Feminist revolution

The Book Club for Troublesome Women ~ by Marie Bostwick, 2025, historical fiction, 384 pages

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.

This is a humorous, thought provoking, and nostalgic romp through one pivotal and tumultuous American year — and also an ode to self-discovery, persistence, and the power of sisterhood.

Now I think I should probably re-read . . .

The Feminine Mystique ~ by Betty Friedan, 1963, women's studies, 239 pages

This book, published in 1963, was widely credited with sparking second-wave feminism in the United States.  Friedan used the book to challenge the widely shared belief that being fulfilled as a woman meant becoming a housewife and mother.

Friedan conduct a survey of her former Smith College classmates in 1957 and found that many of them were unhappy with their lives as housewives.  That prompted her to begin research by conducting interviews with other suburban housewives, as well as researching psychology, media, and advertising.

She coined the phrase "feminine mystique" to describe the assumptions that women would be fulfilled from their housework, marriage, sexual lives, and children.  The prevailing belief was that women who were truly feminine should not want to work, get an education, or have political opinions.  (I can confirm this.  I got married in 1959, and my husband pointed his finger at me and said, "You're my wife now, and women don't need higher education.")

Anyway, Betty Friedan wanted to prove that women were NOT satisfied and yet were not able to voice their feelings.  Yes, I think I will put this book on reserve at my library right now.

1.  On TWOsday, I wrote about two books by Rosemary Sutcliff, HERE.
2. My Thursday Thoughts were about being surprised that the "bug man" came to spray my apartment one day, HERE.
3. When I got up on Friday, I discovered it was International Cat Day, HERE.
4. My Book Beginnings on Friday, HERE, was from Anna Montague's 2024 book entitled How Does That Make You Feel, Magda Eklund?
5. Saturday I posted I love books, HERE, for National Book Lovers Day.

Sunday Salon is hosted

by Deb at Readerbuzz.