Celebrating The Wednesday Sisters out in paperback.
Edited to add: The winner of The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton is Nan from Nan’s Corner of the Web! Congratulations, Nan!
I’m so excited! The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton is being released today (May 5, 2009) in paperback! *lots of cheering and clapping and general excitement*
This was hands down in my top three books of last year. It’s even one that I know I’ll re-read, which I generally swear is not a good idea.
It has been such a pleasure and a gift to get to know Meg. I got to meet her shortly after I read the book, and really, it was amazing. She has one of my favorite author blogs where she asks authors to guest post about their journey to publishing their first book. She gets some great authors to guest post and I’m always curious who will be up next.
I can’t wait to see what book she publishes next!
To celebrate the release of The Wednesday Sisters in paperback, I’m giving away a paperback copy! All you have to do is tell me who your best/closest friend is. If you want an extra entry, you can tweet, facebook, stumble, whatever, just come back and leave a separate comment for each entry. I’m not tallying up entries anymore! Lesson has been learned! Contest will be open until May 15, 2009 at 11:59pm.
I am reposting my original review below. Really, if you haven’t read this book, it’s a definite must read.
I received The Wednesday Sisters from LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers. It’s kind of a crap shoot as far what you get, let alone whether you get a book at all. I wasn’t expecting too much with this book because I wasn’t sure if it was going to be on the chick lit side (chick lit is not my cuppa tea), but if I’d known what an awesome book it would be, I would have dropped everything and picked it up the second it hit my mailbox.
My run-on sentence synopsis: The Wednesday Sisters is about five women who first meet at a local park because four of them have kids so it makes sense why they were at the park and then decide after about a month of meeting on Wednesday mornings that they would start writing together, though some of the ladies were reluctant to write, and it’s about their writing and their lives and the ups and downs and the good and bad and anything in between.
I LOVED THIS BOOK.
When I picked up the book, I felt, not like I was reading, but like I was sitting down with a friend and she was telling me a story. I felt so comfortable and I felt so privileged to be taken into her confidence. But the novel doesn’t read like the author was trying to do that…it’s so effortless that I wouldn’t be surprised if the author had written ten books prior to this one.
Oftentimes when books have too many characters, certain characters get pushed to the wayside to make way for the story of the main character(s). The author is able to tell the story of all five women without me feeling like she’s leaving anything out or pushing any characters to the side. I was always satisfied with the amount of information she gave me about each person. Her style in this regard reminds me of John Steinbeck. Meg Waite Clayton tells you stories about each person, allowing those stories to reveal their character.
What was best about this book? The author was able to make me laugh and cry at the exact same time. I found myself laughing and crying every time I picked up the book. I was always crying because I was so touched by the characters and what they were experiencing, and I was laughing as the author pulled the humor out of the situations in a delicate and gentle manner. Their happiness, pain, sadness, hope, were all so raw and apparent that I couldn’t help but feel connected to the characters. Even when I saw how a scene was going to play out, the author was still able to make me laugh out loud.
The Wednesday Sisters is not about any crazy shenanigans they get themselves in to. It’s about their lives; one battles infertility, one struggles with a cheating husband, one is blunt and outspoken to a fault, none of them are perfect, none of them have perfect lives or perfect husbands. They are real. They are you and me.
If I could be granted a wish, I would like to write like Meg Waite Clayton.
I think I may tell Dave the wedding’s off and I want to marry The Wednesday Sisters. 
Rating: 99 out of 100
You can check out the author’s website here.
Other reviews:
| Tags: meg waite clayton, paperback, the wednesday sisters 59 comments »
May 4th, 2009 at 12:41 am
I would love to win, it sounds wonderful. My best friend is my husband. And besides him, it’s my two sisters and my brother, even though they’re far away.
May 4th, 2009 at 12:46 am
Your excitement is infectious and now I would LOVE to read The Wednesday Sisters. Thanks for entering my name in your giveaway!
May 4th, 2009 at 4:16 am
I’d love to win too! I’ve been waiting to read this book for a very, very long time. I’ll probably buy it now it’s in paperback, actually, but I’ll take my chances. =)
My best friend is my fiance. Besides him, since I’m not sure he counts, probably my friend Sarah from college.
May 4th, 2009 at 5:33 am
My best friend was Karen – we played together as children, roomed together at college, and stayed in touch for over 60 years. Karen died last summer and I still find myself wanting to pick up the phone to call her and visit. I’d love to read this book about friendships.
May 4th, 2009 at 5:57 am
My best friend is a woman I met 24 years ago at work. When we met I was mad at her for skipping a class I was teaching. Then I got to know her better and found out she had a good reason for not showing up. She is kind and caring and long suffering and I don’t know what I would do without her in my life.
May 4th, 2009 at 6:03 am
You don’t have to enter me in the contest, since I already have the hardcover. I just wanted to mention that I find it interesting that they didn’t change the cover for the paperback version. I wonder why they do/don’t do that sometimes…
May 4th, 2009 at 6:18 am
No need to enter me, I just wanted to mention how much I loved this book. I don’t generally reread books either, and I’ve read this one three times. Each time I discovered something else I loved about each one of the characters.
May 4th, 2009 at 6:36 am
My best friend is Monica…or Doc, as she insists I refer to her in the online world! We have been best friends for almost ten years now, and at this point, we think of each other more as family than friends!
mjmbecky(at)gmail(dot)com
May 4th, 2009 at 6:44 am
I loved this book too and I would LOVE to own a copy, so count me in for the giveaway!
My best friend is Melissa, we have been friends since 7th grade. We have been through a lot together over the years – we were the only two in our group of friends to go to the same high school, we went to the same college and even lived together for a year, and we’ve been through countless relationships/other friendships between the two of us, but we’ve never wavered on our friendship. We live over an hour from each other now and both have very busy lives, but still managed to see each other about once a week or so.
May 4th, 2009 at 6:45 am
I have given you an award…please check out my page when you get a chance.
May 4th, 2009 at 6:51 am
This sounds so good, will definitely check it out! And thanks for the amazing review – you got yourself a follower!
May 4th, 2009 at 6:58 am
My best friend is definitely my husband, but of my female friends, it would have to be Amy and Calandra, two girls I met in grad school. We don’t talk nearly enough, but any time we do, it’s just like no time has passed at all.
May 4th, 2009 at 7:04 am
Other than my husband, I don’t really have a best friend. I have a lot of friends that I consider close but not anyone that falls into the BFF category. I sort of wish I had one though.
thereedfamilyATsbcglobalDOTnet
May 4th, 2009 at 7:19 am
That’s a great review. You had me when you said she reminds you of Steinbeck. Hands down, my mom is my best friend. We still have that mom/daughter relationship, but with all that we’ve gone through together we are closer now than when I was growing up.
May 4th, 2009 at 7:31 am
I think my sister is my best friend. I really wish we lived closer to each other. (I don’t like picking favorites, and bests aren’t much better.)
May 4th, 2009 at 8:09 am
Why is it that I’ve had this since shortly after it was released and haven’t read it yet? This might make a good post-baby book, I’m thinking. Perhaps a good one for the hospital bag?
May 4th, 2009 at 8:22 am
Oh, I SO loved this book. You are right that it is a must read. I alwo bought it for my mother-in-law. Don’t enter me….I have a hardback
Although the paperback looks even better.
May 4th, 2009 at 8:55 am
Great review. I agree that it’s a wonderful book! Don’t enter me — I just wanted to chime in.
May 4th, 2009 at 10:17 am
My best friend IS my sister. Does that get me extra credit
?
Seriously, your original review of this book put it on my radar, and I’d love to read it – glad to know it’s coming out in paperback!
May 4th, 2009 at 10:48 am
O.K., you’ve convinced me. I’m off to buy the book! Thanks for making it come alive in your review. It’s just the kind of book I’d love to lose myself in…
May 4th, 2009 at 11:14 am
I’d love to win a copy – it’s going on the wish list. My husband is probably my best friend, although I have several good women friends.
May 4th, 2009 at 11:22 am
If it’s in your top three – I definitely want a chance to win this! My BFF is a gal that was engaged to my brother (that didn’t work out) but we ended up being soul sisters – the silver lining of the failed relationship.
May 4th, 2009 at 11:36 am
I would love to win this!I’d say my best friend is my mom. But my best friend my own age is one of my lacemaking buddies. She lives 2 hours from me, but we’ve traveled to Europe twice together and email almost every single morning. We meet up whenever we can.
Thanks for hosting the giveaway.
May 4th, 2009 at 11:37 am
I tweeted: http://twitter.com/BethFishReads/statuses/1698164136
May 4th, 2009 at 11:38 am
ARGHHHH. I know you can find me but: BFish[dot]Reads[at]gmail.com
May 4th, 2009 at 11:44 am
I have a lot of great friends, and a wonderful husband. I just can’t call any of them BEST. I know that’s what you want, but I can’t do it.
I couldn’t pick a maid of honor either, so I made my whole posse my “Bitches of Honor.” I can’t put my peeps into a hierarchy. I just can’t.
I love books though. And I’d love to read this one. Thanks for giving it away!
May 4th, 2009 at 11:51 am
I have been dying to read this, it has been on my wish list FOREVER. (Well, it seems like forever!) Please enter me. My best friend is my hubby. I’m so lucky, I can’t imagine my life without him.
But my own little sister is my best female friend!
May 4th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Definitely sounds like a keeper! My best friend? I have a group of incredible women friends, all of whom I met with online. Since then we’ve flown to meet with each other twice (last time was in Florida in Feb) and have lots of plans to get together more often in the future!
May 4th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
I would enjoy winning this book to share with my BF. Barbara has been my BF since we were in grade K. We email often and see each other every few years. I really miss her so I think I will call her right now.
Joyce
May 4th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
This has been on my wishlist for awhile and if I don’t win, I’m definitely buying a copy!! I would have to say that my best friend is my husband. I’m in a strange place with friends as I’m in my 40′s. My BFF and I had a falling out several years ago and we had been friends since junior high. I’m close to a few women but none that qualifies as BFF.
May 4th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
This sounds really good! I would love a chance to win. I still consider my best friend from high school my closest friend, even though we don’t see each other that much.
saz AT chainreader DOT com
May 4th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
I’d love to be entered in the giveaway! I have 2 best friends: my sister and my coworker who teaches across the hall from me. I am so thankful for my best friends.
May 4th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
My husband is my best friend, but since the book is about female friends, I’d like to tell you about my best girlfriend.
We met in kindergarten and have just clicked ever since. Sometimes we can go months without talking on the phone, and then when one of us calls the other, it’s as if no time has passed. She completely and totally accepts me for who I am. I could tell her I’m having an affair with the pope and she would support me
It’s an unconditional friendship – and I think that’s a rare jewel.
May 4th, 2009 at 7:20 pm
Hi,
I’m an occasional dropper-inner. I’m amazed at how highly you rated the book, when I haven’t even heard of it? Eep. What rock am I living under??
May 4th, 2009 at 7:40 pm
Trish,
Every single book YOU get excited about, I wanna’ read! You make it sound so interesting. And while I missed MANY good (even fabulous) books when I was in the hospital, my TBR pile is growing and growing just looking back at all of the reviews on your blog!
My BEST friend is my friend KIM. We’ve been friends for 30 years! Amazing, I know, but we were friends in pre-K and she went to my very first birthday party where I could invite friends from “school”. Her gift to me was a crayola crayon cup with a hole for a straw and inside was a whole package of crayons in a plastic bag. Also, her mom wrapped up some coloring books too! : ) To this very day, she’s stood by me through everything I’ve gone through. Every good and/or bad memory I have, she has a place in it. She was there when I lost my hair, when I went through surgeries and most recently through the worst of it all. I love her for that.
I have a feeling I’ll LOVE ‘The Wednesday Sisters’ as well.
Thanks Trish!
I love you too! xoxo (I can’t believe we met over a year ago already) time flies doesn’t it! You’ve become much more than another blogger…you’ve also become a wonderful friend. THANK YOU!
XO Amy (Park-Avenue Princess)
May 4th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
I should say that my best friend is my husband because we’ve been pals since we were 14, but my best gal pal has been around even longer. We were 12 when we met and have managed to have only one fight (over boys!) in all our years. That’s a much better track record than my husband
May 4th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
Ok…I SHOULD say my best friend is my husband. But I”m not going to!! I don’t have any sisters. So that doesn’t count.
I have one friend, Missy, that I’ve known all my life. I mean, I grew up in a small town, and our parents were friends. So, we were BORN friends. We were best friends all through school. We visited each other in college, and we were in each other’s wedding. She is even my son’s godmother. THAT would be my best friend.
May 5th, 2009 at 7:48 am
Oh – forgot to name my best friend. Do I have to pick just one? I’ve been close to the same friend since nursery school, Annie (even though we never attended school together after that). We have a great bond, but there are other women I’m really connected to as well that I’ve met later in life. Of that group, I’ll pick Rachel. Like me, she adores chocolate, is clumsy, and laughs loudly and often.
May 5th, 2009 at 10:02 am
Wow! Your enthusiasm for the book says it all! Thanks for your review, I’m definitely going to check it out.
May 5th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
definitely a favorite!! I read a borrowed copy and would love to own the paperback!!!
closest friend? oh my…i have so many! we’ll go with april as shes the one that i tell all my secrets too
May 5th, 2009 at 5:17 pm
I would truly love to read this book! My best friend is Elizabeth. We’ve been friends for going on 9 years. We share a love for reading, she is my traveling buddy (we are leaving for NYC in two weeks!) and she has been a major source of support to me during the worst time of my life. I’m very thankful for my BFF!
Thanks for this giveaway!
May 5th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
My best friend has to be Todd…although many of the bunko girls are a close 2nd, he’s #1.
smiles!
May 5th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
My oldest friend is my friend Gina. We met my senior year of high school, her junior year. We went to college together. Now we live 1400 miles apart, but we talk on Google chat almost every day.
May 5th, 2009 at 7:07 pm
i loved this book and read it on your suggestion! as for my be-fri? for the last 17 years, my hubby has been my best friend. as for longest friendship? that honor goes to GJK, my recently married and now expecting friend since 1978 (we were FOUR!). yay.
May 5th, 2009 at 10:09 pm
So, my best friend, truthfully, is my husband Andrew. But I have had 2 best friends, one for the last 6 years, and one for the last 30 years. Before I met my hubby, my best male friend was my cousin, Jared, and for the last 6 years it has been my friend Marcie Okpakpor in California. I had a best friend, Trish, from ages 12-24, but I am trying to reconnect with her and learn who she is now and how she has changed from the girl I once knew 6 years ago. No, I do not think that that will make me deserve a free book. But I still had to try the contest. And if I win, I fully promise to blog about it on the site.
May 6th, 2009 at 7:30 am
I would love to win a copy of this book! I have heard such great things about it. My best friend is named Cheryl, a woman I met at church. She is extremely funny and easygoing, and I love spending time with her.
May 6th, 2009 at 7:33 am
I tweeted this giveaway.
May 6th, 2009 at 8:02 am
Please enter me! I just read about this on another blog and thought “I would love to have that” and now I have (admittedly) a small shot of winning it!
May 6th, 2009 at 5:34 pm
My best friend is a girl I met in high school. We were in Honors English class together, and she had just moved to my small Long Island town (think very suburban, small town) from Brooklyn. So, big city girl. We hardy spoke, she sat behind me (a “W” so last alphabetically) since she was the new person in class. She later told me that whenever I did talk, she was intrigued by me “smartness” but that I was so quiet. Anyway, we did eventually talk and become the best of friends, and I still consider her my best and closest friend. That was about 25 years ago now (what a sad thought!) We live a thousand miles apart and have kids and husbands, but we still have so much in common. I would say one of our biggest bonds would be our common love of reading! After all, we met in high school honors English, where the big nerds are! We were later in AP English together, as well as chemistry and trigonometry (not my strong points!) thank God I had Jennifer to get me through it!
Okay, so now that I’ve told you about Jennifer, please enter me in your giveaway for this book. It sounds great.
May 6th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
I would normally not be into this kind of book, but your review has won me over! My best friend is my fiancé – I can talk to him about everything, and we have the most fun together! I’m so happy we’ll get to spend the rest of our lives together…
May 7th, 2009 at 5:52 am
I love reading about female relationships. My two dearest friends who really understood me both moved to the opposite sides of the U.S. I miss the ability to talk and relax with them face to face. I would love to read the Wednesday Sisters.
May 7th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
I would say that my best friend i have known for about 15 years now, and that is Donna. We actually started a book club together and we always have a good time. I would love to win this book!
joannelong74 AT gmail DOT com
May 7th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
I would love to win this book!
May 7th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Ok, I didn’t finish that last part….my best friend (besides my husband) is my sister Wendy. We call each other Dolly and she is the best person in the world! We love the same things and seem to share a brain. I love her!!
May 8th, 2009 at 9:50 am
My best friend besides my husband is Christi. She and I enjoy doing anything together, we help cheer the other up, and we both are librarians (though not at the same place — that would be awesome!). I can’t imagine life without her!
May 8th, 2009 at 10:18 am
My best friend is my husband. We get along very well, and spend all our free time together. I can tell him anything, and I don’t know what I would do without him. Please enter me in your giveaway. Thanks!
May 12th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
My best girl friend is my fourteen year old daughter, Mackenzie. She’s amazing! Sounds like a fabulous book!
May 14th, 2009 at 2:29 am
My best friend is the same as 20 years ago, a girl that I met at university. We just understand each other. Both of us have 2 kids (same age), and kids get along too
May 14th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
My best friend and partner in crime is Sandra!
Please enter me in the giveaway, what a super prize!
Luvdaylilies at bellsouth dot net