Mrs. Everything

Most of our book club members lived through the 60’s, 70’s and onward so we were all excited to read Jennifer Weiner’s new book, Mrs. Everything.

The two main characters are sisters, Jo and Bethie Kaufman and they grew up in Detroit in the 50’s and 60’s.  Jo never fits into her mother’s image. She’s awkward and a tomboy.  Her father shows her lots of love and tempers her mother’s sharper tones with his kind and gentle way.

Bethie, however, is the apple in her mother’s eye. Just perfect. Beautiful and smart with a lovely singing voice.  What could possibly go wrong?

Life intervenes, and everything goes haywire.  Bethie and Jo almost switch places and become each other.  Numerous secondary characters add lots of color to the book and the story. Some you’ll love and others are just awful. Like our own lives. 

Both sisters are steadfast in their love for each other through the tragedies and traumas they sustained. In the end it’s about finding yourself in a world with expectations and demands.  The pain and successes are better shared.

We enjoyed this read and talked about our memories during this time period – the songs, the hair, the clothes and, our own sisters and, of course our first loves. 

Enjoy.

Rating: 7.0

Recap of a Lecture given by Erik Larson at Monmouth University

Last year I wrote an article for a local paper about a lecture given by Larson at Monmouth University.  I’m sharing this with you in case your book club is looking for a good book.

“If you don’t know history, then you don’t know anything. You are a leaf that doesn’t know it is part of a tree. ” ― Michael Crichton

Well, Erik Larson knows history.  He is a mastermind at finding those historical exploits that people don’t know or have forgotten, then researches the hell out of them and turns them into New York Times bestselling novels. That sounds a lot easier than it is.

On Monday night, March 28, Larson spoke to a packed house at the Pollak Theatre at Monmouth University. The event was part of the Department of History and Anthropology’s Charles Mayes lecture series on World War I.

Larson’s latest book “Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania,” deals with the torpedoing of the ship by the Germans two years before the United States entered World War I.  

Just as he did in his previous books, Larson’s characters are presented in a narrative arch in a natural way. “…by finding the right bits and pieces to the story we can experience the event through their eyes when they don’t know the ending.” Larson told the assembly.

The lawsuits that were brought after the sinking created a lot of archival material.  Larson found that most writers had written about the diplomatic pressures of entering World War I after the sinking of the ship, but not about the people involved or the ship’s fateful voyage. (more…)