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Marie Bostwick is the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of more than twenty works of uplifting contemporary and historical fiction.
Translated into a dozen languages, Marie’s novels are beloved by readers across the globe. Her 2009 book, A Thread of Truth, was an “Indie Next Notable” pick. Three of her books were published as Reader’s Digest “Select Editions.” Marie lives in Washington state with her husband and a beautiful but moderately spoiled Cavalier King Charles spaniel.
The Book Club for Troublesome Women is a humorous, thought provoking, and nostalgic romp through one pivotal and tumultuous American year–as well as an ode to self-discovery, persistence, and the power of sisterhood.
Let’s get to know Marie as she talks favorite books, inspiration behind the book, her TBR and more!
What are some of your favorite novels?
Gosh, that could be a VERY long list. But there are a few books that I’ve loved enough to read over and over.
The Group, by Mary McCarthy is at the top of that list. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith, runs a close second.
When did you know you wanted to become an author?
It wasn’t so much that I knew, more that somebody told me I was. The short(ish) version of the story is this…
Thirty years ago, I kind of wandered into a writer’s workshop on a whim. I’d been writing since I could hold a pencil, but only for myself. The idea of writing as a profession had never crossed my mind. I only went to the workshop because it was one of the activities offered when I was on vacation, and it sounded like it might be fun.
The workshop met every day for a week. I was quiet at first, just taking it all in. Around day four I volunteered to read what I’d written, and a couple more times after that. On the last day of the workshop, the instructor pulled me aside and said, “You’re obviously a writer; what have you published?”
I was shocked. In fact, I argued with him, saying that I wasn’t a writer, just somebody who hadn’t fired her imaginary friends when she got big. He just frowned and said, “Well, what do you think writers are?”
Years would pass before I was willing to admit that I wanted to become a published author. But the fact that someone else saw me as “obviously a writer” changed the course of my life. It felt like this man knew more about me than I did about myself, that my secret identity had finally been unmasked.
I went home and, for the first time, started writing in a focused way, not just for my own entertainment but taking myself and the work seriously.
What inspired you to write The Book Club for Troublesome Women?
The idea was sparked about three years ago, during a conversation with my mom.
Mom is 92, but she’s sharp as a tack and an avid reader. We were discussing books one evening when Betty Friedan’s 1963 blockbuster, The Feminine Mystique, which some have credited as a catalyst for second-wave feminism, came up.
“That book changed my life,” she said. “Did I ever tell you?”
She hadn’t. But only minutes after she started explaining how the book had impacted her and her friends, a group of quietly unhappy housewives who couldn’t understand what they felt so empty inside, I knew what I had to write next.
The characters, plot, and setting of The Book Club for Troublesome Women is a product of my own imagination, and quite different from Mom’s experience. But her comment was the seed from which an entire book grew.
We love book clubs here! Tell us a bit more about how significant the book club is for the women in the novel.
Though they don’t realize it when the story begins – Margaret proposes starting a book club almost on a whim, seeing it as a way to get to know Charlotte, the artsy, eccentric, intriguing new neighbor from New York – the book club changes everything, for all of them.
The many books they read together open their minds to new possibilities, and help them see the world and themselves in a new light. And the sisterhood through the book club becomes the glue that holds them fast through tears, triumphs, angst, and arguments.
The bond they develop will last a lifetime, but that first year they spend together will be the most consequential of their lives, and the most freeing.
What type of research went into this story?
To start with, I read The Feminine Mystique three or four times. I’d heard of it but never picked it up until then. It’s a dense book, and an imperfect one, especially by modern standards. But in that era, the things Friedan was saying were groundbreaking and extremely controversial.
I also read books about the history of feminism and society’s response to Friedan’s book; the best of them was A Strange Stirring by Stephanie Coontz. And I read some biographies about historical figures who make cameo appearances in the book.
Of course, I did all kinds of online research. And I interviewed my mother too. Getting a firsthand take on what life was like for women before the publication of The Feminine Mystique, and how things changed after was eye-opening.
Magazines from the 60’s also played a part in the process – it’s hard to overstate how influential women’s magazines were at the time. I bought as many vintage copies as I could find, so I could experience them the way my characters would have.
This isn’t of any real consequence but boy! Were there ever some terrible recipes back then! And the pictures were even worse. I don’t know when food styling became a profession, but it was definitely after the 1960s.
What are you currently reading and what’s on your TBR (to be read) list?
I’ve been reading a lot of terrific books lately. I just finished The Girls of Good Fortune by Kristina McMorris, and am currently reading The Girl from Greenwich Street by Lauren Willig as well as Kate Quinn’s The Briar Club. I highly recommend all three.
The current TBR pile includes Harlem Rhapsody by Victoria Christopher Murray, The Story She Left Behind by Patti Callahan Henry, The English Masterpiece by Katherine Reay, and Wayward Girls by Susan Wiggs.
