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The Wednesday Sisters
A National Bestseller
The Target Bookmarked Selection for Summer 2009
A Borders Book Club Pick
A Top Club Pick at Bookmovement.com
When five young mothers—Frankie, Linda, Kath, Ally, and Brett—first meet in a neighborhood park in the late 1960s, their conversations center on marriage, raising children, and a shared love of books. Then one evening, as they gather to watch the Miss America Pageant, Linda admits that she aspires to write a novel herself, and the Wednesday Sisters Writing Society is born. The five women slowly, and often reluctantly, start filling journals, sliding pages into typewriters, and sharing their work. In the process, they explore the changing world around them: the Vietnam War, the race to the moon, and a women's movement that challenges everything they believe about themselves. At the same time, the friends carry one another through more personal changes—ones brought about by infidelity, longing, illness, failure, and success. With one another's support and encouragement, they begin to embrace who they are and what they hope to become, as The Wednesday Sisters welcomes readers to experience, along with its heroines, the power of dreaming big.
"Meg Waite Clayton's stirring novel will appeal not just to those who secretly wish to be writers, but to anyone with a love of great books; anyone who has felt truly moved by a book or an author; and anyone who has had their dreams bolstered by good and faithful friends."
— Bronwyn Miller, BookReporter
"A heartwarming novel about the joys and complications of friendship, an inspiring story for anyone who has dared to dream big. "
— Michelle Richmond, author of The Year of Fog and No One You Know
"You'll want to share THE WEDNESDAY SISTERS with anyone who believes in the power of a good book—to inspire those close to us, and for those who inspire."
— Bronwyn Miller, BookReporter
"Readers will be swept up by this moving novel about female friendship and enthralled by the recounting of a pivotal year in American history as seen through these young women's eyes."
— Booklist
The Language of Light
Set in the Old-Moneyed Horse Country of Maryland, the Story of a Young Mother Moving into the Future by Uncovering the Past
Nelly Grace moves her two young children to a privileged horse-breeding world in the Baltimore countryside after the unexpected death of her husband. While struggling to build a new life, Nelly finds herself swept up in the traditions and social politics of this insular world. Emma, the matriarch of the fox-hunting community, offers her guidance and friendship until past and present secrets begin to unfold.
Encouraged by Emma and her grown son, Dac, Nelly rekindles her desire to become a photojournalist, like her father. As she sets to work, though, she realizes that her ability with her camera is tangled up with her feelings about her husband's death as well as her relationship with her father, a man who has allowed fame and ambition to come before his family.
A brilliant old-fashioned read, filled with secrets and surprises, The Language of Light is a beautifully told story of a woman moving into the future by uncovering the past.
"The Language of Light shines on, a wonderfully knowing action photograph that has emerged from the darkroom as words." -- James Bready, The Baltimore Sun
"A comfortable read...Light and shadows delineate the intimate contours of Ms. Clayton's first novel..." -- Lin Rolens, The Santa Barbara News-Press
"Clayton has an old-fashioned sense of narrative and symbolism ... will delight readers searching fora story with meaning, character and drama." -- Bethanne Kelly Patrick, bookreporter.com
"Maryland horse country--picturesque, genteel, moneyed--seems an odd setting for a novel concerned with issues like the Vietnam War, the impact of art on society, and a woman's struggle to balance career and motherhood. But Meg Waite Clayton, in her debut novel The Language of Light, foregrounds these themes even as her characters participate in the requisite foxhunts and charity balls, and even as they debate what to wear to afternoon tea." - Pablo Tanguay, The Nashville Scene
"Richly atmospheric, gorgeously written, and filled with characters so real they breathe on the page, Clayton's first novel is as luminous as
a perfect photograph shimmering with true light." - Caroline Leavitt, author of Coming Back To Me
"An engaging and compassionate portrait of an artist learning to embrace the full potential of her power. Meg Waite Clayton writes with a photographer's precision, clarity and care."
- A. Manette Ansay, the author of Midnight Champagne and Limbo
"... has what readers want in a book--the believable kind of humor and pathos that makes for a terrific read." -- Katharine Weber, author of The Music Lesson and The Little Women
The Four Ms. Bradwells
(Coming March 22, 2011)
Meg Waite Clayton’s national bestseller The Wednesday Sisters was a word-of-mouth sensation and book club favorite. Now the beloved author is back with a page-turning novel that explores the secrets we keep, even from those closest to us, and celebrates the enduring power of friendship.
Mia, Laney, Betts, and Ginger, best friends since law school, have reunited for a long weekend as Betts awaits Senate confirmation of her appointment to the Supreme Court. Nicknamed “the Ms. Bradwells” during their first class at the University of Michigan Law School in 1979—when only three women had ever served full Senate terms and none had been appointed to the Court—the four have supported one another through life’s challenges: marriages and divorces, births and deaths, career setbacks and triumphs large and small. Betts was, and still is, the Funny One. Ginger, the Rebel. Laney, the Good Girl. And Mia, the Savant.
But when the Senate hearings uncover a deeply buried skeleton in the friends’ collective closet, the Ms. Bradwells retreat to a summer house on the Chesapeake Bay, where they find themselves reliving a much darker period in their past—one that stirs up secrets they’ve kept for, and from, one another, and could change their lives forever.
Once again, Meg Waite Clayton writes inspiringly about the complex circumstances facing women and the heartfelt friendships that hold them together. Insightful and affecting, The Four Ms. Bradwells is also a captivating tale of how far people will go to protect the ones they love.
