Tag Archives: fiction

Redesigning Rose

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Author: Lydia Laceby                         redisigning rose
Publisher: Lydia Laceby
Pages: 279
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Source: Lydia Laceby

Goodreads:  Rose Parker’s husband has been lying. About everything.

When a conversation with her husband triggers questions, Rose Parker uncovers alarming answers that shatter her perfect life. But it is only when she shoves her belongings in her SUV and drives off that Rose realizes just how far from perfect her life actually was. She has nowhere to turn.

While debating between distressing sleeping arrangements-her mother’s house full of questions or a hotel room with too much solitude-Rose bumps into an acquaintance from her gardening class and allows bubbly, exuberant Becky to indulge her in a wild night full of whiskey, weeping, and whispered confidences. Suddenly, Rose has a new friend, a roof over her head, and two gorgeous men moving her out of her marital home.

As Rose struggles to settle into her new life, she remains determined to comprehend her past. And with time and distance and especially wine, comes knowledge. Frank wasn’t the only one lying to her. Rose was lying to herself.

Ope’s Opinion:  If you are divorced, you may enjoy this book.  Since I am not in that situation, I found this book hard to relate to.

The characters were well written.  I think it shows how people cope with divorce.  I think it is pretty realistic.  Rose’s friend Becky was a real friend and someone I would appreciate if I had been in Roses position.

I enjoyed Rose’s relationship with her mother.  Their relationship grew and deepened.  Her mother was able to tell Rose about her own marriage and about her Gram.

Rating:  Three Chairs – I like the book enough to suggest it to a friend or two.
3 chairs

The Wednesday Sisters

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Author:  Meg Waite Clayton
Publisher: Ballentine Books
Pages:  320
Genre:  Historical Fiction

Source:  My Daughter

Goodreads:   Friendship, loyalty, and love lie at the heart of Meg Waite Clayton’s beautifully written, poignant, and sweeping novel of five women who, over the course of four decades, come to redefine what it means to be family.

For thirty-five years, Frankie, Linda, Kath, Brett, and Ally have met every Wednesday at the park near their homes in Palo Alto, California. Defined when they first meet by what their husbands do, the young homemakers and mothers are far removed from the Summer of Love that has enveloped most of the Bay Area in 1967. These “Wednesday Sisters” seem to have little in common: Frankie is a timid transplant from Chicago, brutally blunt Linda is a remarkable athlete, Kath is a Kentucky debutante, quiet Ally has a secret, and quirky, ultra-intelligent Brett wears little white gloves with her miniskirts. But they are bonded by a shared love of both literature–Fitzgerald, Eliot, Austen, du Maurier, Plath, and Dickens–and the Miss America Pageant, which they watch together every year.

As the years roll on and their children grow, the quintet forms a writers circle to express their hopes and dreams through poems, stories, and, eventually, books. Along the way, they experience history in the making: Vietnam, the race for the moon, and a women’s movement that challenges everything they have ever thought about themselves, while at the same time supporting one another through changes in their personal lives brought on by infidelity, longing, illness, failure, and success.

Humorous and moving, The Wednesday Sisters is a literary feast for book lovers that earns a place among those popular works that honor the joyful, mysterious, unbreakable bonds between friends.

 
Ope’s Opinion:  When you read my review, you should take into consideration that I am not a fan of historical fiction in general.  My daughter Kristi of Kritters Ramblings  gave this book an awesome review, so read her thoughts as well as mine.
 
                                       I did like the friendship the five women had.   I also thought it was kept in the time period accurately.  I just got lost in all the details that Meg put into the story.
 
                                       I found the idea of five women all writing to be unlikely.  It felt like the ones who did want to be writers were pushing the others into writing.  I wanted to see each woman’s interest supported, not just the writers.  
 
                                   It did show me that friendships don’t seem to change.  No matter the time period (historical or present time) we need our friendships – they meet the same need now as they did in the past.
 
Rating:  Two Chairs – I may have one friend who might like this book.