Helpful Score: 5
This book showed a family and not one was redeeming in any way. I was ashamed of each at some point in the book. The fact that toward the end the women rallied and became less reprehensable is I guess to their credit. I wondered why I wasted my time reading about them.
Helpful Score: 5
This satire of the outfall of a divorce in the Silicon Valley millionaire haven of Santa Rita is an absolutely irresistable read. Funny, over-the-top and poignant, the story has a great plot following the lives of three very different women -- the mother in midst of a post-IPO divorce, the teenager in crisis, and the nearly 30-years-old magazine publisher who is sure she is a failure. A great and easy book to read.
Helpful Score: 4
A woman's life turns upside down when her husband leaves her for her best friend plus tries to keep money away from her after the drug company he works for goes public. In the meantime, both her daughters are going through life altering moments of their own. This book shows how all three women deal with things.
This is a new author & I will be looking for more books by her soon.
This is a new author & I will be looking for more books by her soon.
Helpful Score: 3
This book is suggested by People, NY Times, and pops off the shelf at you in Target. It was ok. . . but not exceptional.
Helpful Score: 3
An interesting novel with 3 main characters -- Janice, who is struggling mightily with being dumped by her longtime husband and their country club friends, and her two daughters -- one an angry feminist who finished college and started a magazine called "Snatch," which has gone under, leaving her frustrated and completely broke, and the other a somewhat innocent high-school girl who thinks she has become popular with boys until she learns that there's a scorecard in the boys' locker room where they're all keeping track of who's gone how far with her. Each character is psychologically interesting and complex enough to seem pretty real. I enjoyed this book.
"All We Ever Wanted Was Everything" was a national best-seller and named one of the best books of 2008 by Library Journal.
"All We Ever Wanted Was Everything" was a national best-seller and named one of the best books of 2008 by Library Journal.
Helpful Score: 2
This book was just ok. I think it was quite dragged out in the begining, and didn't pick up till the mere end. I think the mom in this story was quite dramatic.
Story of a very wealthy family - husband, wife, older daughter, teenage daughter. Living the very good life and about to move to an extremely good life with husband's company's IPO. Long story short - husband leaves wife, life unravels........ Don't get me wrong: we all make mistakes and the three female characters in the book make some REALLY bad ones. But to me the key is to learn from them and move on. Way too much whining, entitlement issues for me to care for this book. Actually did not finish it. I didn't want to make the mistake of wasting my time reading it when there are so many others I will enjoy. Sorry.....
The blurbs and the synopsis made it sound more interesting than it actually was, however, the author does have a way with word play and description.
A very good read!
This was a great book, for someone like me that has a sister and mom that always seem to end up pulling together. I laughed and cried and was really able to identify with the emotions of the story.
Enjoy this book and share it with your sister.
Enjoy this book and share it with your sister.
This book is so funny, you'll love it.
I really liked this book! It had so much going on it was hard to ever get bored. The three main characters are Janice and her two daughters, Margaret and Lizzie. Janice's husband just had a very successful public launch of his pharmaceutical company but that day Janice learns that her husband is divorcing her and has been having an affair with her best friend. Talk about timing! Meanwhile 28 year old Margaret is in debt up to her eyeballs and is realizing she is finally going to have to give up on her homegrown magazine ever making it to the big time. And 14 year old Lizzie finds out she is not becoming popular, but instead has made a name for herself as the school slut.
My heart broke for these three characters as they each dealt with their worlds falling apart in very different ways. It opens your eyes to the fact that not everyone has it together, and as much as they try to make it seem like they do, one thing, or a series of events, can bring them tumbling down. But at the same time it is inspiring because you see that no matter how far you fall you can always just pick yourself back up and start to put the pieces back together again.
My heart broke for these three characters as they each dealt with their worlds falling apart in very different ways. It opens your eyes to the fact that not everyone has it together, and as much as they try to make it seem like they do, one thing, or a series of events, can bring them tumbling down. But at the same time it is inspiring because you see that no matter how far you fall you can always just pick yourself back up and start to put the pieces back together again.
Despite the fact that the cover blurbs promise "a razor-sharp critique of the absurd expectations" of modern affluence, this is merely a story of three women who each loses something of value and has to figure out whether it was really worth all that much to begin with.
Janice loses her husband of 29 years and her title of World's Perfect Silicon Valley Wife, and then is threatened with being denied half her soon-to-be ex's windfall IPO profits.
Eldest daughter Margaret loses her boyfriend and the magazine she has struggled to start goes down the tubes when an anticipated merger falls through.
And 14-year-old Lizzie loses a ton of weight, her virginity, and her reputation.
After setting this triple-play into motion, Brown slows down the pace until the last 50 pages or so drag on interminably. If you've already invested your time up to this point, you might as well hang on for the final denouement, but you probably ought to pack a lunch. It's a long haul.
Janice loses her husband of 29 years and her title of World's Perfect Silicon Valley Wife, and then is threatened with being denied half her soon-to-be ex's windfall IPO profits.
Eldest daughter Margaret loses her boyfriend and the magazine she has struggled to start goes down the tubes when an anticipated merger falls through.
And 14-year-old Lizzie loses a ton of weight, her virginity, and her reputation.
After setting this triple-play into motion, Brown slows down the pace until the last 50 pages or so drag on interminably. If you've already invested your time up to this point, you might as well hang on for the final denouement, but you probably ought to pack a lunch. It's a long haul.
I did not enjoy this book.
