Friday, May 21, 2010

The Wednesday Sisters

When I make friends with women, I delight in so easily finding common ground despite the differences that might more obviously set us apart.  The innate desire to care and share--to decipher and delight in discovery are what I love most about the female friendships I have made, and I take joy in knowing that the field of potential women friends is huge.  As a friend, I have things to offer that are unique and valuable to others. 
I think ultimately the relationships in The Wednesday Sisters, written by Meg Waite Clayton are what makes me love it.
It took me about a month to read this book... life spews stuff at me like water from a firehose; about six months to pick it up... my kids gave it to me for my birthday in 2009, and my list of must-read books was LONG but today I finished it.  I thoroughly enjoyed The Wednesday Sisters.  It surprised me to realize, in the second-to-last chapter that I was laughing out loud right through my tears.  The last time I cried at the end of a book was in January 2009 with The Book Thief.  The Wednesday Sisters is touching, funny and mostly a story about women with dreams for themselves that they are struggling to reach for--it reminded me of Whitney's Dare to Dream website, and the gift she has to urge women forward.  The Wednesday Sisters is set in the late 1960s and early 1970s.   It was just as fascinating to remember the pivotal events that took place during this small window in time as it was to be along for the ride as these women friends struggled through the timeless challenges of infidelity, infertility, awareness of body flaws, cancer and coming of age in a time when it was a scary thing to be a woman and reach for a dream.  It's hard to believe that life for women just a few decades ago was so much more restricted than it is today.  Although the story is fiction, the history surrounding the story is full of fascinating and important events.  I was born in the 1960s and feel as though I've lost sight of the fact that just in my lifetime, women are able to reach for the stars in ways that were unimaginable when I was a baby.  I'm grateful for my busload of women friends and thankful that they'll take the ride with me.

6 comments:

Jo Jo said...

Well written sister friend. Thanks for the recommendation.

rad6 said...

Your first thoughts about how you reach out to your women friends... took me back a few years when you reached out to me in almost unexplainable ways. You became a piece of my life that I am glad to still have glimpses of. while I was reading my head was just nodding, because I know about your amazing gift for friendship!
I would love to read this book. With seminary, my must read list is so much longer than I could ever hope to conquer though... but I will file this one away. Hopefully.
:)

Becky said...

Sounds like a good read. :)

Marilyn said...

What a cute cover!

Darleen said...

I'll ride on your bus any day! Remember the bus ride from SLC to Boston over twenty years ago? Good times, my friend, good times!

Bonnie White said...

Thanks for the book recommendation. I enjoyed Book Thief too. And Jenny I was especially touched by your list of goals this year. Relax more, volunteer less. Such wisdom. How are those goals coming along?