The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick

Harper Muse (April 22, 2025)

Friendship Fiction

 

Margaret Ryan never really meant to start a book club . . . or a feminist revolution in her buttoned-up suburb.

By 1960s standards, Margaret Ryan is living the American woman’s dream. She has a husband, three children, a station wagon, and a home in Concordia–one of Northern Virginia’s most exclusive and picturesque suburbs. She has a standing invitation to the neighborhood coffee klatch, and now, thanks to her husband, a new subscription to A Woman’s Place–a magazine that tells housewives like Margaret exactly who to be and what to buy. On paper, she has it all. So why doesn’t that feel like enough?

Margaret is thrown for a loop when she first meets Charlotte Gustafson, Concordia’s newest and most intriguing resident. As an excuse to be in the mysterious Charlotte’s orbit, Margaret concocts a book club get-together and invites two other neighborhood women–Bitsy and Viv–to the inaugural meeting. As the women share secrets, cocktails, and their honest reactions to the controversial bestseller The Feminine Mystique, they begin to discover that the American dream they’d been sold isn’t all roses and sunshine–and that their secret longing for more is something they share. Nicknaming themselves the Bettys, after Betty Friedan, these four friends have no idea their impromptu club and the books they read together will become the glue that helps them hold fast through tears, triumphs, angst, and arguments–and what will prove to be the most consequential and freeing year of their lives.

REVIEW

The Book Club for Troublesome Women is set in 1963 and centered on the impact a controversial book, The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan, had on a new group of friends in their book club.  Moving through the perspectives of these newly formed friends – Margaret, Viv, Bitsy and Charlotte – as they live the post war housewife roles for the middle-class women. They support one another, give each other the truth and push when needed. We read about their troubles, their triumphs, and transformations. I did enjoy the famous characters mentioned like Katherine Graham of the Washington Post and Jackie Kennedy woven in the story. A good historical fiction read and would make a great book club read.

Reviewed by Comfy Chair Books/Lisa Reigel (March 11, 2025)

eARC provided by publisher via Netgalley

Purchased copy via the Brenda Novak Monthly Book Box (July)

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A while back, my publishing house asked me to update my biography. I wrote two versions. This is the one that DIDN’T make it onto the cover.

“Marie Bostwick was born and raised in the northwest, where, being an overweight and socially awkward child, she collected a whole closetful of imaginary friends that are with her to this day. She graduated from college in 1984 with a bachelors degree in Communications (because it was the only degree that didn’t require a statistics course) and a double minor in self-loathing and procrastination. Marie married while she was young and extremely fertile, quickly giving birth to three sons, who are now grown up and don’t call nearly as often as they should.

Marie is the published author of a bunch of books. No kidding, a bunch. Like twenty! She continues to be amazed by this. So does her high-school English teacher.

When not writing, Marie spends way too much time on Facebook and window shopping for RV’s on the internet. Marie loves to quilt. She really, really does. However, her enthusiasm for quilting outstrips her natural talent. This is at least partly because she has the attention span of a gnat and no math skills (see statistics course avoidance above). She is also pretty nearsighted which makes it hard to stitch a consistent quarter-inch seam. After sunset, it’s darned near impossible.

Marie likes to garden but is too scattered to give her garden the attention it deserves. The same can be said of her other hobbies — piano, knitting, guitar, punchneedle embroidery, cooking, and kayaking. (Marie doesn’t actually own a kayak but she wants one.) Marie has killed every single houseplant that has ever had the misfortune of coming into her possession. She hasn’t balanced her checkbook since the late 80’s and can never find her purse, glasses, or car keys.

Fact is, the only thing thing Marie truly knows how to do well is write, so please buy this book, if only to keep her from becoming a burden to society.”

mariebostwick.com; Facebook: @mariebostwick; Instagram: @mariebostwick; Pinterest: @fiercelymarie