Sisterhood of the Traveling Idealogues

Blah.
Epic story of a friendship starting in the sixties at a southern college and ending with their daughters going to college. Interesting immersion in civil rights, women’s rights, discrimination, revolutionaries, choices, rape culture, etc. of any of the given decades. It was just a little flat considering the scope of these women’s relationships.

Wendy Ward
http://wendyrward.tumblr.com/

I really enjoyed this historical fiction novel! Especially being a multigenerational family drama - one of my favorite sub-genres! Great characters, dialogue & pacing. I look forward to reading more novels by this author.

I was so excited to be given a copy of this book to review!! I honestly requested it for the amazing cover. I love books about female friendships and those that follow the friends through so many years. This book did both and I was not disappointed. I loved seeing the ups and downs through the years and the pieces of history in the book. I've seen some reviews talk about one dimensional characters, but I didn't feel that way at all. I enjoyed the entire book and was sad to finish.

I read this book in two days because I just couldn't put it down! I have been steering away from historical fiction lately, but this book made me miss it.

Eve and Daniella's friendship spans over decades with its ups and downs and in the midst of very important historical events. The story was well researched and very entertaining.

I truly believe that we read books at just the right time, and this book had been sitting on my Kindle for months and I just decided to read it even though it was not on my TBR for the month, and it was just what I needed as I am going through a fork in the road with a friendship that is close to my heart.

This was an all-engrossing and educational read. I was fascinated by the remise and was not disappointed. The two main characters have a complex relationship and easily found myself rooting for who would seem like the underdog. I recommend to book clubs and readers of women's fiction.

I could not get into this one, DNF at 22%. I found it really hard to like the characters and was a little confused by where the story was going. Sadly, I was not interested enough to finish.

I had a love/hate relationship with this book and reading it was a true roller-coaster for me. There were times that I truly loved this book: the well-developed characters, the descriptions of thought-provoking issues that the American people faced in 1960s to 1990s period, and the beautifully written prose. However, there were also parts of this story that dragged and made it hard for me to continue reading it. Overall, this is a solid historical fiction novel, and many readers will find this book captivating and provocative. I think this was just not the right book for me or rather it was not the best time for me to read it.
Thank you NetGalley, Atria Books, and the author for providing me with an ARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

We are all good People Here was an interesting read . Some of the book was enjoyable, some of the book was complicated. I appreciated the concept, just not really my style. Thank you for the ARC!

I had a tough time getting into this book. The characters were not very likable and the story line really drug on. The topic was very relevant for the era but it didn't grab my attention.

This was not a normal book selection for me. It has good complex characters and story lines. I was intrigued by characters and all that they went through.

I really related to this book and I think that it's a theme that is very relevant in today's day and age. Two women in the 60's meet from two seemingly different backgrounds. They could not be more different yet they seem to agree on the injustices happening in the world. I absolutely loved how the book turned out! The cover of the book is also fabulous.

Eeeeeep,
How do I say this? I’m not a fan.
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To be fair, I would have enjoyed this book...had it been two separate books.
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It had a lot going on. A LOT! I felt overwhelmed by all the social issues. I felt like most were brought into the story for the sake of the issue. The writing was also very disjointed. I had to stop and think about what time period we were in and which character was speaking. Because of these things, it did not work for me.
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This ARC by the publisher was provided to me in exchange for an honest review.
I liked the writing style of this book, its very descriptive.. I do, however, wish the segments from different character's perspectives were more varied in voice.
I don't think Daniella is the most developed or dynamic character, but I did find her an enjoyable protagonist. Eve is described as a woman with strong convictions, whether they're right or wrong. However, her actual characterization is a woman who molds herself to match the various opinions of the men in her life. I liked the daughters, but I wish we had spent more time with them. Side characters are mostly under developed.
I like the plot, thought maybe thats not the right word. The novel has less of a plot, than a series of events and experiences that happen through out Daniella and Eve's lives.
While lacking in characterization, We Are All Good People was an enjoyable read.

I loved this book! After living in Atlanta for 30 years, this bought back so many places that I remembered. The author could not had done a better job writing about that period of history in the South. Kudos!

I liked the premise for this novel but I could not read past the middle - it was not for me. The characters and their actions were a turn-off and the storyline was too convoluted for me. The descriptions of actions taken in the book were over the top, unappealing, and just not entertaining - just not a read for me.

Two friends who meet as roommates in college. Both are interested in activism beginning in the early sixties. One goes to extremes while the other takes a more conservative approach in this politically charged novel that evolves into the legacy they introduce to their own daughters. The Civil Rights Movement, women's rights, drug culture and death row are touched upon as these women grapple with growing up. A few missteps including some unnecessary cruelty to animals. Otherwise, a sound novel.

Copy provided by the Publisher and NetGalley

I was fascinated by the character development in this saga of two female friends from their college days in the early 60s and on through the social turbulence of the 70s and 80s. Daniella is from a progressive academic family in the DC area while her roommate Eve is from a conservative, wealthy family in Atlanta. From their arrival at a small prestigious college in Virginia we follow them overcoming their divergent backgrounds to become best friends. In the midst of the sorority rush process, they both get disgusted by the system for perpetuating class privilege, and Eve gets radicalized over the oppression of the black maids in residence in the basement of the school’s dorms. Together they transfer to Barnard College in New York, where they soon drift apart as Daniella pragmatically invests herself in academic achievement, marriage, and a law career and Eve pursues initially an escapist bohemian lifestyle and then a dedicated path of anti-war protest leading to violent activism in a group like the Weathermen.

Something happens that puts Eve in trouble and brings Daniella to take risks to render her help, in the process reviving their friendship. The story could have ended there as a sort of morality tale on the power of friendship to overcome the divisive and unjust forces in society. Instead we get more depth and richness by following the metamorphoses of the two into the 80s. It takes more lessons from their selfish mistakes for them to earn the reader’s respect. They struggle hard in their child rearing practices to infuse their different values, but their children forge their own path, as their mothers did before them.

Reading this brought me some of the same pleasures I got from the Turkish author Shafak’s “Three Daughters of Eve”, with its comparable overlay of the parallel and intersecting lives of college friends over decades of political and moral schisms in society. Its story of an interdependence and nourishment between women friends with outwardly conflicting goals and personalities also reminds me of Ferrante’s “My Brilliant Friend,” although not in the same class in terms of literary achievement. The prose and artistry of unfolding the tale here are more mundane, but the pacing and drama in the storytelling were satisfying to me and far from manipulative melodrama.

This book was provided by the publisher for review through the Netgalley program.

after the first two chapters I thought I was going to love this one, I always enjoy a trip back in time, sadly it became too political then just plain boring. I felt no connection to the characters and the story felt almost preachy in tone. No thank you

Eve and Daniella two best friends from different backgrounds. They become roommates at Belmont college in the year 1962. When the girls start to expand their awareness for the South’s systemic injustice and the Vietnam war, they both take very different paths. Eve turns into radicalism a cause Daniella cannot accept. Daniella becomes a lawyer and distant from Eve . When tragedy strikes reuniting the girls, they vow to never apart again. Fast Forward to the mid 1980’s Daniella and Eve’s daughters are in different worlds today then their mothers grew up in. But the secrets of the past are hard to keep hidden and could greatly affect their daughter’s future.

What a captivating story! I was hooked from page 1! It’s so hard to sum up what this book was about because it just so complex but easy to follow. It contained so much in such a short page amount. White has been able to recap years of history and friendship quickly but effectively. I felt that the characters were well developed and didn’t seem rushed. To me all characters were likable and unlikable, they were perfectly flawed!

This book is about everything. It’s about radicalism, it’s about oppression, it’s about triumph, it’s about loss, it’s about winning. It’s about judgement and about forgiving, religion and atheism. It’s about #metoo and staying silent. It’s about feminism, it’s about patriarchy. It is about growing and maturing and accepting that sometimes we can’t force relationships, but we can surely try. It’s historical fiction, suspense, a thriller all wrapped up into a coming of age while being so presently relevant. Wow, everybody needs to give this book a try. It is what books should be. Non-polarizing, looking at both spectrums of the story. Looking at why people think the way they think and what causes them to think the way they do. What events in life make you feel strongly about a subject while others feel so strongly about others? No two lives lead the same path. White allows you to see that. I give this one a solid 5/5!

A sweet, multi-generational novel. This is being released at the perfect time as it’s too heavy to be a beach read, but not super heavy. I enjoyed reading this but found it mostly forgettable and unexceptional.