Book Talk AUTHOR, AUTHOR ... Kepler’s Books at 1010 El Camino Real in Menlo Park has several author talks coming up. (While talks used to be free, now they are gratis only to members; other audience members must buy the event book or a $10 gift card, both of which admit two.) Scheduled authors include: David K. Shipler, “The Rights of the People: How Our Search for Safety Invades Our Liberties” (May 13, 7 p.m.); Jennifer Holm and Matthew Holm, “Squish” (May 14, 2 p.m.); Victoria Zackheim, “He Said What?: Women Write About Moments When Everything Changed” (May 18, 7 p.m.); Steve Earle, “I’ll Never Get Out of This World Alive” (May 20, 7 p.m.); Julie Orringer, “The Invisible Bridge” (May 24, 7 p.m.); Adam Hochschild, “To End All Wars: A Story of Loyalty and Rebellion” (May 25, 7 p.m.); Helen Wang, “The Chinese Dream: The Rise of the World’s Largest Middle Class and What It Means to You” (May 26, 7 p.m.); Chris Adrian, “The Great Night” (June 1, 7 p.m.); Emma Donoghue, “Room” (June 2, 7 p.m.); Melissa Marr, “Graveminder” (June 3, 7 p.m.). Info: keplers.com STANFORD EVENTS ... Authors scheduled to speak soon at Stanford University include Siva Vaidhyanathan, “The Googlization of Everything (And Why We Should Worry)” (May 16, 5:30 p.m., Building 200, Room 002, Lane History Corner); Joel Brinkley, “Cambodia’s Curse” (May 18, 6 p.m., Stanford Bookstore); Elaine Tyler May, “America and the Pill: A History of Promise, Peril and Liberation” (May 19, 5:30 p.m., The Terrace Room, Fourth Floor, Margaret Jacks Hall); William Nickel, “The Death of Tolstoy: Russia on the Eve, Astapovo Station, 1910” (May 31, noon, Encina Hall West, Room 208, Second Floor). Info: events.stanford.edu MORE TALKS ... Upcoming authors at Books Inc. at Town & Country Village in Palo Alto include Jennifer Grant, “The Good Stuff: A Reminiscence of My Father, Cary Grant” (May 17, 7 p.m.). Info: booksinc.net COLLECTIBLE SALE ... The Friends of the Menlo Park Library are hosting a sale of collectible books, including a first edition of Bret Harte’s “In a Hallow of the Hills,” according to a press release. The event is May 22 from noon to 4 p.m. at the Menlo Park Library’s downstairs meeting room, 800 Alma St. Info: menloparklibrary. org N
Title Pages A monthly section on local books and authors, edited by Rebecca Wallace
by Rebecca Wallace “The Four Ms. Bradwells,” by Meg Waite Clayton; Ballantine Books, New York; 321 pages; $25 here’s a reason why so many works of fiction center on four friends as they change over time. We see our friendships in their friendships, and our fights in their quarrels. It’s fascinating to see how four personalities experience, and are affected by, the same events. And there’s a vicarious “Where are they now?” feeling that comes from seeing characters grow up. “The Four Ms. Bradwells,” by Palo Alto author Meg Waite Clayton, is a welcome addition to this genre. Deftly plotted and paced, the novel also shows the author’s savvy sense for dialogue and the rhythms of longtime friendships. Mia, Betts, Ginger and Laney meet as budding lawyers in 1979 at the University of Michigan Law School. But we first see them in the present day at the U.S. Senate, where they’ve gathered as Betts hopes to be appointed to the Supreme Court. A specter from the past emerges during the confirmation hearings, and the friends flee to Ginger’s family home on a Chesapeake Bay island. The decades of their friendship unfold in flashbacks and contemporary scenes, as they wait to hear whether Betts will be confirmed after all. Clayton keeps the plot layered and intriguing, but never confusing, as she shepherds her characters through major life events including marriages, motherdaughter tensions, career achievements and setbacks, births and deaths. Dark secrets from past dark nights on the island are revealed carefully, all in good time. A common thread running through the novel is the position of women in American society, and the friends’ efforts to advance it through their careers and lives, with varying degrees of success. At one point, Laney, a straight-laced Southerner, faces two kinds of discrimination as a black woman clerking at a prestigious law firm. For her part, Ginger, ever rebellious, ever downplaying her family’s wealth, is asked to take dictation at
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Items for Book Talk may be sent to Associate Editor Carol Blitzer, Palo Alto Weekly, P.O. Box 1610, Palo Alto, CA 93202 or emailed to cblitzer@paweekly.com by the last Friday of the month.
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Meg Waite Clayton
COURT QUARTET
Palo Alto novelist follows four compelling characters from law school to the Supreme Court
her firm. Level-headed, intelligent Betts is made to fetch coffee and meet a partner for lunch at his men’s club, where women are allowed only in the “pink” dining room. Insightful Mia, who later becomes a journalist, gets the worst of it, suffering questions at her firm about whether women like to sleep in the nude, or if she wears garters. “This was 1981, when the firms we were joining had no women partners and few women associates,” Laney says at one point. “The class that graduated before us marked the first year large firms hired women in substantial numbers, and the medium and small firms had yet to follow suit.” The four friends, in fact, are dubbed “the four Ms. Bradwells” by a law professor when they speak out on behalf of women on the first day of law school. Ginger resents being called “Miss” by the male professor, insisting on “Ms.” And all four friends have something to say about the case Bradwell v. Illinois, in which a woman applied for a law license in 1873 but was turned down because of her gender. Clayton handles the subject of women’s roles smoothly, with conviction but without browbeating. There’s a resigned hu-