Meg Waite Clayton’s stirring novel will appeal not just to those who secretly wish to be writers, but to anyone with a love of great books; anyone who has felt truly moved by a book or an author; and anyone who has had their dreams bolstered by good and faithful friends. It will speak volumes to fans of THE FRIDAY NIGHT KNITTING CLUB and THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB. You’ll want to share THE WEDNESDAY SISTERS with anyone who believes in the power of a good book—to inspire those close to us, and for those who inspire. – Bronwyn Miller
Gentry Magazine, January 2009
Our Bookshelves will be all the richer with the addition of Clayton’s moving, tender, and affecting stories about the importance of something we should never take for granted as time and change march on: friendship. – Jennifer Massoni
Historical Novels Review, November 2008
Entertaining and enjoyable—certain to be a popular book club selection.
Booklist – April 18, 2008
Readers will be swept up by this moving novel about female friendship and enthralled by the recounting of a pivotal year in American history as seen through these young women’s eyes.
Publisher’s Weekly – March 4, 2008
Clayton ably conjures the era’s details and captures the women’s changing roles in a world that expects little of them.
Salt Lake City Deseret News – August 3, 2008
Clayton captures the evolution of a decades-long friendship in an highly accessible narrative. She grabs the reader’s attention—while introducing compelling and quirky characters that are easy to identify with—”The Wednesday Sisters” is a refreshing alternative. – Jessica Harrison
The Palo Alto Weekly – October 3, 2008
—tugs at the heartstrings with scenes that are at once touching, comic and redeeming—readers on the hunt for a comforting and cozy, early-autumn page-turner will not be disappointed. Clayton succeeds in creating a memorable group of women for whom readers will be rooting from beginning to end. – Jennifer Deitz
The Nashville Scene – July 10, 2008
The Wednesday Sisters poignantly illustrates the way it really was back in the days when the glass ceiling was more like the roof of a marble tomb—Though all their hopes aren’t realized, the friendship these women share provides a haven for each one anyway—and for the readers of this novel. – Faye Jones
Mom Writer’s Literary Magazine
After reading this book, you will want to form your own group of Wednesday Sisters, and go through life with them—I took this book with me everywhere —Clayton tells a great story about friendship and how women support each other through life’s moments. It’s a great pleasure to read. – Kathy Schlaeger
Talented author Meg Waite Clayton has crafted a tale of a group that we would want to be part of. —A delightful and gracious story by an author whose other works you’ll want to read. – Anne K. Edwards
This is a book club’s dream book—and anyone who loves to read and aspires to write. — Meg Waite Clayton writes a story readers will cherish and want to share with all their good friends. She has written a book lover’s book, a writer’s delight, and a friendship’s friend.
The love, camaraderie, and devotion linking these five outstanding women together is so poignant I felt centered right in the middle of the loving group. Meg Waite Clayton delightfully pens a story women will treasure.
Story Circle Book Reviews – July 7, 2008
Clayton develops strong individual characters and tells a powerful story that celebrates friendship, trust, and life. – Susan Ideus
Romance Reader at Heart – June 2008
THE WEDNESDAY SISTERS reads like a visit with an old, treasured friend. Smooth and flowing, this story—embraces the magic that brings women together in a special bond that can only be called sisterhood. It is an absolute treasure, one that I’ll be passing on to the “sister” of my heart! – Kay James
Advance Praise
Lalita Tademy, author of Red River and Cane River
I read The Wednesday Sisters in one delicious gulp. With a smart, entrancing voice, Meg Waite Clayton sweeps us into the world of the tumultuous 1960’s and beyond, and gives us the gift of five young women coming into their own as friends, mothers, wives and writers. The Wednesday Sisters takes their writing group as its core, and up until the last page, I found myself fervently rooting for each of them as if they were my friends too.
Karen Joy Fowler, author of The Jane Austen Book Club
This generous and inventive book is a delight to read, an evocation of the power of friendship to sustain, encourage, and embolden us. Join the sisterhood!
Michelle Richmond, author of The Year of Fog
Meg Waite Clayton’s The Wednesday Sisters is a heartwarming novel about the joys and complications of friendship, an inspiring story for anyone who has dared to dream big. Clayton’s characters are the kind of women you can imagine joining on the park bench—for a good laugh, a good cry, or a spirited conversation about literature and life.
Masha Hamilton, author of The Camel Bookmobile and The Distance Between Us
The Wednesday Sisters, a beautifully written story of women’s friendship, inspired me the way my closest friends do. It made me laugh. It made me cry. Most of all, it enriched my life. If you’ve ever had a best friend, buy a copy for her.
Lolly Winston, author of Good Grief and Happiness Sold Separately
Long before there were book clubs and play dates, there were the Wednesday Sisters—a group of women whose shared love of literature transports them above the pains and pitfalls of ordinary life. While these women may seem like typical suburban housewives, each character has an intriguing secret and a rich interior life that drew me into the story and held me there. This remarkable group of women demonstrates that no matter what period of history in which we live, no matter what race, creed or class we are, no matter what pains we endure, our one unifying salvation can be books. And this book reminded me of why I love to read.
Caroline Leavitt, author of Girls in Trouble and Coming Back to Me
Richly intelligent, deeply felt and incandescently original, Clayton’s book is a rhapsodic story of female friendship, set against wildly changing times and mores. Not only is the book heartbreaking, funny, and undeniably smart, but truly, this is the kind of book you don’t just want to pass on to all your friends. You have to.
Ellen Baker, author of Keeping the House
Meg Waite Clayton gives us a group of spunky women— mostly young, married mothers—who make the unlikely decision in 1967 to form a writers’ group. Their diverse journeys over the next years in their writing and in their lives add up to a compelling and deeply moving testament to the power of women’s friendships. I simply couldn’t put The Wednesday Sisters down until I’d turned the last page.
Amanda Eyre Ward, author of Forgive Me and How to be Lost
I simply could not put down The Wednesday Sisters. I gave my heart to Meg Clayton’s vivid characters, and I read their intertwined stories breathlessly. Move over, Ya-ya sisters!
The Online Buzz
Thanks to the many wonderful bloggers and other online sources who’ve taken the time to spread the Wednesday Sisters word!
This is a dream book for a book club —or for anyone who loves to read and aspires to write. A story of friendship and history, love and misery, success and failure, The Wednesday Sisters is a delightful tale for readers young and old. — Readers will cherish and want to share Meg Waite Clayton’s story with all their good friends. She has written a book lover’s book, a writer’s delight, and a friendship’s friend.
This is a lovely portrait of the relationships between women, and how women in the 1960s viewed themselves as opposed to today’s culture. I loved reading of their writing triumphs — A well-written, engaging novel in the vein of all the “book group, knitting club” books, but well above so many others. Recommended!
Meg Waite Clayton writes a story readers will cherish and want to share with all their good friends. She has written a book-lover’s book, a writer’s delight, and a friendship’s friend. This is a book club’s dream and for anyone who loves to read and aspires to write. I highly recommend this book – it’s one you don’t want to miss! – Karen Haney
S. Krishna’s Books – December 28, 2008
In many ways, The Wednesday Sisters is a coming of age novel – these women grow along with their country. I highly recommend this book – it’s one you don’t want to miss!
Book Addiction – December 10, 2008
I LOVED this book. I was hooked on the characters and the story from page 1 and read it in two sittings. This is a fabulous story for women, for friends, — for a heck of a lot of people — My only complaint? The book was too short! I could have read a few hundred more pages about these women, I liked them that much.
Granny Sue’s News and Reviews – November 6, 2008
Meg Waite Clayton’s story of [the Wednesday Sister’s] friendship against the backdrop of the social turmoil of the sixties and seventies is the backbone of the story; their individual growth — is what drives the story forward, and what kept me reading until almost midnight — I finished the book just as NPR was predicting Barak Obama’s victory. The triumph of that moment was underscored by the story I had just read. We’ve come a long way, baby.
Howard County Library – October 30, 2008
—moving and heartbreaking, the story is also humorous, illustrating the strong bond that forms between friends.
Obsessed with Books – October 20, 2008
The Wednesday Sisters inspired in me a yearning to have such a sisterhood of my own. The author speaks to the loneliness and wish for accomplishment, friendship and personal growth that is present in all of us. Though the story starts in the late 1960s the themes of self-discovery, dreams, prejudices, and disappointments are familiar no matter what era you live in. Weaved into the story Clayton also confronts many stereotypical ideas of the time related to gender, race, and science, an admirable and bold literary effort. This is a book I never knew I wanted to read but was waiting for to find me.
Book Escape – October 13, 2008
I have to agree, this was a good one! It was fascinating to read how five white suburban housewives in the 60s reacted to the Vietnam War, civil rights issues, and the women’s movement. They didn’t always react as I thought they would and I enjoyed watching the women change over time. They faced their preconceived ideas and grew from them. It was really well done. I think this was my favorite part of the whole novel. I would love for my mother to read this one and talk to her about these issues.
Bookish Ruth – August 31, 2008
Meg Waite Clayton did an excellent job in creating vivid, interesting characters and showing how their lives changed as a result of their friendships and the turbulent times in which they lived. This is a fun, easy read, but there’s also a lot of meat to the story. It’s sure to be a popular choice for book clubs. I wouldn’t be surprised to see The Wednesday Sisters on the silver screen at some point. This inspirational story of the power of friendship has a wide appeal.
In Laurie’s Mind – August 25, 2008
— a great summer read, particularly for the daughters of these 1960s women who are now young mothers, wives, writers, and businesswomen.
Fractured Friendships – August 2, 2008
Clayton has written an engaging story that deftly balances strong characters and an interesting account of the socio-political context of the times.— You’ll find yourself laughing and crying with the sisters, wishing you were surrounded with an any-day-of-the-week group of your own.
Palm Beach Post – July 21, 2008
At its core, the book is about friendship—that incredible bond among the very lucky women out there that find “their group.” It’s about the very stuff you and your girls dish about — As they change their political ideas, improve their writing, try to publish books, start to feel that maybe women can do great things and always, always support each other, they become women that I recognize and would want to have as friends. And yes, a few times toward the end, I did find myself waving my hand in front of my face frenetically, which is what I do when I don’t feel like crying — It’s lovely and sweet and I’m fairly sure you’ll fall under its charm.
Leafing Through Life – July 13, 2008
The easy, simple writing style is deceptive, as there is just so much here. Clayton’s book asks the questions about womanhood that continue to be relevant today, questions about what really makes a woman. A child? A family? A career? A dream?
The story is about women and friendship. As the world around them changes these women are busy building relationships with each other and with books. It is about family. The ones we come from and the ones we create. It is about awaking, change and growth. It is also laugh out loud funny and tear-jerkingly sad. So grab your suntan lotion, your favorite drink and a bag of chips, sit in your favorite lounge chair and prepare to enjoy!
Mainstream Fiction – June 21, 2008
This historical sisterhood tale is an engaging look at the beginning of the “You’ve come a long way baby” feminist movement that brought women into many fields previously taboo epitomized by Hilary’s run (the next one will go all the way).
Breaking the Spine – June 19, 2008
I started reading this morning and read straight through the day, finishing the final pages with chill bumps on my legs and tears in my eyes. It’s truly a wonderful read.
Not Afraid of the F Word – June 16, 2008
I loved, devoured, fell under the spell of The Wednesday Sisters! I felt like a 6th sister—it’s just a fabulous story, I can’t say enough good things about it. You will love this book—the women are strong and flawed and honest. They grow and wonder and become who they need to be but not necessarily who they thought they’d be. Buy several copies—give them to your friends, your sisters, your moms. You’ll see yourself in these pages and at the end you’ll find all sorts of things to celebrate.
I laughed and cried with these characters as they worked through their problems and found themselves through writing. I couldn’t put the book down. I have a feeling that this is going to be a big book club selection within the next year because there are so many wonderful things to discuss.
The Sleepy Reader – June 16, 2008
These ladies are amazing friends to one another. This was a heartwarming and touching novel and I highly recommend it.
Clayton has done something amazing with her cast of characters—she has encapsulated women at their best and worst, with all their shortcomings and strengths — and has given us a novel with which women will identify. At the end of this novel, I did something I rarely do—I sobbed. Not because of sadness, but because I felt touched by the lives of these women.
I laughed out loud in parts of it and got teary eyed in other parts too. This is the type of book, that if done right, would be a great film. I am passing this book on to my own sister and can’t wait for her to read it so we can discuss it too.
Lori’s Reading Corner – June 6, 2008
I laughed with them and I cried with them and I didn’t want the book to end. And when I finished, I emailed all of my best girlfriends just to tell them I love them. This book is a must read for any woman with girlfriends! A+
Outside of a Dog – June 2, 2008
An excellent book of the power of women’s friendships, this is also a story of how these women, young mothers at the end of the 1960s, each react differently to the women’s liberation movement and other cultural upheavals of that time.
Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin’? – May 31, 2008
What was best about this book? The author was able to make me laugh and cry at the exact same time. The Wednesday Sisters are real. They are you and me.
Kylee’s Book Blog – May 30, 2008
This isn’t only a book about the relationships these women have with each other, but also about their relationships with BOOKS! There are so many things that I want to say about The Wednesday Sisters, but I don’t want to give away all of the best/juicy parts. This is a must read!
From My Bookshelf – May 28, 2008
I think Meg Waite Clayton describes her own book best, when the Wednesday Sisters are critiquing Brett’s book and Frankie asks, “How did you make it so funny and so touching at the same time? — It’s a little bit of magic, that.” When I read that line, I thought the exact same thing about The Wednesday Sisters.
Author Meg Waite Clayton hit the nail on the head with this one! What can I say about The Wednesday Sisters without squeeing? The Wednesday Sisters really touched something in me—both their experiences writing and their experiences outside of writing. I highly recommend it to all women, to aspiring writers, and to friends, or anyone with friends. So, everyone, basically.
Lesa’s Book Critiques – May 26, 2008
In a book perfect for book clubs, Meg Waite Clayton tells the story of five young women, wives and mothers, who find each other, and a lifelong friendship, in a children’s park in Palo Alto, California.
My Journey Through Reading – May 25, 2008
I laughed out loud and had to hold back the tears while reading. Meg Waite Clayton really captured the bond that women have when they develop meaningful relationships and friendships. I can’t wait to pass this book on to one of my Wednesday Sisters!
This book seemed to have a magical quality — Reading The Wednesday Sisters is like making five new friends.
As usual, I need More Bookshelves – May 24, 2008
Clayton’s writing style was warm and engaging, and I found myself quickly drawn into the lives of these 5 women. I hope to read more by this author in the future!
Lesley’s Book Nook – May 24, 2008
I believe this book has the potential to be a popular choice among reading groups, as well as one that friends will want to share with one another. It reminds us of the value of true friendship, without resorting to sappy sentimentality and stereotypes.
I could identify with each of the Wednesday Sisters for different reasons, and found myself chuckling with the funny happenings and my heart welling up when the times got hard — I loved reading this book and will not only recommend it to others, but will also read it again myself.
Mrs. Magoo Reads – April 24, 2008
— a great novel about friendship and hopes. This is an inspiring story that will tug at your emotions and engage your intellect.
