The Wednesday Sisters (Meg W. Clayton)

"Friends. Writing friends. The Wednesday Sisters Writing Society, we like to call ourselves. But we're more than that, too. So much more than that." (The Wednesday Sisters, page 276)

Brett, one of the Wednesday Sisters, the smarter and my favourite, sums the whole book in the above phrase around the end of the story.
Clayton brings the reader back at the end of The Sixties, in Palo Alto California. Time and location already earned this book two extra points. The rest Clayton deserved with her prose.
Through the pages the reader gets to meet and becomes friendly with 5 young women, mothers and mothers to be, wives, living in Palo Alto in middle class houses with their husbands and offspring.
None of them works, husbands do, they meet at the park where they bring their toddlers to play.
Their friendship initially start thank to books, and here Clayton earns an extra point with me, a friendship born on the common passion for reading can't but being on my top ten list! They read, those five women, they love books and love to talk about books together. But they are not yet The Wednesday Sisters. Not untill one day they decide to start something new, they follow their inner dream: they start writing. It's a journal at first, they write and share what they put on paper. It's awkward at first but they are determined women and they write and again write.
And their writing keeps them together through the many things they have to face: illness, miscarriage, cheating, secrets... Their friendship grows and becomes stronger. And they go through publishing, editing and emancipation together.
I won't go any further with what happen in the book because I don't want to spoil the fun for anyone who wants to read it.

Reasons why I think this book should be read:

- it is a page turner and an easy read. It's especially good on the summer break, when you want to engage on some light reading. It is a relaxing reading and something that doesn't take too long to finish. At the same time Clayton has a neat, direct style and you are hooked to her words and need to find out what happens next.

- if you are into reading or writing or the both of said activities, you can't but appreciate this story. A friendship born and grown on the love for books can't but being fashinating for a fellow bookworm or any aspiring writer.

- if you love The Sixties and what happens in the years between the end of that decade and the beginning of the following decade, then you will appreciate that Clayton describes some of the highlight of said years, man on the moon, women parade...

- also if you love women literature, this is a must reading, because it is a good work she did in said field.

I rated this book 4 stars, I really liked it and it has the merit to bring me back to my old bookworm attitude toward reading, something that intensive work had reduced in the past few months!