First published 2008
Frankie arrives in Palo Alto from Chicago in 1967, a timid young mother seeking connection. She finds it when she joins four other women who gather every Wednesday morning at the local park while their children play. Linda speaks with brutal honesty about her athletic past. Kath carries herself like the Kentucky debutante she once was. Quiet Ally guards a secret she cannot share. Brett pairs white gloves with miniskirts and displays remarkable intelligence. The women seem to have little in common beyond their shared love of literature and their annual tradition of watching the Miss America Pageant together. As the decades pass, they form a writers circle to channel their dreams into poems and stories. They support each other through the Vietnam War, the moon landing, and the emerging women's movement that challenges everything they believed about themselves. Personal crises test their bonds as they face infidelity, illness, professional failures, and unexpected successes. Through it all, the Wednesday meetings continue, creating an unbreakable connection that redefines what family means.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, american-fiction, 20th-century, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, slice-of-life
Setting: Chicago, Palo Alto
Period: 1967, Vietnam War
315 pages · Kindle Edition · Random House Publishing Group