What book have you read that made you question or upend everything you believed was ‘normal’? For a generation of women in the 1960s, that book was The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan.

In Marie Bostwick’s new novel, The Book Club for Troublesome Women, Friedan’s book is the catalyst that births The Bettys, a book club in a new suburban neighborhood in Northern Virginia. It’s 1963 when Margaret Ryan dreams up the idea for a book club in order to meet the mysterious newcomer, Charlotte Gustafuson. Charlotte reluctantly agrees to join, only after insisting the book they read be the newly published, The Feminine Mystique. Margaret recruits two of her friends, Bitsy Cobb and Vivian Buschetti, to join as well and after the first meeting, the four women know a special bond has already formed.

Over the course of a year, the women’s bond deepens as they share secrets, dreams, and disappointments, against the backdrop of a changing world and the questioning of what the American Dream is … or maybe isn’t. And what women in particular are expected to want and need for fulfillment. Each of the four women’s homelife is different and each respond to the changes and Friedan’s ideas in ways that are sometimes humorous, sometimes heartbreaking, but always right for the character.

The Book Club for Troublesome Women gives a nostalgic peek into life in 1963. While I was around back then and I have memories of my mom and her coffee klatches with Willow and Willa, two other moms living on the same street, I was too young to be aware of or question the gender rules and attitudes of the times. As Bostwick notes, ‘In the 1960s, the type and degree of discrimination any given woman encountered could differ widely depending on her location and individual circumstances. It wasn’t until 1965 …that married couples were guaranteed the right to contraception…. Until 1974 and the passage of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act that married women through the United States were guaranteed the right to open their own bank accounts.’

As I read the book, I thought of my mom and wondered if she read Friedan’s book. I can imagine her doing so, and that she’d find the ideas in it both somewhat disturbing but also welcome. But mostly I thought about today’s young women, my daughter’s age and those younger, who have never known a time when women didn’t have certain rights, and not really realizing it wasn’t all that long ago when we didn’t. Admittedly, 50 years to them seems a lot longer than it is for women of my generation.

And do they realize some of those rights are now in peril. It scares me when I hear conservative religious leaders floating the idea that men are the head of the household therefore their wives don’t have the right to vote. The Book Club for Troublesome Women is a wonderful novel and story, but it’s also thought-provoking. Thank you to my classmate Annette for recommending it.

I can’t believe we’re into October already. I’m a fall person so I’m loving it. October also holds some exciting literary events in my town and I’ll tell you about them soon. I hope you have a great week and I’ll see you next Monday!