The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick

The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Muse for providing me with an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!
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Margaret Ryan never really meant to start a book club . . . or a feminist revolution in her buttoned-up suburb.

By 1960s standards, Margaret Ryan is living the American woman's dream. She has a husband, three children, a station wagon, and a home in Concordia--one of Northern Virginia's most exclusive and picturesque suburbs. She has a standing invitation to the neighborhood coffee klatch, and now, thanks to her husband, a new subscription to A Woman's Place--a magazine that tells housewives like Margaret exactly who to be and what to buy. On paper, she has it all. So why doesn't that feel like enough?

Margaret is thrown for a loop when she first meets Charlotte Gustafson, Concordia's newest and most intriguing resident. As an excuse to be in the mysterious Charlotte's orbit, Margaret concocts a book club get-together and invites two other neighborhood women--Bitsy and Viv--to the inaugural meeting. As the women share secrets, cocktails, and their honest reactions to the controversial bestseller The Feminine Mystique, they begin to discover that the American dream they'd been sold isn't all roses and sunshine--and that their secret longing for more is something they share. Nicknaming themselves the Bettys, after Betty Friedan, these four friends have no idea their impromptu club and the books they read together will become the glue that helps them hold fast through tears, triumphs, angst, and arguments--and what will prove to be the most consequential and freeing year of their lives.
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I have read many of Marie Bostwick’s books in the past and always enjoyed them, so when I found this on NetGalley, I was quick to request it. I don’t read a lot of historical fiction, and I have never (although I am a feminist) read The Feminine Mystique. However, I think the impact Betty Friedan had on women’s realization that there was more to life than what they found in their roles in the family is pretty well known.

Bostwick tells the story of four very different suburban housewives brought together by geography and bonded by what first is a “little” book club but then becomes so much more with such beauty and care and humor. Each women’s story is very different from the other, but the lengths they are willing to go to for each other shows how strong female friendships can hold us up and carry us through all the stages of life. I found myself feeling a full range of emotions, celebrating victories for the women and shedding a tear on an occasion or two. This book is definitely one that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys strong female characters, historical fiction of a period that is perhaps not often written about, and an uplifting story that celebrates the strength of women coming together in community.

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