Three women, Ellie, Alice, and Joan know each other because their
children all went to the same school. Now with their children grown and
away from home, these three women feel lost. When a terrible tragedy
takes place at their kids' former school, all three women show up to a
vigil and decide to get together to have lunch after so many years of
drifting apart. Joan is trying to keep up with her husband's family's
lifestyle, going shopping and keeping her home spotless. She is so
bored with her life she decides to go the casino to pass time and ends
up with an addiction. Ellie has her own bookkeeping business that is
growing, and a new customer challenges her worldview. And Alice,
feeling neglected by her husband, decides to take up running again to
get back in shape. After this first reconnection, they decide to get
together for lunch every other Wednesday.
One day Alice is out running and attacked. The man gets away, but now
Alice feels unsafe and decides to get a gun for protection. During their
regularly scheduled lunch, the three women find themselves at odds
about Alice's purchase: Ellie supports her friend, but Joan is against it
from the start.
This conversation makes the three women rethink their lives. Joan
knows she has to quit going to the casino, Ellie has to make a huge
decision on her lifestyle. Alice really has to rethink the gun purchase,
especially after finding her attacker following her on the beach. What
decisions will these women choose?
Susan Kietzman's EVERY OTHER
WEDNESDAY gets to the heart of what women go through once
they have an empty nest. Kietzman writes how women no matter what
background they come from can become great friends. Susan also
shows that no matter how long you are married, there are little secrets
that you keep to yourself. While reading this book, I felt sorry for all the
women in my own way at times. Ellie has mixed emotions on her
marriage. Does she want to stay married, or live the life that she always
wanted but kept it a secret? Then you have Joan, a rich and bored
housewife that feels she has to follow the way her mother in law lived
her life. Alice misses her husband but spends way too much time at
work. Kietzman really has the inside track of what women want and
need in their lives.
Three women, each facing an empty nest, come together to
cheer and challenge one another in this insightful, poignant
new novel from acclaimed author Susan Kietzman.
For years, Ellie, Alice, and Joan enjoyed a casual
friendship while volunteering at their children’s
Connecticut high school. Now, with those children grown and
gone to college, a local tragedy brings the three into
contact again. But what begins as a catch-up lunch soon
moves beyond small talk to the struggles of this next stage
of life.
Joan Howard has spent thirty years of marriage doing what’s
expected of Howard women: shopping, dressing well, and
keeping a beautiful home. Unfulfilled, her boredom and
emptiness eventually find a secret outlet at the local
casino. Meanwhile, Ellie’s efforts to expand her accounting
business lead to a new friendship that clashes with her
family’s traditional worldview. And Alice, feeling
increasingly distant from her husband, and alienated from
her once fit body, takes up running again. But a terrifying
ordeal shatters her confidence and spurs a decision that
will affect all three women in different ways.
Over the course of an eventful year, Ellie, Alice, and Joan
will meet every other Wednesday to talk, plan—and find the
freedom, and the courage, to redefine themselves.