Girls’ Saturday Night Out: An Evening with Jennifer Weiner

• 2019
• Women/Gender

Women Lit has a fun treat in store for you at the high point of summer! On Saturday night, June 22 in Berkeley, we’re bringing you Girls’ Saturday Night Out: An Evening with Jennifer Weiner, who will discuss her new novel, Mrs. Everything. We read an early copy of Mrs. Everything and didn’t want to put it down. No surprise: Jen is a #1 New York Times bestselling author of sixteen other books too, including In Her Shoes. As for seeing Jen in person, get ready for both insights and laughs. She’s renowned for her whip-smart, feminist, fearless, generous style (and fabulous Twitter account) that embraces all women and their stories. She’s a bit infamous for altercations with self-important males. She’s very, very funny.

More about the event:

From Jennifer Weiner, the #1 New York Times bestselling author, 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. Mrs. Everything is an ambitious, richly textured journey through history—and herstory—as these two sisters navigate a changing America over the course of their lives.

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. But the world ends up being quite different from what the girls imagined. As their lives unfold against the background of free love and Vietnam, Woodstock and women’s lib, Bethie 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?