I have tried to get back into this book more than I care to admit but unfortunately it kept falling short. I found the characters to be a bit over the top and hard to connect to. Mrs. Everything follows three generations and their struggles.

Thank you to NetGalley, Jennifer Weiner and Atria Books for the free e-book in exchange for an honest review.

Do we change or does the world change us? Jo and Bethie grew up in the 1950’s in a typical American household of Detroit. Jo is the tomboy and rebel and Bethie is the- would be star that enjoys dreams of a traditional life. The truth turns out to be much different than either girl imagined as they go through traumas and tragedies. Bethie becomes the wild child travelling around and Jo becomes the traditional housewife. Neither woman inhibits the life they dreamed of, nor a life that gives her joy. Is it too late for them to stake a claim on happiness?

I haven’t read a book by Weiner until this one so I wasn’t completely sure what I was getting myself into, but there were so many good reviews that I had to give it a try. I found this novel extremely long, but there were so many good moments and good life lessons to be found if you could tough it out. I loved both of the characters and the differences in their adult lives and it made me so sad to see how the world viewed woman and gays at this point in time. This work is important for woman and girls even in this time because of the messages. I savored this novel and enjoyed seeing how each woman dealt with the cards she was given and how they tried to make a life worth living for them and the next generation.

Out now!

This book depicted the struggles women have been going through for years and years. It shows that even though we have made huge strides, we will have a long ways to go. This book immediately got you invested in the characters and what happens in their lives. I would highly recommend.

Thanks to @atriabooks for sending me this free copy! I’ve never read anything by Jennifer Weiner, but after reading this one I have a multitude of holds at the library. ⁣
⁣
#MrsEverything has been described as “unputdownable” and that is exactly how I would describe it. ⁣
⁣
It’s an engaging, unapologetic feminist novel that follows two sisters over the course of seventy years—a multigenerational tale of love, loss, family, and womanhood—and it’s an exploration of women’s rights. ⁣
⁣
If you have ever wanted to read a novel about how it feels to be a woman, this is it. I absolutely loved this read and it’s one I’m adding to my reread shelf because I feel that there are so many parts that resonated with me. ⁣

Bestselling author Jennifer Weiner says she has been thinking about the story of Mrs. Everything "for a really long time." She always knew that she wanted to pen a historical novel with "a lot of sweep and a lot of heft that would cover not just women in the present, but would cover generations. That started to feel a lot more urgent after the 2016 election and rise of the MeToo movement." Her goal was to use her characters to explore "the story of women in America -- where we've been, where we've gotten and, as the mother of daughters, where we still need to go." With Mrs. Everything, Weiner has achieved her goal in entertaining and absorbing fashion.

Mrs. Everything is a saga that plays out across more than six decades and examines the journeys of Jo and Bethie, two sisters who are, of course, total opposites. Bethie is pretty, feminine, and loves to be in the spotlight. She learns at an early age how to get what she wants from boys using her female charms. In contrast, Jo is athletic, political, and although she, like Bethie, has boyfriends, they don't interest her much. At an early age she discovers why, painfully aware that she will always have to keep her desires secret, hidden away from a society that won't accept her as she is.

Jo is a constant source of exasperation to their long-suffering Jewish mother, Sarah. When their father dies suddenly, Sarah is forced to take a job in the local department store to support the family. Jo feels their father's absence acutely and it strains her relationship with Sarah further since he ran interference between the two of them. But both girls step up to assist with Jo taking a job as a camp counselor while Bethie signs on to perform household tasks in their uncle's home after school.

A horrific event forever alters the course of both of their lives. Jo comes to Bethie's aid, scuttling her plan to travel abroad with her girlfriend when she uses the money she had saved to help Bethie. Shattered, and so unsure of who she has become or what the future holds for her, Bethie wanders the country and eventually ends up living on a commune, while Jo decides that convention is the safest route. Through the years, the girls' lives are beset by molestation by a relative, gang rape, abortion, an eating disorder, drug use, sexual harassment in the workplace, a shocking betrayal by a friend and spouse, and cancer, all against the backdrop of sociological changes. including the sexual revolution, women's liberation, and the fight for reproductive and civil rights.

Weiner's portrayal of the sibling relationship is believable and sometimes makes for painful reading. Typical of sisters, they go through periods when they barely communicate with or see each other, but remain bound together in the mysterious, inexplicable way that only sisters can be. They harbor grudges, resentments, and anger. At one point Bethie exclaims to Jo, "You think that I ruined your life? Well, I think you ruined mine." They confound each other. But they also come together when one needs the other, their loyalty forceful and, ultimately, unbreakable. Both characters are fully drawn and empathetic -- deeply flawed and aggravating, but also endearing. Just like members of one's own family.

Mrs. Everything is an ambitious, compelling, and unsparing look at sexism, stereotypes, conventional roles, and women's ongoing drive for the freedom to unashamedly be true to their own spirits. In 2016, now in her 70s, Jo ponders all the strides made by women during her lifetime, wondering, "Would the day ever come when simply doing your best would be enough?" Through Jo and Bethie's experiences, Weiner challenges readers to consider how a woman should be in the world while remaining true to herself. To emphasize the conundrum, Weiner concludes the book in 2016, a watershed year for women by any measure. But a year in which it became obvious just how much farther women have to go.

Weiner says she hopes her readers will find everything they have come to expect from her writing in Mrs. Everything: "That it will be funny and engaging and observant; that it will have characters who feel like women you know." In many ways, Mrs. Everything feels like quintessential Weiner, but it is much more. With Mrs. Everything, Weiner has clearly stepped out of her comfort zone and into edgier, more controversial topics and a deeply moving examination of her characters and their motivations. Mrs. Everything constitutes a strong declaration about the current state of womanhood in the United States. It is sure to be deemed one of the best books of 2019.

Jo and Bethie traveled in different ways. Each wanting to be their own woman. Jo settled for marriage and motherhood, and Bethie traveled and was a ffree spirit.

This is the first book I've read by this author. I will have to check out more of her work. She does an excellent job of weaving all the characters together while still allowing them their own rich lives and experiences.

I received a free e-galley from netgalley.com.

Loved this book! Jennifer Weiner’s best books are the ones closest to her heart and this was a joy! Characters are truly three dimensional, well paced, authentic in every way.

I really enjoyed it! But it makes you think about our lives!

I am a big Jennifer Weiner fan. Her books are not always the same, which is wonderful. Mrs. Everything is very ambitious but lives up to the hype. It really deals with the challenges of being a woman. How do you explain our lives? How do you deal with the choices and challenges during the various decades/phases of our lives? Mothers and daughters, why are they sometimes so difficult to understand? I highly recommend this book.

I read a time-constrained advanced readers e-book via Netgalley. There was no obligation.

Review pending Amazon.com approval.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Simon & Schuster through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Have you ever read a book that you just know will be the talk of the summer? Well, this is one of them. I enjoyed this book tremendously and couldn’t put it down.

The book raises many controversial topics including gay relationships, eating disorders, family dysfunctionality, parental death, Jewish immigrants, interracial marriage, drugs, alcoholism, rape, incestual relations, (get the idea?!?). The book begins in the early 1950s when women had little rights, no voice, and stayed at home with the children and progresses to 2016. It is a multi-generational story with excellent character development. Chapters are written from one of the daughter’s perspectives, Jo and Bethie, as they live their lives and rely on each other.

This pretty much sums up the book: “A single mother was still infinitely more accepted than a gay one, or a white woman married to a black man.” I highly recommend this book. Women loving women; black loving white – what’s wrong with love?

I loved this book. I have such a soft spot for books that span characters’ entire lives over decades and through all of their struggles and victories. This one was especially dear to my heart, and while some of it was difficult to read, I found myself saying “me too” so many times. This would be perfect for a book club. So much to unpack in these pages.
Thanks for the review copy, NetGalley!
*
*
#bookreview #2019reads #bibliophile #bookstagram #books #netgalley #arc #galleybrag #igreads #digitalreading #mrseverything #booknerd #bookworm

Mrs. Everything was everything I didn't know I was longing for. A great trip to my past, eye-popping revelations about what it means to be straight, gay, Jewish, married, cheated upon, successful, losing everything, and, in the end, loving our families and ourselves as they are. Weiner's books had never really appealed to me until Mrs. Everything. I stand in awe of her skill and mastery of of this odd vocation called novel writing. Humbled as I was, I learned from Ms. Weiner--not just writing craft tips but also how to have a bigger heart. A heart that lives through seventh grade (when we wore our dads' white shirts to school for autographing and a boy drew a circle around my early-developed D-cup and labelled it BIG BOOBS) to the ups and downs of a 60s flower child who has since cut her hair but still longs for peace and love. I loved this story!

Mrs. Everything is truly a woman's novel. It follows a family for several generations of women, all of whom have their ups and downs.

I have to say that this book was not what I was expecting. It was a little slow in spots for me, but the characters were real and the situations some that I remember from my youth.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for the opportunity to read and review this novel.

My Highly Caffeinated Thought: A powerful and intensely smart story about women filled with emotion, humor, and authentic voices.

Having read almost every book Jennifer Weiner has written, I can honestly tell you that MRS. EVERYTHING is by far her most eloquent, emotional, and timely novel. The author uses the span of the two sisters’ lives to talk about sexuality, race, and complicated family relationships with passion as well as honesty.

What I love so much about this book is that you get an entire picture of the lives of Jo and Bethie Kaufman. We travel through time with them as they live their lives together as well as apart. What these two women go through have their highs and lows, but not once did I not believe the story. There is a truth within the narrative that transcends your usual fictional tale.

Weiner brings it all with MRS EVERYTHING. She deals with feminist ideals, interracial relationships, sexual identity, abuse, and illness. However, with all the underlining issues, I never felt that the author was preaching or trying to teach me something. She delivered prose with a powerful message and made it thoroughly enjoyable.

Bravo Jennifer! Until your next book…

This is my first Jennifer Weiner novel and it did not disappoint. This is one of those books you get to settle in and really get to know the characters. The novel centers around two sisters, Jo and Bethie, and follows them from early childhood through adulthood. The story is told from the two sisters alternating perspectives, which I loved. There were so many relevant issues covered throughout the book, especially since the time period covered in the book was so extensive. If you enjoy character driven novels, this one is well worth a read!

This book tells the story of three generations of women from the 1950’s through 2022. The author shows the cultural expectations and pressures on the women of the Kaufman family. Sarah and Ken Kaufman both immigrated with their parents which impacts each in different ways. They move into their first home with their two daughters, Jo and Bethie. It is the American dream.

Jennifer Weiner has created an accurate representation of the white women experience from the 50’s housewife the 60’s counter culture, assertiveness training, consciousness raising, women entering the workforce, reproductive freedom, balancing work and family and it goes on. As a woman closing in on 60 years old I was present for much of this history. It feels fresh and painful, perhaps because we are still having many of these conversations,

ARC provided in exchange for honest review. 👩‍💻

"Women had made progress — Jo only had to look as far as the television set to see it — but she wondered whether they would ever not try to have it all and do it all and do it all flawlessly. Would the day ever come when simply doing your best would be enough?"

Is having it all and being flawless while doing it the stigma that most women face as the come into age and move into adulthood and motherhood? And isn’t this the hopes we have as mothers for our daughters? To figure out how to be Mrs Everything better than we were able to do it ourselves?

This is what Jo and Bethie’s mother wanted for them, and in turn what Jo wanted for her daughters. As they traveled through lives as students, activists, free spirits, Sarah held out hope that her daughters would figure out womanhood. She let the girls go even when she didn’t agree or support what they were doing or who they were with, yet she wanted her life only better for Jo and Bethie in the end. Jo was that way with Lila, and the other two as well.

Beyond the life stories of these women, I felt a deep understanding that it’s ok to not be perfect in how you get “there”, but if you have to take every wrong turn, sleep with every wrong man, lose everything you have in order to be happy with your life and in your own skin…DO IT! Travel around the world, sell jam and weed, be gay, piss your parents and siblings off…but also forgive, love, celebrate and stand up for what you believe in.

Be Mrs Everything, the best way you know how.

I wanted to love this book, but from the get there was too much explicit sex for me. The characters are great and I was loving the storyline, but I just couldn't get past the sex.

The concept of this book is exceptional. To show the changing generations of women and what was possible or became possible through out their lives. The execution was lacking for me, I continually wanted more of the perspectives of each character and what motivated them to act the way that they did. Specifically the character of their mother was not well developed or complete. She just felt cold. I love a story about sisters but I struggled to understand their dynamic. It left me feeling unresolved and unfinished. I appreciate the complexity of the topics that are addressed and I am so glad that someone is trying to tackle these difficult topics.

Unfortunately I do not feel comfortable reviewing this book nor able to give it a fair rating.. Perhaps at a later date I will revisit this title.