The Radcliffe Ladies' Reading Club, started by Alice Campbell in her Cambridge Bookshop, was attended by four freshmen women in college there--Caroline, Tess, Evie, and Merritt-- starting in the fall of 1955. The book, by Julia Bryan Thomas, will be published June 6.

This is also Alice’s “freshman” year as she has left her husband, traveled from Chicago, and settled into a small store where she can surround herself with books she loves. It is Tess who first enters the bookstore and learns about the club. Recruiting her roommate and two others, they attend the gathering once a month. In the fall, they read and discuss Jane Eyre, A Room of One’s Own, and The Age of Innocence.

The bookstore is not only a safe harbor for Alice but also for the four students who must deal with a society that wants to limit their options to marriage and children. With each book club meeting, the young women and Alice learn a little bit more about each other and life itself.

When a tragedy occurs to one of the “college girls,” she keeps it a secret as she withdraws from socializing with the once cohesive foursome. Before the freshman year is finished, the four young women will find their paths greatly altered from what they expected.

Julia Bryan Thomas’ writing career started with exchanging letters filled with poems and stories with her grandmother. Her novel For Those Who Are Lost received much attention for its story about the children of Guernsey displaced during World War II. Born and raised in Tulsa, she grew up studying literature. A graduate of Northeastern State University and the Yale Writers’ Workshop, she is married to mystery novelist Will Thomas.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting May 10, 2023.

I would like to thank Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.

A fast paced book about a book club that starts out light-hearted yet slowly delves deeper as we learn more about the characters and their lives. I loved the 1950's setting and seeing all the characters develop making a really intriguing story. I did feel this fell flat at times with the plot becoming monotonous but it was mostly an enjoyable read.

I usually love books about books, bookshops, book clubs and libraries. This story, however, fell felt for me. The characters seems one dimensional and I just didn’t care for this book like I thought I would. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read an advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Set during 1954 and 1955 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, The Radcliffe Ladies' Reading Club by Julia Bryan Thomas is an endearing and engrossing book about mentorship, friendship and exploration of women's roles in a man's world. And, of course, one of the common threads is books and how they can change lives.

Alice has personal reasons for moving across American to Cambridge. She buys a building and after renovations, opens a little bookshop. Books are her comfort and she wants to comfort others through them so starts a monthly book club. I really like her guidance and wisdom shown in the club and wish to know her better!

Tess, Caroline, Evie and Merritt meet at prestigious Cambridge college. Their backgrounds and personalities are very different but they become close friends who study and hang out together. They decide to join the reading club where they learn more than they would have imagined. Alice mentors the young ladies and encourages them to really open their eyes to wonderful timeless Classics which always have lessons to learn from. She shows the girls their value and gains their trust. When the unthinkable happens, she is a support and haven when there is nowhere else to turn.

Though at first the reading is light, the author probes deeper and deeper into darker issues as time goes on. Many layers are at play here. I love how the books discussed at the reading club cause the participants to question and ponder themes as they relate to their lives as young women and students navigating the world. The glimpses into the girls' home lives are interesting as well. This book took me back to my college days in an instant where I was at first uncertain, nervous and far from home. Books were then, as they are now, therapeutic and powerful.

Historical Fiction readers who are enamoured by the healing capacity of books, this is for you.

My sincere thank you to SOURCEBOOKS Landmark and NetGalley for providing me with an early digital copy of this lovely, lovely novel.

Loved it. Super good. Very fast paced and kept me turning the pages. The characters was good and well wrote. I didn't like that some of the books talked about in the book club was spoiled. I did enjoy this read a lot.

A book about a reading club? Sure, I’m in. We meet four young ladies who join a reading club that are in university in the 1950’s. As the story begins, it has a light feel to it. As the story progresses, and we get to see more of the characters and learn about the times and women during that time, the book gets a bit deeper. it is a though provoking novel and would be a great book for a reading club!

I think this would be a great book club choice for a group of women. The book store setting, the 1950's setting and the different backgrounds of each of the characters, gives everyone someone to connect to. I loved how Alice takes the 4 college girls under her wing and helps them navigate the pressures that they each feel. It enjoyed it and it kept me interested and engaged.

Thank you to netgalley for providing the digital preview copy.

Thank you for the opportunity to review this new novel.

I love the title so I really wanted to love the story also but unfortunately I didn't. The characters felt one dimensionsal and as a true historical fiction fan, I didn't believe the story or the characters.

This was the most amazing story! Alice Campbell had overcome a personal disaster and ended up owning a bookshop in Cambridge, Massachusetts, near Radcliffe College. She starts a book club and soon four girls from the college join. They know each other and are very different. Through reading the books and listening to Alice they discover the power of questioning their plans, thoughts and dreams.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

The Radcliffe Ladies’ Reading Club starts out so light and friendly, but its plot gains momentum and quickly becomes full of suspense and power. This book is many things: frivolous, academic, dramatic, and hopeful. The characters are just lovely and so well drawn, I was able to anticipate how each would react in some situations. The author did a great job marrying the book club, feminism, and the different girl’s lives together to make an expertly crafted historical fiction novel. I just loved it. Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the advanced copy!

The Radcliffe Ladies' Reading Club is a historical novel about college friends who join a book club. This book just felt flat to me and failed to hold my interest. Thanks to the author, Sourcebooks Landmark, and NetGalley. I received a complimentary copy of this ebook. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

I really enjoyed this book about four young women, set in 1954, newly enrolled in Radcliffe College, Harvard University. All women from different backgrounds and experiences, with different expectations for their futures make for an interesting story. I think this will make for some good discussions for book groups.

The Radcliffe Ladies Reading Club
By Julia Bryan Thomas
Pub Date June 6, 2023
Sourcebooks.
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.
I love books about books, libraries and book clubs. Unfortunately I was disappointed with this book.
This was the story of a group of friends finding their place in College and life.
Trigger- rape
Good point- shorter book

3 stars

I want to thank Source books Landmark and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review The Radcliffe Ladies’ Reading Club by author Julia Bryan Thomas.
We follow four freshman women through their freshman year at Radcliffe in 1955. Their backgrounds are very different but they become a group that does everything together. One of them wanders into a bookstore in Cambridge, sees that there is going to be a bookclub and convinces the other three to come with her. Jane Eyre is the first selection and like the following books, bring out different feelings!
How their year changes them is what this novel is about.
I enjoyed the book and it brings back memories of my years in college.
The Radcliffe Ladies’ Reading Club publishes 06/06/2023.

4.5 ⭐️ Julia Bryan Thomas’s The Radcliffe Ladies’ Reading Club was a great work of historical fiction.

Alice Campbell leaves her native Chicago behind in the 1950s and opens a bookstore in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She hosts a book club for 4 Radcliffe students: Caroline, Evie, Merritt, and Tess. Each of the students is finding her way as she adapts to college life and contemplates her future. Characters that I originally disliked grow and become so likeable.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and how classics were weaved into the plot and artfully discussed. I loved the meaning imparted by each as well.

Thank you to the author, Sourcebooks Landmark, and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my opinions.

This shifts between a 3.5 and a 3.75 for me, so i'll round up for goodreads.

There are parts of this story that I really enjoyed. And there are parts that felt like I was taking a lecture in college. In some instances, I think that might have been the point, but it was a little too on the nose for me.

The book is fairly heavy-handed in its depiction and criticism of the way women were treated in the 1950s. Each of the four main college girls we are introduced to are archetypes and stand-ins for all women of the time. This works, for the most part, when the girls are given room on the page on their own, as Thomas is able to delve into their character more than when all of the girls are together in the book club setting. At the book club is when the narrative feels the most like a lecture to me, the parallels and conclusions drawn between the books they are reading and their own lives or experiences are very obvious and, again, a bit on the nose.

what made this story so compelling to me were the parts with caroline. she felt like the most well-rounded and fleshed out character, perhaps because she went through the most. without getting into any spoilers, caroline embodied the ups and downs of a girl in this time period and her part of the story so encapsulated how so many women and girls probably felt at the time. merritt was another strong character, but tess and evie were... horrible. this was definitely on purpose, to show the other side of the coin, but i really couldn't stand their attitudes nor their actions. again, this is on purpose, but without the counterpoint of caroline, coupled with the lecture-y feel of the book club sections, it could have dragged this book down in my estimation.

Thomas did, however, weave what feels like a very accurate picture of the time period, not only with her characters, but with the atmosphere of Radcliffe itself. Thomas says a lot about the function, treatment, and position of women without saying TOO much or feeling TOO much like she is leading the reader to a particular conclusion. This is, again, helped by the contrasting characters that are at the heart of the story.

I could not put this book down. A novel about a handful of women embracing one another after connecting during their first year at a prestigious university. This in a time when women weren't expected or tolerated to speak up and think for themselves. The author really brought the emotion out of each character. I found myself enveloped in each character's story. I could feel every emotion. I haven't felt a character's emotion come off the page and in to me in a long time. Great book. No profanity and one sexual scene but not graphic.

A book about friendship and books! Proof that books bring people together. The Radcliffe Ladies' Reading Club took me back to my early 20s, trying to navigate adult life and how lost I felt. It was just heartwarming.

When Alice Campbell advertises for a book club to meet in her Cambridge book shop, she is joined by four freshman girls studying at Radcliffe: Caroline, Tess, Evie, and Merritt. The roommates all have different backgrounds but have quickly become fast friends and are learning a lot, not only from classes and the books Ms. Campbell places in their hands, but from their busy social lives and one another. Everything changes when one of them experiences a traumatic event.

This book was…not good. The characters were woefully underdeveloped. It took a third of the book before I could tell the four girls apart. We get little shadow references to their lives before college, sprinkled into the story in such a way that the reader is always expecting big reveals that will explain why the characters act the way they do, especially Tess, the up-tight, conservative work-a-holic of the crew. Caroline is the beautiful, rich one that everyone adores, Evie is the farm girl whose boy-crazy but has a fellow at home, and Merritt is the steadfast friend with an open mind. None of them feel real. We get even less about Alice Campbell, whose only personality trait is that she was brave enough to leave her husband in the 1950s and she likes feminist literature. She also seems overly interested in molding these young minds in her book club and trying to “figure out” each of the girls.

Question…why did no one else ever join the book club? Did she just stop advertising it when the four girls joined? In all of Cambridge there was no one else interested? The book club meetings themselves seem to just be a vehicle for the girls learning clichéd lessons about the struggles of being a woman in a man’s world.

The tragedy that strikes one of the characters is absolutely awful…and then becomes more and more awful. Not to say it’s never happened to anyone before, but did the author really have to pile it on like that? And then as we near the end something completely ridiculous happens that just really makes the whole situation implausible and far-fetched.

I’m sorry to write such a negative review. I did enjoy the atmosphere of Cambridge, Harvard, and Radcliffe throughout a year. It brought me back to my college days to read about the girls wandering in and out of one another’s dorm rooms. Over all, this book struggled in its pacing, lacked in character development, and had a plot that made me alternately roll my eyes and and want to throw the book across the room.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the ARC.

It's no secret that books and stories in general are many people's go-to method of escapism when reality lets them down, all while allowing them to be one's foothold in a tumultuous world. The colorful cast of The Radcliffe Ladies' Reading Club is no different, and in this tale of independence and women supporting women, readers experience the many ways in which books can be a true saving grace. Many thanks to Julia Bryan Thomas (who also authored For Those Who Are Lost) Sourcebooks Landmark for giving me an ARC copy.

When Alice Campbell travels across the country to Cambridge, Massachusetts, she's already seen enough heartache to know that books—not diamonds—are a girl's true best friend. This is especially true of young women in 1954, who fight tooth and nail on a daily basis just to be taken seriously by their male colleagues. Becoming an entrepreneur in this environment isn't easy, but Alice perseveres and fosters a healthy support group for likeminded, classics-loving women in the process. Their bond, as well as the healing power of books, is put to the test over and over again in The Radcliffe Ladies' Reading Club through a series of twists that will inspire and devastate readers by turns.

At its core, this book is a testament to the popularity of dramatic, heartfelt portrayals of a period of history that none of us have lived, but one we feel we have at least scratched enough of the surface of in history class to understand the unique challenges it posed to the population as a whole. Bringing it all down to a personal point of view makes it more real, and in some ways both more and less difficult for modern audiences to swallow.

For those who have not read Thomas's previously published work, one thing they will immediately notice in The Radcliffe Ladies' Reading Club is that she has a decent command of compelling storytelling strategies. The elegance of her prose was a selling point for me; it provided the ideal backdrop for the nuances of the main characters throughout the book, even the ones we aren't necessarily supposed to like. From the charming members of the Cambridge Bookshop's signature circle of female friendship to the naysayers they engage in mostly polite battles with on a daily basis, the lay of the land is so well established that the characters fit into it just as well as the bricks used to build the actual town of Cambridge. I did find the pacing of the plot to be a bit sporadic, but the events of the book were vivid and raw in their description, which I think helped bridge that gap in rising and falling action.

There is one important trigger warning I feel potential readers ought to be made aware of going in. This book does include a detailed account of sexual assault. This event is pivotal and referenced at different points throughout the novel, so if this topic is a particular stressor for anyone, then this book is probably not for you.

If, however, you are a fan of stories like Atonement and The Last Carolina Girl, then I recommend you purchase a copy when the book releases this June 6.