Three Tickets to Peoria, The Company of Good Women Vol. II

By Lael Littke, Nancy Anderson, Carroll Hofeling Morris

Reviewed by Kathleen Dalton-Woodbury
On 11/15/2008

Deseret Book, 2007 Paperback:
384 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1590387207
ISBN-10: 1590387201 Price: $15.95

This is the second in a series of books told from the points of view of three LDS women from different parts of the US who met at BYU Education Week in 1980 and who keep in touch through mail (and later email) and through occasional reunions.

Their stories continue from the first book, Almost Sisters, which ended in 1987, and follow their attempts to make lemonade with the lemons life hands them. One of the great things about these books is that there are enough different things that can happen to LDS women in their lives that each of the three experiences very different challenges and triumphs. In this book, the list of challenges includes a daughter who has a child out of wedlock, a husband who decides he can't continue to stay married because he is homosexual, post-partum psychosis, and the losses of loved ones as time passes and those loved ones age. Some of the triumphs include success as a writer for one, participation in search-and-rescue operations for another, and being welcomed into the family of the father who never married her mother for the third.

The three women also help their mentor, the woman who hosted them for their first meeting in 1980 and who became their example of what they decided they wanted to become: "Crusty Old Broads." This woman, whose wisdom and insight has helped each of them with their struggles, is able, though the encouragement of her three younger friends, to reconcile with her own children.

Because all four women support each other through their challenges and more, the books also explore the strength that comes from sisterhood and the importance of friendship in the lives of women.

The title refers to the idea that life is like buying a ticket to Hawaii and ending up in Peoria. They actually do end up in Hawaii at the close of this book (at the beginning of 1996), and while some things in their lives have resolved, they also experience other new challenges. The women, in the course of the book, discover that getting to Peoria isn't all that bad. There are joys to be had no matter where they go, in spite of the sorrows.

This book, along with the others in the series, is great for all who appreciate the love and support that women can give each other.


Copyright 2008