Tuesday Night Miracles [Paperback]

Choosing Tuesday Night Miracles and settling in for a serious read is like taking a long, brisk walk on a crisp, cold day. This novel revived me and pulled me into the lives of characters with problems many of us can relate to. Not since How To Make An American Quilt by Whitney Otto have I been so interested in a group of women and their stories.

This is a novel about anger and the miracle of empowerment after finding one's true voice. There is a fine line between anger and bad choices, and all of Radish's characters cross it.

Dr. Olivia Bayer is a therapist closing in on retirement without truly taking a risk in her profession. With secrets of her own, she steps out in her free-spirited way and takes the lives of four women into her hands.

--Jane is young, beautiful, trendy, and washed up as a top real estate sales professional in Chicago. Her career has been ruined by the economy, but she is married to an engineer whose continued success causes her plenty of angst and envy. Because she has allowed her life to be defined by both her mother's unrealistic standards and perfectionist traits, she has no substance or depth and holds people at arm's length. Her friends fall to the wayside. One morning, as she gets ready to close the deal that will save her career, she directs years of pent-up self-loathing at an unsuspecting victim.

--Kit, in her fifties, takes care of her dying mother and one night she snaps in a fit of overwhelming anger. She comes from a traditional Italian family, where the men are the bosses and the women lack a voice. Kit's husband works double shifts and is never home. Her grown daughter has fled the family and never calls. Once in her life she had friends, a good job, and some happiness. She's forgotten what her dreams were. Now there is only a void.

--Grace is a nurse and a single mother of two daughters. One is a rebellious teenager and the other is a college student who reveals a life Grace can only push out of her thoughts. She loses herself in caring for others, so much so that she no longer knows what she truly wants. Her parents so disapprove of her divorce that she must raise her girls with no family support. She weighs all her decisions and choices on an internal voice that belongs to her hypercritical mother. In a fit of rage, Grace strikes out.

--Leah must begin life again in a homeless shelter with her two children. The simplest pleasures are luxuries, and she is overwhelmed with fear. She dreams to give her children a sandbox, but under pressure she loses control and wonders if she can ever forgive herself.

These women and their anger appear in front of Dr. Olivia Bayer, whose unconventional treatment comes under question:

Getting there is not going to be a walk in the park. This is the moment when Olivia absolutely has to stop doubting herself. Even as she wants to take Leah home and feed her warm soup, make Jane walk out the door barefoot, tell Grace, who should know better, to dig deep, and remind Kit that the journey is often much more important than the destination, she must let them all figure it out by themselves.

Instead of traditional anger-management meetings, these women are given assignments that defy all reason. As a result, they all face the ultimate choice: should they change and move forward or remain in the past?

I fell in love with the author's intricately layered characters and storytelling. Her ability to capture problems so prevalent in women's lives today is uncanny. This book is so much more than just another story about women's issues. The readers will go on a journey and discover a lot about themselves in the process. Miracles still manifest in the most outstanding ways.

Kris Radish knows women. She knows how we think, how we love and hate and laugh and cry and bond. And she knows how to keep us turning pages even when we have work to do, people and things to take care of, and other things piling up for us to read. The women in Tuesday Night Miracles are genuine and diverse, brought together in surprising ways with often (but not always) surprising results. I recommend this book for women of any age and for the men who love them and are trying to understand them. I always wait for Kris's next book, and I'm never disappointed. Thanks for another eye-opener, Kris!

TUESDAY NIGHT MIRACLES is a haunting, compelling novel that takes the reader on an emotional journey with four different women as they rediscover themselves along with what makes them unique. Dr. Bayer, a bohemian style psychologist, helps them out of their funk. They begin to think of Olivia as a miracle worker as their Tuesday meetings progress. Surprisingly, Olivia learns things about herself in the process too. Her cute dog Phyllis stars in many of her conversations with herself, surprisingly helping Olivia along the way. Relationships bloom, friendships form and the anger is dealt with in ways that they never imagined. This is a moving tale of choices made and chances redeemed. This story is for anyone who has ever lost their temper in a fit of rage and how to deal with the consequences afterwards. Author Kris Radish exquisitely portrays a poignant look into the hearts and minds of troubled women and the problems each have faced in their lives. I am amazed how Ms. Radish displays such a profound understanding of human nature. She expertly portrays flaws in each of her characters by revealing their emotions as sometimes tragic, at times comic, and often simultaneously. I was overwhelmed at many points during the story and brought to tears with each of the ladies' circumstances. Ms. Radish did a brilliant job of writing with emotion and touched my heart in ways indescribable. I have already promised my book to a friend who can't wait to read it after I told her about it. TUESDAY NIGHT MIRACLES is heartrending, sharply introspective and thought provoking. A very rare find! I absolutely loved it!