My Best Friend’s Book Club

The Van Laar Preserve has already claimed one child — and nobody who was there during the search for Bear has recovered. We start to get a sense of what happened to Bear, who helped, and who might be carry secrets into his mysterious disappearance.
Fourteen years later, Barbara Van Laar is now missing, and the timelines are colliding. We travel from a seventeen-year-old Alice being swept into a marriage with a twenty-nine-year-old Peter Van Laar (woof), through the haunting search for Bear, and back to present day where Barbara is missing - or is she?
We discuss age gap relationships, sex education, and what black flies actually symbolize.
Follow us, tap that 5-star like you also didn’t know about penial explosions, hit us up on social (IG & TikTok), or at mybfbookclub@gmail.com
 
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We read books so you don't have to — but you can. Part comedy, part literary chaos — welcome to the group chat. Non-readers, listen weekly for chapter summaries. Readers, check out our Reader Calendar (pinned to socials) to read along with us.
>> Next pages: The God of the Woods by Liz Moore | p.153-219

It's 1975 in the Adirondack Mountains, and a girl is missing from her bunk at Camp Emerson. No flashlight. No note. Just gone. The problem? Almost nobody who should have been watching was actually where they were supposed to be.
God of the Woods by Liz Moore drops us into multiple timelines and perspectives from page one — a struggling camp counselor covering her tracks, a twelve-year-old girl who knows more than she's saying, a wealthy family with a devastating secret, and an escaped convict heading north through the woods. We discuss land ownership and old money, the origin of the word "panic," mother-daughter relationships, and the one rule that's going to matter more than anyone realizes: when lost, sit down and yell.
Follow us, tap that 5-star like you’re a f*cking good best friend (and if you get lost, sit down and yell), hit us up on social (IG & TikTok), or at mybfbookclub@gmail.com
________________
We read books so you don't have to — but you can. Part comedy, part literary chaos — welcome to the group chat. Non-readers, listen weekly for chapter summaries. Readers, check out our Reader Calendar (pinned to socials) to read along with us.
>> Next pages: The God of the Woods by Liz Moore | p.75-153

Five women. One unsolved case. And a system that failed them long before a killer did. Robert Kolker's Lost Girls brought these women back to life on the page — and the Netflix film tried to do the same on screen. But did it?
We break down the book to screen adaptation, dive into the perception of sex work, how socioeconomic standing shapes who gets justice, and what it means to tell these stories responsibly. We have opinions. We have feelings. And we're not holding back.
Follow us, tap that 5-star like we’re passionate about creating a safer world for everyone (and for Yana’s first Romantasy book: Fourth Wing), hit us up on social (IG & TikTok), or at mybfbookclub@gmail.com
 
 
________________
We read books so you don't have to — but you can. Part comedy, part literary chaos — welcome to the group chat. Non-readers, listen weekly for chapter summaries. Readers, check out our Reader Calendar (pinned to socials) to read along with us.
>> Next book & pages: The God of the Woods by Liz Moore | p.1-75

Well, to no one's surprise, Margaret gets fired — but our girls, the Bettys, show up in the best possible way. Charlotte opens a new chapter, and part of it involves evicting her entitled male therapist (it's as satisfying as it sounds #ClassicCharlotte). Viv has the most inconvenient timing imaginable. And out of nowhere, Jackie Kennedy becomes a rather significant part of Margaret's story — we have feelings.
In discussion, we dive into women supporting women, the “un-American way,” books that changed our lives (as the Feminine Mystique did for our girls), and what women of the 1960s fought for that we simply must not forget.
As always, we close out with book trivia, final ratings, and reviews.
Follow us, tap that 5-star like you also fight the good fight to not go back in time (or eat 3 jelly donuts and forge your husband’s signature), hit us up on social (IG & TikTok), or at mybfbookclub@gmail.com
 
________________
We read books so you don't have to — but you can. Part comedy, part literary chaos — welcome to the group chat. Non-readers, listen weekly for chapter summaries. Readers, check out our Reader Calendar (pinned to socials) to read along with us.
>> Next book & pages: The God of the Woods by Liz Moore | p.1-75

Bitsy gets news that should devastate her — but she responds with an enormous grin. Charlotte disappears for weeks, throws herself into her art, and comes back with an answer she's been searching for her whole life. And Margaret finally writes the piece she's been too scared to submit — but will she actually send it?
This week we discuss, women's ambition, what it means to finally know your own worth, and the freedom of walking away from something that was never built for you. Oh, and Charlotte has a meeting with her husband Howard that is genuinely one of the most satisfying things we have ever read—and—she's wearing a power suit. #BBA
Follow us, tap that 5-star like you too are serving someone divorce papers that are sorely deserved, hit us up on social (IG & TikTok), or at mybfbookclub@gmail.com
 
________________
We read books so you don't have to — but you can. Part comedy, part literary chaos — welcome to the group chat. Non-readers, listen weekly for chapter summaries. Readers, check out our Reader Calendar (pinned to socials) to read along with us.
>> Next pages: The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick | p.302-END

Things are coming to a head. A graduation party turns scandalous — and produces some much needed evidence. Margaret finally loses her patience with Walt, and what follows between them is a long time coming. Loss has a way of changing people, and these pages don't let anyone off easy. To top it all off, Charlotte and Margaret have their first major friendship fight, and it doesn't end well for either of them.
We discuss the cost of speaking up, whether women — and men — can really “have it all,” and what happens when best friends tell each other the truth, even when it hurts.
Follow us, tap that 5-star like there is redemption for Walt (or you too believe in Taco Bell for president), hit us up on social (IG & TikTok), or at mybfbookclub@gmail.com
 
________________
We read books so you don't have to — but you can. Part comedy, part literary chaos — welcome to the group chat. Non-readers, listen weekly for chapter summaries. Readers, check out our Reader Calendar (pinned to socials) to read along with us.
>> Next pages: The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick | p.254-302

After reading The Feminine Mystique, the Bettys are starting to wake up — and act on it. Bitsy does the unspeakable and challenges her husband, King. Margaret discovers she can't open a bank account without her husband's signature (even though the check is in her name) and feeling even more rebellious, she submits a column that earns her a reminder from her editor that she's "not paid to think." Meanwhile, Charlotte's daughter Denise is quietly putting a plan in place to protect her mom before leaving for college.
We discuss sexism in the workplace, women's financial independence in the 1960s, and what it feels like when you realize the patriarchy is real — and it was never built in your favor.
Follow us, tap that 5-star like you too have healed a horse when someone was going to put it down, hit us up on social (IG & TikTok), or at mybfbookclub@gmail.com
 
________________
We read books so you don't have to — but you can. Part comedy, part literary chaos — welcome to the group chat. Non-readers, listen weekly for chapter summaries. Readers, check out our Reader Calendar (pinned to socials) to read along with us.
>> Next pages: The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick | p.202-254

The book club is back — this time at Charlotte's house, and the inside of her home says a lot about her. All the Bettys finally read the book, we learn more about the career Bitsy was denied before she ever had the chance to pursue it, and Margaret is quietly connecting some suspicious dots about Charlotte and Lawrence — her painter friend who keeps giving her steamy eyes.
We get into how marriages quietly fall apart, whether it's ever normal to resent your partner, and what it means to share your real feelings with your girlfriends without feeling like a traitor. We also dig into women's education in the 1960s — including the doors that were closed to women before they had a chance to pursue other interests aside from being a housewife. Oh, and a doctor prescribes a pitcher of martinis as legitimate medical advice. What a time.
Follow us, tap that 5-star like you mixed a pitcher of martini’s, put on Nat King Cole, and did the deed, hit us up on social (IG & TikTok), or at mybfbookclub@gmail.com
 
________________
We read books so you don't have to — but you can. Part comedy, part literary chaos — welcome to the group chat. Non-readers, listen weekly for chapter summaries. Readers, check out our Reader Calendar (pinned to socials) to read along with us.
>> Next pages: The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick | p.147-202

The book club meeting isn't going so well. Nobody finished the book, nobody wants to talk about anything real, and nearly all the women are quietly in the dumps. It's the 1960s — housewives don't air their grievances, especially about their husbands, kids, or their "non-traditional" aspirations. Leave it to Charlotte to disappear into the kitchen and come back with a tray of vodka stingers she calls truth serum. Suddenly, the secrets start spilling.
Viv is pregnant with baby number seven and beside herself — she was this close to going back to work. Bitsy is being sent to a fertility specialist without her husband King, who sees no reason to be tested himself — just sayin'. And Margaret gets a phone call mid-meeting that changes everything.
We also take a field trip to a New York City magazine office and a Washington DC art gallery, and spend a lot of time thinking about what women keep to themselves — and why. We get into birth control in the 1960s and whether some things are truly better left unsaid.
Follow us, tap that 5-star like you to are a moist cake, hit us up on social (IG & TikTok), or at mybfbookclub@gmail.com
 
________________
We read books so you don't have to — but you can. Part comedy, part literary chaos — welcome to the group chat. Non-readers, listen weekly for chapter summaries. Readers, check out our Reader Calendar (pinned to socials) to read along with us.
>> Next pages: The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick | p.103-147

It's 1963, and Margaret — the perfect housewife — has decided she wants more. Step one: start a book club. Step two: dust off her essay writing. And with the influence of her bold new friend Charlotte, the club lands on a controversial first read: The Feminine Mystique. Suddenly, a group of suburban housewives are questioning their role in the world.
In this episode we dive into gender roles in the 1960s vs. today, whether a woman's time was ever truly her own, feminism, and the quiet suffocation of a life that looks perfect on the outside — for both men and women.
Follow us, tap that 5-star like you’re the boss bitch that you are, hit us up on social (IG & TikTok), or at mybfbookclub@gmail.com
___________________
We read books so you don't have to — but you can. Part comedy, part literary chaos — welcome to the group chat. Non-readers, listen weekly for chapter summaries. Readers, check out our Reader Calendar (pinned to socials) to read along with us.
>> Next pages: The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick | p. 50-103