What would it be like if you had a father who spoke to you primarily by quoting Shakespeare? This is the way "the weird sisters," - very appropriately named Rose, Bianca and Cordelia - grew up. To be fair, both father and mother in the Andreas'family were professors at the university in Barnwell, Ohio - so quoting Shakespeare (or being distantly academic) was their stock in trade. But it made for a very interesting (and perhaps unfortunate)childhood.

Fast forward to adulthood for the sisters, and as the book opens, they are a sorry lot. Rose, the eldest, is determined to stay at home (with a sick mother), and to show them all no one can do without her. (She's engaged to a man currently researching at Oxford University, England, but she is petrified to step outside her small town comfort zone.) Bianca has been fired for embezzlement from her big New York City law firm and comes home to lick her wounds. Cordelia, after wandering (literally) around the country and sleeping and eating with a multitude of men, is pregnant and comes home to decide "what now?" How these three "women" finally grow into womanhood and make major life decisions is what The Weird Sisters is about.