Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime
and start saving today with fast, free delivery
Amazon Prime includes:
Fast, FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button.
Amazon Prime members enjoy:- Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
- Unlimited Free Two-Day Delivery
- Streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with limited ads on Prime Video.
- A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
- Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
- Unlimited photo storage with anywhere access
Important: Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.
-54% $12.99$12.99
Ships from: Amazon Sold by: Kevabooks
$8.41$8.41
Ships from: Amazon Sold by: ZBK Wholesale
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Image Unavailable
Color:
-
-
-
- To view this video download Flash Player
- 3 VIDEOS
Audible sample Sample
Follow the author
OK
Mrs. Everything: A Novel Hardcover – June 11, 2019
Purchase options and add-ons
ONE OF NPR’S BEST BOOKS OF 2019
THE WASHINGTON POST’S 50 NOTABLE WORKS OF FICTION IN 2019
GOOD HOUSEKEEPING’S 50 BEST BOOKS OF 2019
An instant New York Times bestseller
“A multigenerational narrative that’s nothing short of brilliant.” —People
“Simply unputdownable.” —Good Housekeeping
“The perfect book club pick.” —SheReads
Named a Best Book of Summer by Entertainment Weekly, Cosmopolitan, Woman’s Day, PopSugar, HelloGiggles, and Refinery29
From Jennifer Weiner, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Who Do You Love and In Her Shoes comes a smart, thoughtful, and timely exploration of two sisters’ lives from the 1950s to the present as they struggle to find their places—and be true to themselves—in a rapidly evolving world.
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?
- Print length480 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherAtria Books
- Publication dateJune 11, 2019
- Dimensions6 x 1.3 x 9 inches
- ISBN-101501133489
- ISBN-13978-1501133480
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
Frequently bought together
Similar items that may deliver to you quickly
Get to know this book
What's it about?
Two sisters, Jo and Bethie, navigate life's challenges and societal expectations in a rapidly changing world, exploring their paths to happiness and authenticity.Amazon editors say...
A multilayered and moving story for the #MeToo era, one that traces how far women have come, and how far we have yet to go.
Erin Kodicek, Amazon EditorPopular highlight
She wished she’d spent more time teaching her girls that women should forgive themselves, showing them how to take care of themselves with kindness. The world was hard enough, would beat them up enough without them adding to the pain.1,130 Kindle readers highlighted thisPopular highlight
“That’s like saying you could win a marathon if you had to start five miles behind everyone else. And then told if you didn’t win, you just weren’t trying hard enough. Don’t you see the way everything’s set up to keep Negroes from getting ahead?”487 Kindle readers highlighted thisPopular highlight
“Misses everything,” Lila said, and gave the faintest smile. “It’s like a joke. Like, there should be a Mister Everything somewhere.”479 Kindle readers highlighted this
From the Publisher
|
|
|
---|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
|
---|---|---|
|
|
|
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Review
"A multigenerational narrative that's nothing short of brilliant." ― People
"Readers will flock to this ambitious, nearly flawless novel . . . Weiner asks big questions about how society treats women in this slyly funny, absolutely engrossing novel that is simultaneously epic and intimate." ― Booklist (starred review)
"Weiner brilliantly crafts ths heartwrenching multigenerational tale of love, loss, and family . . . Weiner's talent for characterization, tight pacing, and detail will thrill her fans and easily draw new ones into her orbit. Her expert handling of difficult subjects will force readers to examine their own beliefs and consider unexpected nuances. Weiner tugs every heartstring with this vivid tale." ― Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Jennifer Weiner has created a novel for the ages in Mrs. Everything, which is as impressive as it is ambitious… a skillfully rendered and emotionally rich family saga… an unapologetic feminist novel, fully fleshing out the pernicious effects of patriarchy… Weiner shows that big, expansive social novels are not only still possible in our fragmented society but perhaps necessary. Mrs. Everything is a great American novel, full of heart and hope.” ― Shelf Awareness
"Her most sprawling and intensely personal novel to date." ― Entertainment Weekly
"A topical novel about sisterhood, heartache, hope, and womanhood that takes readers through the 'herstory' of the second half of the 20th century." ― Bustle
"A sprawling story about two sisters growing up, apart, and back together . . . A poignant reminder of both the strides women have amde since the 1950s and teh barriers taht still hold them back. An ambitious look at how women's roles have changed--and stayed the same--over the last 70 years." ― Kirkus Reviews
“Weiner brings us another winner, maybe even her best book yet. A wonderful, absorbing novel skillfully woven with social critique, it's comparable to books by her more heralded male contemporaries (yes, Jonathan Franzen).” ― AARP Summer Book Preview
"Simply unputdownable." ― Good Housekeeping
"The perfect book club pick of summer. MRS. EVERYTHING is an acute, sharp and eclectic story about real women facing problems we can all relate to and social obstacles that need to be talked about." ― SheReads
"Jennifer Weiner is the master of richly told page-turners about complicated and likable women." ― Refinery 29
"You won't want this book to end as you laugh, cry, and root for these characters as if they were a part of your own family. MRS. EVERYTHING is Weiner's best book yet." ― PopSugar, "The 34 Best New Books to Put in Your Beach Bag This Summer"
"A heartfelt and super-relatable story." ― Woman's Day
"What really makes this book a summer sensation is Weiner's female characters that capture your attention and make you feel lots of feels." ― Women's Health
"The Most Anticipated Books of Summer 2019" ― Parade
"A big sweeping novel . . . MRS. EVERYTHING will be great for a book group discussion." ― Bookreporter.com
"MRS. EVERYTHING is Weiner's biggest and arguably boldest book, the story of two very different sisters who endure personal tragedy and painful compromise in an often hostile but morphing world as they try to find their place in it." ― Goodreads
"A complex, captivating look at the many different roles women play: daughters, sisters, wives, mothers, friends, and beyond." ― Hello Giggles
"From the writer behind IN HER SHOES--your favorite movie about sisters--comes another story about sisters. But intsead of being in a competitive relationship fueled by mutual envy, these two are sibling goals as they try to figure out if their generation is really so much freer than their mother's." ― Cosmopolitan
"EVERYTHING you want in a novel." ― Good Life Family Magazine
"It is her most ambitious and serious book to date, exchanging the witty tone and one-liners of earlier work for a more earnest approach to social issues. MRS. EVERYTHING is sure to delight Weiner's legions of fans and win new ones." ― Newsday
"A touching story of sisterhood." ― Working Mother
"Mrs. Everything is like "Beaches" but with mothers and daughters and sisters. I may never recover." -- Jill Grunenwald, author of RUNNING WITH A POLICE ESCORT and READING BEHIND BARS
"MRS. EVERYTHING's flawed but approachable female characters, well-examined friendships and romantic relationships, and often-joyful sex scenes make this vintage Weiner. This is a warm, readable novel about figuring out what it means for a woman to be true to herself, and then figuring out how to act on that knowledge." ― Bookpage
"A sweeping story about sisters Jo and Bethie . . . This novel is both heartwrenching and funny, and readers will cry and laugh with them along the journey." ― Library Reads
"A great book club pick that will give you plenty to talk about late into the night." ― Mind Body Green
"One of those smart summer hardcovers that makes a sunny day on the beach fly by." ― AM New York
"MRS EVERYTHING is heartbreakingly familiar, the struggles and trauma . . . feel as real as the entries of a secret diary. Jennifer Weiner misses nothing crafting the story of two women who could be any woman--weighted down by gender roles and patriarchal expectations, learning to navigate a world where women continue to carry burdens passed on to us from generations past. To read the truth of Jo and Bethie's lives is enough to inspire anyone to live more honestly." ― The Missourian
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
1950 Jo
The four Kaufmans stood at the curb in front of the new house on Alhambra Street, as if they were afraid to set foot on the lawn, even though Jo knew they could. The lawn belonged to them now, along with the house, with its red bricks and the white aluminum awning. Every part of it, the front door and the steps, the mailbox at the curb, the cherry tree in the backyard and the maple tree by the driveway, the carport and the basement and the attic you could reach by a flight of stairs that you pulled down from the ceiling, all of it belonged to the Kaufmans. They were moving out of the bad part of Detroit, which Jo’s parents said was crowded and unhealthy, full of bad germs and diseases and filling up with people who weren’t like them; they were moving up in the world, to this new neighborhood, to a house that would be all their own.
“Oh, Ken,” said Jo’s mother, as she squeezed his arm with her gloved hand. Her mother’s name was Sarah, and she was just over five feet tall, with white skin that always looked a little suntanned, shiny brown hair that fell in curls to her shoulders, and a pursed, painted red mouth beneath a generous nose. Her round chin jutted forward, giving her a determined look, and there were grooves running from the corners of her nose to the edges of her lips, but that morning, her mouth was turned up at the corners, not scrunched up in a frown. She was happy, and as close to beautiful as Jo had ever seen.
Jo wrapped her arms around her mother’s waist, feeling the stiffness underneath the starch of Sarah’s best red dress, the one with a full skirt flaring out from her narrow waist and three big white buttons on either side of the bodice. A smart red hat with a black ribbon band sat on top of Sarah’s curls. Her mother put her arm around Jo’s shoulders and squeezed, and Jo felt like someone had pulled a blanket up to her chin, or like she was swimming in Lake Erie, where they went in the summertime, and had just paddled into a patch of warm water.
“So, girls? What do you think?” asked Jo’s daddy.
“It’s like a castle!” said Bethie, her little sister. Bethie was five years old, chubby and cute, with pale white skin, naturally curly hair, and blue-green eyes, and she always said exactly the right thing. Jo was six, almost seven, tall and gangly, and almost everything she did was wrong.
Jo smiled, dizzy with pleasure as her dad scooped her up in his arms. Ken Kaufman had thick dark hair that he wore combed straight back from his forehead. His nose, Jo thought, gave him a hawklike aspect. His eyes were blue underneath dark brows, and he smelled like the bay rum cologne he patted on his cheeks every morning after he shaved. He was only a few inches taller than his wife, but he was broad-shouldered and solid. Standing in front of the house he’d bought, he looked as tall as Superman from the comic books. He wore his good gray suit, a white shirt, a red tie to match Sarah’s dress, and black shoes that Jo had helped him shine that morning, setting the shoes onto yesterday’s Free Press, working the polish into the leather with a tortoiseshell-handled brush. Jo and Bethie wore matching pink gingham dresses that their mother had sewn, with puffy sleeves, and patent-leather Mary Janes. Bethie could hardly wait to try on the new dress. When Jo had asked to wear her dungarees, her mother had frowned. “Why would you want to wear pants? Today’s a special day. Don’t you want to look pretty?”
Jo couldn’t explain. She didn’t have the words to say how she felt about pretty, how the lacy socks itched and the fancy shoes pinched and the elastic insides of the sleeves left red dents in her upper arms. When she was dressed up, Jo just felt wrong, like it was hard to breathe, like her skin no longer fit, like she’d been forced into a costume or a disguise, and her mother was always shushing her, even when she wasn’t especially loud. She didn’t care about looking pretty, and she didn’t like dresses. Her mother, she knew, would never understand.
“It’s our house,” Jo’s mother was saying, her voice rich with satisfaction.
“The American Dream,” said Jo’s dad. To Jo, the house didn’t seem like much of a dream. It wasn’t a castle with a moat, no matter what Bethie had said, or even a mansion, like the ones in Grosse Pointe that Jo had seen when the family had driven there for a picnic. It was just a regular house, square-shaped and boring red, with a triangle-shaped roof plopped on top, like the one in her “Dick and Jane” readers, on a street of houses that looked just the same. In their old neighborhood, they’d lived in an apartment. You could walk up the stairs and smell what everyone was cooking for dinner. The sidewalks had bustled with people, kids, and old men and women, people with light skin and dark skin. They’d sit on their stoops on warm summer nights, speaking English or Yiddish, or Polish or Italian. Here, the streets were quiet. The air just smelled like air, not food, the sidewalks were empty, and the people she’d seen so far all had white skin like they did. But maybe, in this new place, she could make a fresh start. Maybe here, she could be a good girl.
Except now she had a problem. Her dad had borrowed a camera, a boxy, rectangular Kodak Duaflex with a stand and a timer. The plan was for them all to pose on the steps in front of the house for a picture, but Sarah had made her wear tights under their new dresses, and the tights had caused Jo’s underpants to crawl up the crack of her tushie, where they’d gotten stuck. Jo knew if she pulled them out her mother would see, and she’d get angry. “Stop fidgeting!” she would hiss, or “A lady doesn’t touch her private parts in public,” except everything itched her so awfully that Jo didn’t think she could stand it.
Things like this never happened to Bethie. If Jo hadn’t seen it herself, she wouldn’t have believed that her sister even had a tushie crack. The way Bethie behaved, you’d expect her to be completely smooth down there, like one of the baby dolls Bethie loved. Jo had dolls, too, but she got bored with them once she’d chopped off their hair or twisted off their heads. Jo shifted her weight from side to side, hoping it would dislodge her underwear. It didn’t.
Her father pulled the keys out of his pocket, flipped them in the air, and caught them neatly in his hand. “Let’s go, ladies!” His voice was loud and cheerful. Bethie and Sarah climbed the stairs and stood in front of the door. Sarah peered across the lawn, shadowing her eyes with her hand, frowning.
“Come on, Jo!”
Jo took one step, feeling her underwear ride up higher. Another step. Then another. When she couldn’t stand it anymore, she reached behind her, grabbed a handful of pink gingham, hooked her thumb underneath the underpants’ elastic, and yanked. All she’d meant to do was pull her panties back into place, but she tugged so vigorously that she tore the skirt away from its bodice. The sound of the ripping cloth was the loudest sound in the world.
“Josette Kaufman!” Sarah’s face was turning red. Her father look startled, and Bethie’s face was horrified.
“I’m sorry!” Jo felt her chest start getting tight.
“What’s the matter with you?” Sarah snapped. “Why can’t you be good for once?”
“Sarah.” Ken’s voice was quiet, but angry.
“Oh, sure!” said Sarah, and tossed her head. “You always take up for her!” She stopped talking, which was good, except then she started crying, which was bad. Jo stood on the lawn, dress torn, tights askew, watching tears cut tracks through her mother’s makeup, hearing her father’s low, angry voice, wondering if there was something wrong with her, why things like this were always happening, why she couldn’t be good, and why her mom couldn’t have just let her wear pants, the way she’d wanted.
Product details
- Publisher : Atria Books; First Edition (June 11, 2019)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 480 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1501133489
- ISBN-13 : 978-1501133480
- Item Weight : 1.4 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 1.3 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #503,230 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #7,973 in Family Life Fiction (Books)
- #8,379 in Women's Domestic Life Fiction
- #25,459 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
Videos
Videos for this product
1:09
Click to play video
Jennifer Weiner Explains Why She Wrote MRS. EVERYTHING
Publisher Video
Videos for this product
0:41
Click to play video
Mrs. Everything: A Novel
Amazon Videos
About the author
Jennifer Weiner is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of nineteen books, including That Summer, Big Summer, Mrs. Everything, In Her Shoes, Good in Bed, and a memoir in essays, Hungry Heart. She has appeared on many national television programs, including the Today show and Good Morning America, and her work has been published in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, among other newspapers and magazines. Jennifer lives with her family in Philadelphia. Visit her online at JenniferWeiner.com.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonReviews with images
-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
I returned to college when I was 40. I was surprised and amused that a history class I was in covered the Viet Nam era-- I was in high school back then! I was shocked and angry at the way it was taught, on what it reported and did not report. Mostly inaccurate information.
I found this book to be historically accurate. The author focused more on the characters feelings and perspectives than actual history.
If I were to write about what affected me most about this story, I would have to narrow it down to two things: One, the way changing roles for women created new challenges for the next generation of women, that women my age were mostly unaware of. Two, how a lot of those changes were eventually abandoned, like broken and lost toys.
Seeing, knowing, how hard their mothers worked for change, yet unable to fathom how it really was before change, must have put daughters in a place of frustration. I remember how I felt unable to measure up to my own mother's strength. She was a pioneer in our small community. She went to work full time outside the home. And then she got divorced. She had 5 children ranging from age 5 to 15. We were Catholic. I couldn't begin to measure up to her courage, and I was fearful of becoming that angry and self obsessed. In my mind the two went hand in hand. So I became an under-achiever, which wasn't even a 'thing' back then. There is a character in the book who does this to an extreme, so I can vouch for the novel's accuracy on that account.
I've just finished reading the book, and I'm left with feelings of frustrated resignation regarding gender equality. I realize that I may not live to see a female, or non-male, president. Abortion laws are changing, backward, putting safe, clean, early abortions in the voting pile of the kinds of life stopping "abortions" no sane adult would support. The list of backwards changes is endless. I feel like gender issues were forgotten, covered over with other issues and arguments about gender, period. Not to say that pronouns, etc. and awareness of such are not vital and important. Those issues seem to cover up the forgotten issues of gender equality like a festering wound covered with healthy skin. Festering and fatal.
Things have changed, but not enough. Those issues are being fully forgotten despite deserving to have their own rightful category.
There were some warm and tender moments in the story, it was not entire blatant politics. Family is celebrated, and sisterhood, motherhood, and the kindness and necessity of good men in the world.
My main complaint about the social history in this book is that it focuses on INEQUALITY for women rather than EQUALITY between genders. The current system hurts males, too. Lots of feminists have bashed me for saying that. Unequal pay for the same work was a constant in my working life, as I was in a job held primarily by women. When a man came on the payroll, he was paid significantly more than I was. I remember in the 70's the justification was that men had families to feed. In my situation, there were single moms on the payroll with families to feed. This is also discussed in this book. What they don't discuss is the ridicule men in 'women's jobs' endured historically. They were not as close to their children as moms, and they were expected NOT to be. They were not free to choose, either.
The book doesn't mention the MANY women of that era who preferred the status quo and spoke out against change. It doesn't mention the awakening lots of women experienced when they realized the anger that fueled them was enslaving them more. As I write that, I realize that the women in this novel were not as angry as I think they would have been. The women I knew in that time period were very angry. Many didn't seem to know why.
Overall, though, I loved the story, and I think a huge part of that was because the author wrapped it up by focusing on women's need for self forgiveness and self compassion.
So I will end this long review with a favorite quite of mine by Mary Wollstonecraft: "I do not wish [women] to have power over men; but over themselves."
Reviewed in the United States on August 26, 2022
This is a nostalgic novel for me. Jo and Bethie grew up in the 1960’s. They lived in a small home in Detroit with their parents. The more interesting parent was the father; he reminded me of my own, a gentle man who made everyone at ease. Although they are Jewish, living in a Jewish area, the story focuses on Jo and Bethie in alternating chapters from the 60’s to present. The literary technique works well.
Jo is older; she feels her mother, Sarah, does not like her – they are at odds. Bethie is pretty and popular but she has her own deceptions and ironies. Jo realizes early on that she is attracted to girls. Weiner brings the girls through a myriad of teenage and young womanhood passages with sharpness. She is not judgmental, as she portrays both sides. For instance, Jo was involved in a radical political group at University of Michigan. The leader of the group had no problem with ordering the women to make them meals and clean up.
The power of the drug scene is portrayed with realism and the need to escape reality. Bethie is caught up and I felt Weiner was touching her in a few scenes. Tackling never-ending racism in our country, rape and an abortion in the 1960’s, pushes the reader to explore their own beliefs.
What sets Weiner apart is her ability to almost touch her characters; the emotion is palatable. Neither sister have it easy, it’s one challenging relationship or sorrow after another. Jo owns her place as the older sister and Bethie is consumed with guilt and the traumas of being a gullible woman of the times. They conquer many obstacles in this 70-year fictional chronicle
I put the book down once, thinking it may be too prosaic, but it is not. Weiner’s pacing brought me back on board. However, do not expect a neat ending, life is not that tidy.
Top reviews from other countries
Beautifully crafted story of mother and daughter...three generations It takes us through the journey of women empowerment where a lot has been done but a lot needs to be done.As said in the book "we are still not there"
The characters of the plot and the family bond between them is extremely touching and relatable.
I would just say.. do not give this book a miss!