And Ladies of Club

Don't let the page count intimidate you; this story is so engrossing that the pages almost turn themselves. I've read it four times. Like the ladies themselves and their Afternoon Calls, you'll want to visit with these characters again and again.

...AND LADIES OF THE CLUB is a sturdy chunk of a book that is both solid novel and solid history. The story tracks the lives of several generations of families in a small Ohio town from the late 1860's to the 1930's. The heart of the book is a circle of acquaintances who are members of a women's literary society. The characters are a diverse lot with engaging stories that run the full gamut from the comic to the tragic. The novel is also a magnificent social history. The progress of, well, Progress through the decades is one of the fascinating themes of the book. Santmyer writes with an eye that carefully sees and records the technological advances of the period. Changes in housekeeping, education, medicine, business, and transportation are woven into the fabric of the characters' lives, and a read-through of this book is a good and rather painless way of absorbing a large piece of American history. For my taste, a few chapters are a bit too freighted with the minutia of Presidential politics in the Gilded Age (my only complaint about the book), but those political chapters can be quickly skimmed without harming the substance of the narrative. ...AND LADIES OF THE CLUB is perfect for times when you can lose yourself in a great book. I can think of no better choice for cold winter nights or lazy summer afternoons. It's a book that I've returned to a number of times in all seasons, and I've never been disappointed.