The book club of the Democrats of Rossmoor, will discuss The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick on Monday, July 7, 2025, at 3:00pm in MPR1.
Of this book the publisher writes: “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.”
The Democratic book club has been doing some heavy reading in the winter and spring and so offers up a piece of light beach reading which we think our members will enjoy.
The Kindle edition of the book costs $10. Paperback is $16. Used copies may be available and the Walnut Creek library will deliver the book, if they have it, to the lockers in Gateway where it may also be returned. A library card is required.
Membership in the Democrats of Rossmoor is not required to come to the book club. The club also has a movie club with one film a month and two monthly meetings featuring speakers from around the bay area and the country. For more information or to join go to www.democratsofrossmoor.org.