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Thursdays at Eight, by Debbie Macomber, explores one year in the lives of four different women - Clare, Liz, Karen and Julia. These four women met by chance in a writing class at the community college and became fast friends. When the course was finished they decided to continue to meet once a week at their favourite cafe for breakfast every Thursday morning. Thus the title of the book - Thursdays at Eight.

This novel is one of the best Debbie Macomber books I have read. Although every chapter is devoted to a different lady, she has an uncanny knack of tying all four women together in each one. The entries that each one writes in her journal is written in different font. The regular font refers to the activities and conversations they have with each other and with different characters in the novel that affect their lives.

The goal that the women set for themselves is to come up with a word that they will try to live up to for the coming year. Each one of them chooses an abstract quality, such as Acceptance, Faithful, Serenity and Time, all of which are hard to live up to or find specific examples of in daily life. Yet Macomber is able to do so in the events that take place in the lives of the group to show that it is not as difficult as the reader may think.

The women are of different age groups and have different lives. However, each one of them has problems that make them unhappy. Clare is recently divorced and is still having difficulty dealing with the desertion of her husband. Liz is lonely after her children have moved to other parts of the country and with her husband dead, she feels that she has nobody. Julia is quite content with her life and her wool store. Karen is the youngest of the group. She works as a substitute teacher, but is striving to make it big in the acting world. She feels let down by her mother who does not accept her for who she is.

Each woman experiences changes in their lives in the course of the year in the novel. Julia discovers she is pregnant, Karen finds happiness in teaching, Liz discovers a new love and Clare comes to terms with the divorce and the death of her husband.

One of the main things that struck me when reading this book is how much we can learn by keeping a daily journal of the things that happen in our daily lives. When you write something down you can reflect on it much easier and make sense of something that does not seem to have a solution.

Learn more about this author, Frances Stanford.
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