The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick is a compelling story about four women navigating their identities in the 1960s.
The Book Club for Troublesome Women is a funny, smart, and compelling book that highlights what female friendship and a good thought-provoking book can do to raise women up. I loved reading about these four strong and capable women who struggled to find their place in the world during the 1960s. Told from multiple points of view, you can understand each character’s thoughts and actions. This book is perfect for your book club!
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The Book Club for Troublesome Women Overview
Title: The Book Club for Troublesome Women
Author: Marie Bostwick
Pages: 384 Pages or 11 hours and 10 minutes
Publish Date: April 22nd, 2025
Genre: Historical Fiction
My Star Rating: 4/5 stars! (I loved this book and would recommend everyone reads it.)
Grab your copy here: https://amzn.to/42d3OEA
Synopsis from Amazon
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.
My Review of The Book Club for Troublesome Women
Thank you to NetGalley, Marie Bostwick, HarperCollins, and Harper Muse for this advanced reading copy of the audiobook of The Book Club for Troublesome Women. I loved listening to this book!
Let me start by saying that I would love to be a Betty and join this incredible book club. I loved listening to these four strong and capable women claiming their space in a time when women were only allowed in certain spaces.
Margaret, Viv, Charlotte, and Bitsy are four women who seem to have it all on the outside. But if you look closely, you can see the cracks. They each long for something different but similar. They long for a place in the world.
Marie Bostwick has a way of creating these strong female characters with relatable issues without being overdone. I loved listening to this book and finding out how these women overcame their struggles. I rooted for each character and loved all the different marriages and families Bostwick incorporated in this book.
This book focuses on women’s rights and the daily struggles of being a woman. It’s crazy and sad to think that this book is set in the 1960s but is still relevant today. The struggles these women faced were a little bit different than the struggles women face today, but somehow still the same overall theme.
One thing I loved about this book was that some of the husbands weren’t the women’s adversaries. Sometimes, it was bosses and situations they got themselves in that seemed to be their biggest struggles. There are great men out there, and I’m glad this book shows that.
The audiobook narrator was fantastic! I really enjoyed listening to her voice and it brought life to the story.
Grab your copy here: https://amzn.to/42d3OEA
Who Would Enjoy This Book?
You will enjoy The Book Club for Troublesome Women if you love reading historical fiction with strong female characters. If you are a fan of Kate Quinn, I’m sure you will enjoy this book.
I think this book is perfect for book clubs because it will pull your friends in with the first few chapters. Each person in your book club will find themselves in one of these four women. Also, this book raises questions about women’s ambitions and women’s rights which will encourage your book club to have spirited conversations.
Grab your copy here: https://amzn.to/42d3OEA
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Final Thoughts
Also, I finished this book a few weeks ago and still find myself thinking about these women and their situations. You’ll root for each one of these unique and brave women. I hope you enjoy this novel as much as I did.
Lastly, if you enjoyed this book review or have any questions, let me know in the comments below. I love hearing from you. If you liked this review, please don’t hesitate to share this on your social media.
Thanks for reading,
Kel
