The ladies of Waynesboro, Ohio

...And Ladies of the Club by Helen Hooven Santmyer is a fat novel that tells the story of the Waynesboro Women's Club, founded in 1868 by respectable young ladies who wish to read, study, and do a few good works in their little Ohio town. We follow those ladies through the next six decades, as they marry, have children and grandchildren, and work for causes great and small. Their friendship and mutual love remains strong throughout the tragedies and triumphs of their lives.

Now, this is not the kind of book I usually read. I generally want murder, or perhaps an attack by alien lizard-beings. But I loved ...And Ladies of the Club. It has a strong sense of place and time: the Midwest in the late 19th and early 20th centuries has never been so well rendered. Its ladies do not have many of the rights that we take for granted today, but they have intelligence and character, and I truly enjoyed the long story of their lives.

I read all 1170 pages of ...And Ladies of the Club over one leisurely summer weekend, years ago. It remains a book that I recommend to friends -- even those who, like me, prefer books about murderous lizard-beings.