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If your memories of the 60’s include bell-bottom pants, tie-dye shirts, the women’s lib movement, and Vietnam protests, you’ll want to read The Wednesday Sisters, a novel by Meg Waite Clayton (Ballantine Books, 2008). If your mother was of that era, you’ll want to read this book to get a glimpse into the times that shaped her.

Clayton has written an engaging story that deftly balances strong characters and an interesting account of the socio-political context of the times. Five moms, Frankie (the narrator), Linda, Kath, Brett and Ally find themselves as neighbors living in Palo Alto, California. Their shared passion for literature evolves into a writer’s circle. As the author takes us to their weekly meetings at the local park, we watch the women's personalities, intimate secrets, and aspirations unfold. With humor and pathos, Clayton portrays the prevailing attitudes of that era towards racism, divorce, motherhood, infertility, infidelity, and breast cancer.

At one point, Brett quotes Henry Adams: One friend in a lifetime is much; two are many; three are hardly possible. Then she questions, “What is it we’ve done so right in our lives that has made us five?” 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.