The Weird Sisters (2011) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit

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Characters/People edit see section history

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• Rosalind 'Rose' Andreas: eldest sister
• Bianca Andreas: Comes home from New York after her mother becomes ill, but has a more cogent reason for doing so.
• Cordelia 'Cordy' Andreas: Vagabond and youngest sister. She has always been pampered and catered to, but has a sunny nature that makes it easy to do so. When she gets pregnant, she has to decide if she is going to give up the carefree life and become responsible not only for herself, but for a baby.
• Dr. James Andreas: Rose, Bianca and Cordy's father/Shakespearean scholar. The whole family quotes Shakespearean plays to give "loaded" information, and communicate obliquely.
• Mother: Has breast cancer; going through chemo, then surgery, then radiation and more chemo.
• Jonathan Campbell: Rose's fiance. He goes to Oxford to teach for a year, then gets an offer of another two years in a career building move, and Rose has to decide if she is going to join him, or insist that he come home to Barnwell to be with her.
• Father Aidan: Young and handsome vicar at the Andreas family's Episcopal church.
• Dan Miller: Owner of the Beanery coffe shop. Gives Cordy a job. He has a crush on her.
• Mrs. Landridge: Librarian at Barnwell Public Library.
• Dr. Edward Manning: Married to a former professor and mentor of Bean's.
• Lila Manning: Add a description of this character.
• Mrs. O'Connell, Bean, Cordie, Rose
• Heidi
• Dr. Kelly
• Father Cooke: The previous pastor before Father Aiden.
• Maura
• Amanda
• Nick Marchese
• Paul
• Michael Taylor
• Dr. Crandall
• Kalah Justin
• Nana
• Carol
• Max
• Lyssie
• Elizabeth Taylor
• Daisy
• Ian
• St. Mark

Quotes edit see section history

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• “We were never organized readers who would see a book through to its end in any sort of logical order. We weave in and out of words like tourists on a hop-on, hop-off bus tour. Put a book down in the kitchen to go to the bathroom and you might return to find it gone, replaced by another of equal interest. We are indiscriminate. (pg 25)”

• “I keep waiting to feel old, to feel like a grown-up, but I don't yet. Do you think that's the big secret adults keep from you? That you never really feel grown-up? (pg 164)”

  Cordy (to Dan)

• “How old were you when you first realized your parents were human? That they were not omnipotent, that what they said did not, in fact, go, they had dreams and feelings and scars? Or have you not realized that yet? Do you still cal your parents and have a one-sided conversation with them, child to parent, not adult-to-adult? (pg 206)”

• “Here's one of the problems with communicating in the words of am an who is not around to explain himself: it's damn hard sometimes to tell what he was talking about. ... despite his eloquence, he wasn't the clearest of communicators.”

  referring to Shakespeare

• “She never managed to find herself in thse books no matter how she tried, exhuming traits from between the pages and donning them for an hour, a day, a week. We think, in some ways, we have all done this our whole lives, searching for the book that will give us the keys to ourselves, let us into a wholly formed personality as though it were a furnished room to let. As though, we could walk in and look around and say to the gray-haired landlady behind us, "We'll take it." (pg 214)”

• “There are times in our lives when we have to realize our past is precisely what it is, and we cannot change it. But we can change the story we tell ourselves about it, and by doing that, we can change the future. (pg 265)”

• “Oh, honey, we're all fuckups in our own special ways...”

  The Weird sisters' mother

• “The house had a perfectly functional dryer, but our mother insisted, when the weather allowed, on hanging sheets and towels out to dry. We’d put our collective foot down long ago about having our clothes swinging on the line for the neighbors to see, but we hadn’t won the linens battle, so we put up with slightly stiff sheets and towels.”

• “Cordy would be eating a Popsicle, letting it drip along her arm, stopping to lick the sticky sweet slug trails off her skin. Or she wouldn’t have stacked her books well and they would fall over the sides of te wagon, Rose picking them up like a flower girl in reverse.”

• “Do one thing every day that scares you ... Eleanor Roosevelt.”

• “Because despite his money and his looks and all the good-on-paper attributes he possessed, he was not a reader, and, well, let's just say that is the sort of nonsense up with which we will not put.”

• “"How do you have time?" he asked, gobsmacked.She narrowed her eyes and considered the array of potential answers in front of her. Because I don't spend hours flipping through cable complaining their is nothing on? Because my entire Sunday is not eaten up with pre-game, in-game, and post-game talking heads? Because I do not spend every night drinking overpriced beer and engaging in dick-swinging contests with the other financirati? Because when I am waiting in line, at the gym, on the train, eating lunch, I am not complaining about the wait/ staring into space/ admiring myself in available reflective surfaces? I am READING!”

  Bianca

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• There are times in our lives when we have to realize our past is precisely what it is, and we cannot change it. But we can change the story we tell ourselves about it, and by doing that, we can change the future.”

  Highlighted by 415 Kindle customers

• “We all have stories we tell ourselves. We tell ourselves we are too fat, or too ugly, or too old, or too foolish. We tell ourselves these stories because they allow us to excuse our actions, and they allow us to pass off the responsibility for things we have done—maybe to something within our control, but anything other than the decisions we have made.”

  Highlighted by 380 Kindle customers

• Because despite his money and his looks and all the good-on-paper attributes he possessed, he was not a reader, and, well, let’s just say that is the sort of nonsense up with which we will not put.

  Highlighted by 203 Kindle customers

• Our destiny is in the way we were born, in the way we were raised, in the sum of the three of us.

  Highlighted by 171 Kindle customers

• How old were you when you first realized your parents were human? That they were not omnipotent, that what they said did not, in fact, go, they had dreams and feelings and scars? Or have you not realized that yet? Do you still call your parents and have a one-sided conversation with them, child to parent, not adult to adult?

  Highlighted by 167 Kindle customers

• See, we love one another. We just don’t happen to like one another very much.

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• We think, in some ways, we have all done this our whole lives, searching for the book that will give us the keys to ourselves, let us into a wholly formed personality as though it were a furnished room to let. As though we could walk in and look around and say to the gray-haired landlady behind us, “We’ll take it.”

  Highlighted by 149 Kindle customers

• Will alone could not make Rose brave, could not make Bean honest, could not make Cordy sensible. Weren’t we proof of that, this sad sisterhood, bound as much by our failures as by our hopes?

  Highlighted by 118 Kindle customers

• “This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.”

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• Here is the good thing about being the oldest: control. Here’s the bad thing about being the oldest: control.

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Barnwell, Ohio: hometown
• New York
• England
• Barney
• Columbus
• Beanery
• Oxford
• Arizona
• California

First Sentence edit see section history

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

• breast cancer: Describe this theme.
• sisters
• fathers and daughters

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Eleanor Brown (Author)

Other Contributors:

1. Kirsten Potter (Narrator) - Audio book narrator

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Colorado Book Award (2012: Literary Fiction, Winner)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PS3602.R6965 W45 2011
• Dewey: 813.6

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Add a note to help parents select a book for a child.

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Comic

More Books Like This edit see section history