book club books.

We liked the book, but felt like it was somewhat superficial and the characters were remote. We had some concerns that the characters seemed terribly sheltered from the world around them, and didn't feel like the friendships profiled were as intimate and deep as they might be today. However, it provoked lots of discussion about women's changing roles in the past 40 years.

This is a great story of friendship that I think most women can relate to. I think every circle of friends has at least one of these characters within them and therefore this book, to me, made me think about what my circle of friends could accomplish together.

I really wish the author would have included more about the house near the park (you will have to read the book to find out what that means). I think it could have been more developed more as a part of the lives of the characters.

I thought that this book was a nice easy read. It did slow a little in places, but the author recovers nicely. The last few pages made me cry with laughter.

it's ok. not great.

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 is one of those books that you hate to see end. I wish I could have been a part of this group and I miss all the characters. I laughed and cried and related to so many issues and feelings of the "sisters". I thought about how we may be part of a group and get wrapped up in the activities of the group, or "the flavor of the week", and yet take forever to learn about who these women really are. Lastly, the book definitely got me back into journal keeping and writing again. I loved this book and look forward to reading it again!

I loved this book. It moved me and made me cry yet inspired me to be a better writer and a better friend.

I found this book to be very interesting and sometimes a connection with the characters.

What a tribute to friendship! Very moving—many light moments among the poignant ones. Five young mothers in the late 1960s meet at a playground and tentatively begin to develop friendship and the Wednesday Sisters Writing Society. As time and their writing go on, they slowly begin to reveal more and more about the hurts in their pasts, troubles of the present, and aspirations for the future. “It had to do with knowing we were opening ourselves up, cutting ourselves open at our guts and letting others see inside us in ways we couldn’t even see ourselves.” I was drawn into their lives and soon cared about how each character would evolve. Only unrealistic part to me was the success of ordinary writers, but I found the heartache of the characters' personal lives very real. Who was the ghost in the house?

I thought this book had so much potential. I found it predictable and the some of the characters just irritated me. The only parts that I found interesting when the main character would relate the time period.

Fast, easy read. Perfect for summertime.

An easy read about women who started out their adult lives in a time when opportunities and expectations for women were limited; yet through their bond negotiated and grew with the changing times. It will resonate with women of a certain age

Warning: Potential spoilers in this review

The Wednesday Sisters: A Novel by Meg Waite Clayton

From the back of the book:


"When five young mothers - Frankie, Linda, Kath, Ally and Brett - first meet in a neighborhood park in the late 1960s, their conversations center on marriage, raising children, and shared love of books. Then one evening, as they gather to watch the Miss America Pageant, Linda admits that she aspires to write a novel herself, and the Wednesday Sisters Writing Society is born. The five women slowly, and often reluctantly, start filling journals, sliding pages into typewriters, and sharing their work. In the process, they explore the changing world around them: the Veitnam War, the race to the moon, and a women's movement that challenges everything they believe about themselves. At the same time the friends carry one another through more personal changes - ones brought by infidelity, longing, illness, failure, and success. With one another's support and encouragment, the Wednesday Sisters begin to embrace who they are and what they hope to become, welcoming readers to experience, along with them the power o dreaming big."

This was the book club pick for July. I really enjoyed this book, but I must have spaced out when reading the back cover of the book, because I was not expecting the stories about infidelity and illness. Our book club has been (unintentionally) on a streak of rather serious books. And we were hoping for a somewhat lighter read this month. There were some funny moments in the book, but overall it's a serious read and a good choice for a book club selection if you are in the mood for serious.

What I liked about the book: The relationship between the women. Clayton does an excellent job of portraying true, strong friendships. They are not perfect and they make mistakes which makes the story all the more real. Friends don't always say the right thing and they don't always do the right things, but true friends work beyond that and that is what happens with the Wednesday sisters. This story also appealed to me because I often dream of being a writer. I also liked the many literary connections. Each of the women has a model book that they base their writing on - no they are not copying the book - rather it's their inspiration. I also liked that the author included a reading guide at the end of the book. That's very helpful to book clubs who like to have a guide to follow when discussing a book, but this book works well for book clubs that like to formulate their own questions.

What I didn't like about the book: The infidelity and breast cancer stories made this a difficult read for me. It wasn't that they were handled in a bad way, they were just difficult topics. However, I did love the way the women rallied around Linda and supported her through her treatments (once they found out what she was going through.) And the Tonight Show episode was hilarious. The main thing I did not like about this book was the ending. I found it to be rather abrupt.

Overall, I found this this to be a good read and would recommend it for other book clubs.

Did my book club like it? It's hard to tell as we were too busy celebrating my new job to spend too much time discussing the book. Though most of the members did say they enjoyed the coffin scene - now if you find that intriguing, you should read the book to find out more about it.

It was a nice book to read. No problem getting through it. It is very similiar to "Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons".

I just loved the characters in the book like they were my friends. The bits of history intertwined throughout the book kept me interested. I wanted to keep reading to find out what was going to happen next!

Everything aboutbthis book was believable and felt real! Loved sharing their journey and feeling their sorrows, happiness and pains.