I confess, I bought this book because a) a friend's work appears in it b) all the proceeds go to a great cause -- the Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center at the U of C's San Francisco Comprehensive Cancer Center. I kept the book on my bedside table for a while but once I picked it up, I was amazed by how very very good it was.The book is rich in diverse, authentic voices -- it's brimming with humor and insight and sorrow and healing. Topics cover all the milestones of women's lives, as seen from the vantage point of different life stages and several cultures. Yet there's a warm, honest connectedness at the core that ties all of this together, like multicolored beads strung on one thread. I can't image that any thinking, feeling woman of any age would regret reading or buying this book. Another thing that's nice is that short pieces are mixed in with longer works, and there's poetry and travel essays too. What a rich buffet, and what a great experience it must have been being part of this writing group!

A little gem of a book which I carry with me as portable respite. The vignettes are short, but rich and soul-filling. Just this brief contact with another's world, reminds me to stay in contact with my own, and review its richness in terms of experiences, thoughts and memories.

This collection of stories written by women who attended a weekly writing group on Wednesdays is, dare I say, on par with Tuesdays with Morrie. It is a collection of stories that weaves the tales of these women's lives. The stories are at times moving, funny, poignant, compassionate, and resonate of the fabric with which women's lives are woven. You can pick it up, open it to a page, and start reading any story, but once you start, it will be hard to put it down.

Reunion documents the lives of 10 members of the class of 1968 at the Brearley School in New York City. Each of the young women had the "advantage" of an elite education and the amenities of an upper class life. Each takes a decidedly different path...some encountering the sex and drugs so prevelent of the times. Marriages are entered into and ended. Some women have children, some choose careers, some wander from thing to thing. All seem to have to deal with families that are imperfect, from benignly so to worse. One member of the class commits suicide, all are touched in some way. Most are struggling with issues of self confidence and direction. This is the era when emotional issues are not talked about, and many turn to therapy. The stories are not really in depth and do not draw you in. I guess I measure every "what ever happened" type book to Goatbrothers, one of the best books of that type ever written. The stories are interesting but not compelling, which is in no way a comment on the women themselves.

I had expected something a bit different with this book -- I thought it would focus on the Brearley experience and lifestyle. Instead, it really concentrated on the girls' lives after prep school. It was interesting to find that many of them faced problems like anyone else would. Although this book did describe the experience of attending Brearley, it did so in the beginning, and then followed how its traditional education left the women unprepared for the rapidly changing society of the 60s and 70s.

Fortunately, I purchased "Reunion" prior to the posting of the above review! I found "Reunion" to be a fascinating story and free of the oppressive "insights", "dramas" and "accomplishments" that are force-fed to us by graduates of Wellesley, Radcliffe and Vassar. How delightful to see how much in common we "commoners" have with those who were priviledged enough to attend an elite school. I suspect that previous reviewers, possibly graduates of Wellesley, Radcliffe and Vasar, are loathe to find the myth of their superiority shattered by such a down-to-earth snapshot of a group of women who should have, in their (the previous reviewers') world-view, become bastions of Brahmin society. I was particularly struck by the character "Emma". Today's culture and society would benefit greatly by appreciating and nurturing the "Emma's" of our society. Peace-loving, generous and wise women of our world are too frequently overlooked, or their value dismissed, by vacuous and elitist Wellesley grads. Bravo to Elizabeth Fishel for her courage in sharing with us these true portraits!