"A dirty martini will make you admit things to other people, but a dirty book? That will make you admit things to yourself.... Each time you uncover one of these truths, a brick falls from the facade you've built around yourself and leaves a hole for the light to shine through. Men are wonderful, but wood alone can't cultivate that light. You need fire. You need girlfriends."
Gloria Golden and three 20-something girlfriends throw potlucks every full moon, complete with cigarettes, martinis and Neil Sedaka "spinning on the Magnavox." In 1962, they follow the tenets of marriage columnist Miss Matrimony and Prim: A Modern Woman's Guide to Manners.
One evening, the women begin to question their truths and repressions, spurred by Gloria's marital woes and TWA stewardess Marjorie's latest Parisian souvenir, The Housewife's Handbook to Selective Promiscuity. Over 54 years, the group explores and pushes their boundaries by secretly reading provocative literature. Against this glorious backdrop, four present-day women become the chosen successors to Gloria's generation. They barely know each other and often don't even like each other, but they all need to participate or the club will fold.
In The Dirty Book Club, Lisi Harrison charms with a kick-in-the-pants narrative replete with a Golden Girls/Maude vibe that is far from superficial despite its sublime sauciness. Harrison (Monster High) dissects relationships and self-determination in eight voices full of attitude and soul; smart and raucous dialogue will have readers rooting for these distinctive characters in search of their authentic selves. --Lauren O'Brien of Malcolm Avenue Review