Tag Archives: Jennifer Weiner

What I’m Reading

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Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner

I’m pretty disappointed by how in love I wasn’t with Big Summer. After Weiner’s last book, Mrs. Everything, I was eager to pick this one up and even pre-ordered it.

So what didn’t I love about it? To me, it felt like an episode of The Bachelor meets My Big, Fat Fabulous Life meets As the World Turns, as though maybe Weiner was perhaps fishing for a movie deal because everything in the book played out so well to be put into a quick B-list movie.

I also felt like there was something missing; while I appreciated the background into Daphne’s history with her health, the remainder of the characters lacked depth.

If anything, Big Summer puts a whole bunch of emphasis on how obsessed society can be with social media, and how far we’re willing to go for likes, follows, and comments, and how much of what’s out there is only perhaps a sliver of what our realities actually are. Weiner did a great job putting everything into perspective, if anything.

My rating: ★★★½/5 stars

What I’m Reading: Mrs. Everything

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Mrs. EverythingFrom the book jacket:

Do we change or does the world change us?

Jo and Bethie Kaufman were born into a world full of promise.

Growing up in 1950s Detroit, they live in a perfect “Dick and Jane” house, where their roles in the family are clearly defined. Jo is the tomboy, the bookish rebel with a passion to make the world more fair; Bethie is the pretty, feminine good girl, a would-be star who enjoys the power her beauty confers and dreams of a traditional life.

But the truth ends up looking different from what the girls imagined. Jo and Bethie survive traumas and tragedies. As their lives unfold against the background of free love and Vietnam, Woodstock and women’s lib, Bethie becomes an adventure-loving wild child who dives headlong into the counterculture and is up for anything (except settling down). Meanwhile, Jo becomes a proper young mother in Connecticut, a witness to the changing world instead of a participant. Neither woman inhabits the world she dreams of, nor has a life that feels authentic or brings her joy. Is it too late for the women to finally stake a claim on happily ever after?

In her most ambitious novel yet, Jennifer Weiner tells a story of two sisters who, with their different dreams and different paths, offer answers to the question: How should a woman be in the world?

My review:

Okay, while I didn’t LOVE love Mrs. Everything I did really enjoy it and had the hardest time putting it down some nights. It’s more than a book about women’s rights and by the end I found myself tearing up just a little because I found myself relating to it.

I think if I had to choose one word to describe this book, it would precisely be “Relatable.” I don’t believe there was a single women’s issue that was glanced over in this book, and at some point any female (or perhaps even male) reader can stop and think, “Wait, I’ve been there. I can relate.” From the desperate housewife to the liberated feminist, there was a trait you could identify with.

Jennifer Weiner managed to blend all these different issues in a way that wasn’t choppy or unbelievable. You have to remind yourself while reading that the storyline takes place in a time where there was no #LoveIsLove or #MeToo. You weren’t free to love whomever you wanted (male, female, Christian, Jew, African-American, etc.) and unwanted sexual advances were something that were swept under the rug and kept quiet with hush money.

It’s important to remember that even though the main storyline takes place 50-60 year ago, we are still fighting a lot of the same issues. Mrs. Everything is an important read to remind us of that the past isn’t necessary in the past.

My rating: ★★★★/5

What I’M Reading: Who Do You Love

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From Goodreads.com:
Rachel Blum and Andy Landis are eight years old when they meet late one night in an ER waiting room. Born with a congenital heart defect, Rachel is a veteran of hospitals, and she’s intrigued by the boy who shows up all alone with a broken arm. He tells her his name. She tells him a story. After Andy’s taken back to the emergency room and Rachel’s sent back to her bed, they think they’ll never see each other again.

Rachel, the beloved, popular, and protected daughter of two doting parents, grows up wanting for nothing in a fancy Florida suburb. Andy grows up poor in Philadelphia with a single mom and a rare talent that will let him become one of the best runners of his generation.

Over the course of three decades, through high school and college, marriages and divorces, from the pinnacles of victory and the heartbreak of defeat, Andy and Rachel will find each other again and again, until they are finally given a chance to decide whether love can surmount difference and distance and if they’ve been running toward each other all along.

With honesty, wit, and clear-eyed observations about men and women, love and fate, and the truth about happy endings, Jennifer Weiner delivers two of her most memorable characters, and a love story you’ll never forget.

My review:
First of all, can I just say how pathetic it is that I haven’t read a book since April? Sad, sad, sad. Honestly, there just hasn’t been anything out there that has piqued my interest, but I knew Jennifer Weiner was coming out with a new book in the summer, so I held off.

I’m glad I did! Jennifer Weiner’s newest novel did not disappoint and was just what I needed as a post-baby pick-me-up. It was an easy read but an enjoyable one, and I finished the book (which I had bought and downloaded for my Kobo the day it was released) in just over a week! Not bad considering I only read it while I was nursing Norah; I even switched lamps around so I had better lighting and could see the screen, that’s how much I liked the book!

While the ending was rather predictable, as it is with the majority of romance stories of any form, I couldn’t help but still cheer for the two main characters, Rachel and Andy, to find their way back into each other’s arms. Their story of high school romance hit close to home for me, with Kyle and I being high school sweethearts, and I found myself with my fingers all crossed for them to cross paths just one more time.

What don’t I like about the story? Not much, however, I do wish that we got to know a bit more about Andy and his background. His “chapters” were more subdued, just like his character, and I wish more was revealed about his background. Still, I couldn’t help but love the way things worked out for both him and Rachel in the end.

Overall, I’m going to give Who Do You Love 5 stars out of 5. I can safely place it amongst my top three favourite Jennifer Weiner books.