OK, so I know that many of you (and me!) will be heading to your local bookstore to pick up Mockingjay today to find out just what will happen to Katniss in the final installment of Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy. But while you're there, why not also pick up something else to read (because come on, you'll be done with Mockingjay by Thursday at the latest). Something like Joyce Maynard's The Good Daughters. In her new novel, The Good Daughters, Maynard explores the story of two women, born on the same day, in a small town in NH, to two different families.
They were born on the same day, in the same small New Hampshire hospital, into families that could hardly have been less alike.
Ruth Plank is an artist and a romantic with a rich, passionate, imaginative life. The last of five girls born to a gentle, caring farmer and his stolid wife, she yearns to soar beyond the confines of the land that has been her family's birthright for generations.
Dana Dickerson is a scientist and realist whose faith is firmly planted in the natural world. Raised by a pair of capricious drifters who waste their lives on failed dreams, she longs for stability and rootedness.
Different in nearly every way, Ruth and Dana share a need to make sense of who they are and to find their places in a world in which neither has ever truly felt she belonged. They also share a love for Dana's wild and beautiful older brother, Ray, who will leave an indelible mark on both their hearts.
Told in the alternating voices of Ruth and Dana, The Good Daughters follows these "birthday sisters" as they make their way from the 1950s to the present. Master storyteller Joyce Maynard chronicles the unlikely ways the two women's lives parallel and intersect—from childhood and adolescence to first loves, first sex, marriage, and parenthood; from the deaths of parents to divorce, the loss of home, and the loss of a beloved partner—until past secrets and forgotten memories unexpectedly come to light, forcing them to reevaluate themselves and each other.
Moving from rural New Hampshire to a remote island in British Columbia to the '70s Boston art-school scene, The Good Daughters is an unforgettable story about the ties of home and family, the devastating force of love, the healing power of forgiveness, and the desire to know who we are.
See Joyce discuss The Good Daughters in this video below, browse inside the book and check out the reading group guide. You can also look for Joyce on tour near you and please join us on Book Club Girl on Air on Monday, August 30th at 7pm ET when Joyce will join us to discuss her previous novel Labor Day - if you've read The Good Daughters by then, I'm sure that Joyce will be happy to answer questions about it as well!
I loved Labor Day (one of my favorites of 2009) so I'm really excited about the new book!
Posted by: bermudaonion (Kathy) | August 24, 2010 at 07:23 AM
Thank you for letting us know. I am now a fan since reading Labor Day. I have been raving about it to all my friends. I don't know where I have been, because I have been told she has been writing for years. Can't wait to purchase The Good Daughters. I will definately be reading this one soon. Looking forward to book club girl's radio cast.
Posted by: Carolina Book Stacks | August 24, 2010 at 12:56 PM
I didn't know about Ms. Maynard's newest release. Thanks for the head up. I absolutely loved Labor Day - I actually won it here :D
Posted by: Nely | August 24, 2010 at 03:11 PM
Just got this book from my library, and I am so happy I have a few days before school starts to read it! About 1/4th through and it really is interesting. I like the back and forth perspective of her writing.
Posted by: pat | September 05, 2010 at 10:21 PM