I am happy to report that Mrs. Everything has lived up to the hype. This novel follows the lives of two sisters from the 1950s to present day, as they struggle through personal traumas and societal expectations of how a woman should live her life.

The characters are well developed and relatable. Even when I found myself frustrated with a choice that a character was making, I could still empathize. I felt that I understood their motivations and the circumstances that led them to make those decisions. I also just loved how the two sisters really took care of each other unconditionally, even when they couldn’t understand each other.

This is a timely story that would make a great book club book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I love Jennifer Weiner books but for some reason I struggled with this one. I started it twice and then got stuck in the middle so read 2 other books before finishing it. Her characters are very detailed and so is the plot. Maybe I should've read it at another time of the year.

Such a powerful, character driven novel! I say it all the time but I really do love family stories with drama and how the dynamic works.

Mrs. Everything truly is a book that encompasses so many topics in today. We follow the 1950’s through 2016 and get to see what life was like as a woman. I take for granted the fact that life is much easier than it was years ago, for women’s rights and the rights of the LGBTQ community. My eyes were opened to so many things that were going on at the time, and Weiner did a great job using Bethie and Jo to get this point across.

Their sisterly relationship was my favorite aspect of this whole book and how they each would pop in with one another over the years and truly be there for one another despite the hardships that life threw at them.

*Thank you to the publisher and @netgalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

This book was amazing. It is a beautiful story of family and of the challenges of life. It was such a really touching story. The characters are flawed and so relatable. Another great book from Jennifer Weiner!!

This was a good but all encompassing story. It spans quite a time and the twists and turns of children to adults to having their own children. It's a long story with drama and tears, love and laughter. I liked getting to know the sisters so it was tough as they struggled and strained their relationship with each other and others. It was sweet at times and realistic about some of the realities of women having daughters and turning their own struggles into strength to empower their daughters (or at least hoping to do that). I enjoyed this one.

Her best book yet - thoughtful and insightful - tackles many of the issues of women today in a relatable, quirky and humorous voice.

This 480- page whopper is a family saga at its finest. It spans all of my favorite decades, beginning with the 1950's, and follows two very different sisters, Jo and Bernie, as they grow and change and evolve into themselves.
You'll enjoy this novel if you enjoy

Family drama

Sister drama

Historical fiction (mentioning Vietnam, Civil Rights movement)

Strong dialogue -- moments of LOL wittiness

Watching women find themselves in spite of others

Watching women learn to support one another in times of intensity



I've been a Jennifer Weiner fan since Good in Bed -- also a great movie. Try Mrs. Everything, and then if you haven't read her past novels, go backwards and try the backlist. You'll ❤️❤️

I know this book got amazing reviews, but honestly I was just kind of meh about it. I had a hard time getting into it. I thought there was just so much pain in both Jo and Bethie's lives and it became somewhat overwhelming. I mean, did the author really have to put EVERY possible trauma that a woman can go through in this book? I really liked Jo's character and felt empathy for her and her struggle to accept who she is. I just thought the book was long-winded, there were long parts where I was bored because nothing was happening and the ending felt rushed and I didn't think the author really addressed any of the core issues by the end of the book. It just wasn't my cup of tea.

This book begins with the story of 2 sisters, Jo and Bethie, growing up in Detroit in the 1950's. Weiner has a talent for writing sensitively about issues with which her readers can relate and understand. Yet, The story touched upon so many hot issues from then until the present that it was almost too much to absorb.

I absolutely loved this book. Jennifer Weiner has done it again and this is her best one yet. Jewish fiction, generational, love, hate, same sex, rivalry, you name it, it's in this book.

From the 1950's to 2022 this book went from the hippie days to the Me#2 movement with Beth and Jo being 6 and 8 to being in their 60s at the end of the book. I watched them grow up w/a mother who never loved them to them loving their own families and treating them totally different than the way they were treated.

I laughed until I cried and then cried like a baby the end of the book.

Mrs. Everything tackles head-on the issues faced by women growing up in a different age. This book is an unflinching saga that touches on how women treat each other and the struggles that led women to where we are today. While there was much that I liked about this book, I also felt that Weiner was a bit heavy handed in some of her writing, pulling you out of the story to make sure that you fully appreciated her point. The jumping around from time and place and character to character also separated you some from each point of view, because suddenly you were learning something about one from a faraway time or place. Overall, I would recommend reading this. But definitely do not go in expecting this to be anything like some of her earlier works because this one stands alone in terms of the writing style, the characters, and the storyline.

This book grabbed me at the start and kept me until the end. It shares the lives of two sisters who take different paths in their lives. It is a book about love of family, sisters and about acceptance of differences and moving on from choices made. I highly recommend this book!

This book was too much. It wasn't the Jennifer Weiner that I love. It took me to really dark places. I've seen it listed as a "summer' book and it's NOT a beach read.

Book Review: Mrs. Everything, Jennifer Weiner, Simon & Schuster

The story of Jo and Bethie Kaufman, sisters who grew up in Detroit, begins in 1951 when the girls are 4 and 6 and follows them for decades into their 70’s. Jo and Bethie, who couldn’t have been more different despite being sisters, grew up and experienced life in very different ways, influenced and impacted by the events of the times and specific circumstances that affected their individual lives. I really enjoyed the book in part because I grew up during the same time period and the socio-political-cultural events that occurred during those decades are still fresh in my mind.

Interestingly, read a few reviews that mentioned that the book was overly dramatic. I thought it was a good portrayal of the times and how it impacted society – perhaps you had to be there to not think it was dramatic. It definitely was a time of great drama and upheaval in the U.S. – from politics to huge civil rights changes, to the Haight-Ashbury drug culture, commune and hippie life, and the Vietnam War, and more -- the book captured the times and the changes that occurred and affected many – and the main characters -- very well.

Jo was adventurous and athletic and also a closet lesbian at a time when it wasn’t an acceptable thing to be public about – especially when you are part of a nice, traditional Jewish family. She was also a champion for civil rights. Younger sister Bethie was the more conventional sister, who was always trying to fit in and never felt quite right. Bethie was also silently suffering from the unwanted attentions of an uncle who was helping the family financially through some difficult times. As she grew older she turned to drugs, issues with weight control, and more to deal with her pain and feelings of shame.

It’s a multigenerational saga that I found compelling, interesting and timely. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and think it would make an excellent film treatment as well. I enjoyed Ms. Weiner’s alternating chapters in each of the sister’s voices and how they each grew over time to accept themselves for who they were (even if it took a while) and who they needed to be.

Just read it. Oh and, I’m casting Drew Barrymore as Bethie and Cameron Diaz as Jo. Cameron Diaz has already starred in one Jennifer Weiner film treatment (in her shoes).

I was so lucky to get a copy of this book from Net Galley for my honest review.

Wow! A truly wonderful book which will stay with me.

Well developed characters and a rich plot devised a pageturner in Jennifer Weiner's new book. The best of all her books thus far.

I loved it!

I was excited that Jennifer Weiner came out with a new book! This was not an easy read. The story brought up uncomfortable situations and events but things that happen every day. I can’t say this was the best summer read, it is an important read, This book is well written and will resonate with women everywhere. Must read for 2019.

REVIEW:
Mrs. Everything is a tome of a book spanning the entire lives of two sisters from their middle class, 1950s Detroit upbringing following their very divergent lives to their conclusions.
This book centers around two sisters, Bethie and Jo, narrating in depth, the journey of their lives, revealing their flaws, faults, and struggles, alongside their successes, in their efforts to fit into the ever-changing world around them. It also delves into countless, heavier political and social topics as it veers through history and is truly a saga in scope. This story looks at the imprint the world makes upon these women, and women in general, and the way women cope with societal pressures and expectations. It offers an evident nod to the classic novel Little Women with a modern twist.

This story really takes a divergent path from Jennifer Weiner’s previous, lighter contemporary books and is weightier in nature, content and length, and also much more explicit. The story is an emotional one, and is sure to tug on your heartstrings and make you think.

I appreciate what Jennifer Weiner attempted to do with this story, and can see why it is important, it’s also unapologetically liberal in tone, intent and slant, and in some cases I found myself unable to relate to, or connect with the characters, due to different beliefs and views.
Kudos to Jennifer Weiner for writing such an undertaking, I’m just can’t say I agree with all of her views.

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

At first I struggled to get into it. It's a little slow to start. But once I settled down into the parallel lives of two sisters growing up through the past 50 years, I was hooked.

Alternating between Jo, a lesbian struggling with her identity in a world that does not allow her to accept herself, and her sister Bethie, "the perfect one" who struggles against the roles imposed on her by society's expectations, this epic novel shows the very real impact of history on women's lives. However, it is not just a monument to feminism, ra ra burn the bra, but a very real depiction of the relationships between mothers, daughters and sisters, and how they might change over time.

It explores themes of race, rape, gender, privilege, eating disorders, capitalism and addiction. If ever there was a book to be discussed, this is it.

Mrs. Everything follows two sisters as they grow from pre-teen into their seventies. Along the way they fight and make up and deal with the personal triumphs and failures that help make up a life.

The book is not full of twists and turns, and rightfully so, but I still wanted a little more out of it. Bethie's character was particularly puzzling to me, and never seemed to explain her complete 180 degree personality shifts. It's almost like the author didn't want to miss a single event that happened in the last seventy years, which is ambitious, but leave the book feeling bloated and overworked at times.

I did appreciate the overall message of how there are so many different ways to celebrate being a woman, and no "right" way to be, but as a whole the book struggled to keep my attention.

Mrs. Everything is the story of two sister's lives from the 1950's to the present day. The book showcases the sister's different personalities, their similarities, their struggles, how they both changed over time, how they responded to their mother, how they responded to each other, how they came together, what drove them apart, their loved ones and their hopes and dreams. This is their journey through the times in which they lived, through their family, through their individual experiences and how those experiences shaped their lives.

Fans of Jennifer Weiner will not be disappointed. I have read many of her books and enjoyed this one as well. It had me thinking of my relationship with my sister, who is also my only sibling. We had different roles in our family, each other's lives and the paths we have taken.

I thought this book could have done with some editing but overall found it to be thought provoking, relate-able, insightful and moving.

Thank you to Atria books and NetGalley who provided me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.