Bestselling author Jennifer Weiner says she has been thinking about the story of Mrs. Everything "for a really long time." She always knew that she wanted to pen a historical novel with "a lot of sweep and a lot of heft that would cover not just women in the present, but …more would cover generations. That started to feel a lot more urgent after the 2016 election and rise of the MeToo movement." Her goal was to use her characters to explore "the story of women in America -- where we've been, where we've gotten and, as the mother of daughters, where we still need to go." With Mrs. Everything, Weiner has achieved her goal in entertaining and absorbing fashion.

Mrs. Everything is a saga that plays out across more than six decades and examines the journeys of Jo and Bethie, two sisters who are, of course, total opposites. Bethie is pretty, feminine, and loves to be in the spotlight. She learns at an early age how to get what she wants from boys using her female charms. In contrast, Jo is athletic, political, and although she, like Bethie, has boyfriends, they don't interest her much. At an early age she discovers why, painfully aware that she will always have to keep her desires secret, hidden away from a society that won't accept her as she is.

Jo is a constant source of exasperation to their long-suffering Jewish mother, Sarah. When their father dies suddenly, Sarah is forced to take a job in the local department store to support the family. Jo feels their father's absence acutely and it strains her relationship with Sarah further since he ran interference between the two of them. But both girls step up to assist with Jo taking a job as a camp counselor while Bethie signs on to perform household tasks in their uncle's home after school.

A horrific event forever alters the course of both of their lives. Jo comes to Bethie's aid, scuttling her plan to travel abroad with her girlfriend when she uses the money she had saved to help Bethie. Shattered, and so unsure of who she has become or what the future holds for her, Bethie wanders the country and eventually ends up living on a commune, while Jo decides that convention is the safest route. Through the years, the girls' lives are beset by molestation by a relative, gang rape, abortion, an eating disorder, drug use, sexual harassment in the workplace, a shocking betrayal by a friend and spouse, and cancer, all against the backdrop of sociological changes. including the sexual revolution, women's liberation, and the fight for reproductive and civil rights.

Weiner's portrayal of the sibling relationship is believable and sometimes makes for painful reading. Typical of sisters, they go through periods when they barely communicate with or see each other, but remain bound together in the mysterious, inexplicable way that only sisters can be. They harbor grudges, resentments, and anger. At one point Bethie exclaims to Jo, "You think that I ruined your life? Well, I think you ruined mine." They confound each other. But they also come together when one needs the other, their loyalty forceful and, ultimately, unbreakable. Both characters are fully drawn and empathetic -- deeply flawed and aggravating, but also endearing. Just like members of one's own family.

Mrs. Everything is an ambitious, compelling, and unsparing look at sexism, stereotypes, conventional roles, and women's ongoing drive for the freedom to unashamedly be true to their own spirits. In 2016, now in her 70s, Jo ponders all the strides made by women during her lifetime, wondering, "Would the day ever come when simply doing your best would be enough?" Through Jo and Bethie's experiences, Weiner challenges readers to consider how a woman should be in the world while remaining true to herself. To emphasize the conundrum, Weiner concludes the book in 2016, a watershed year for women by any measure. But a year in which it became obvious just how much farther women have to go.

Weiner says she hopes her readers will find everything they have come to expect from her writing in Mrs. Everything: "That it will be funny and engaging and observant; that it will have characters who feel like women you know." In many ways, Mrs. Everything feels like quintessential Weiner, but it is much more. With Mrs. Everything, Weiner has clearly stepped out of her comfort zone and into edgier, more controversial topics and a deeply moving examination of her characters and their motivations. Mrs. Everything constitutes a strong declaration about the current state of womanhood in the United States. It is sure to be deemed one of the best books of 2019. (less)

Acclaimed, best-selling author Laura Lippman uses a real-life unsolved drowning as the springboard for her new thriller, set in Baltimore in the turbulent mid-1960's.

The world is changing rapidly. Societal norms are being challenged. And thirty-seven-year-old Maddie …more Schwartz is no longer content to sit on the sidelines in her comfortable home with her dull, but reliable husband, Milton, and seventeen-year-old son, Seth. Maddie did what was expected of her -- she married an attorney, keeps a kosher home, cares for her son, and hopes that no one ever finds out about the dark secret she harbors. Before she married Milton, she did not always conform.

When Milton brings home the local television reporter -- a man Maddie knew in high school -- something snaps and she realizes she needs to pursue the dreams she abandoned in favor of stability and acceptance. She leaves Milton, and rents an apartment downtown in a neighborhood that is suffering the ravages of "white flight" to suburbia. Seth refuses to join her there. An one day, the always-clever Maddie devises a scheme to improve her circumstances that has far-reaching consequences she could never have anticipated.

Meanwhile, the body of a young woman lies submersed in the fountain situated in the park surrounding a local lake. She is a missing person that no one is actually looking for, a young African-American woman who left her two young sons, fathered by two different men, with her parents to raise while she worked in the notorious Flamingo Club, tending bar and performing other duties better left unmentioned. She visits her sons and parents, brings them gifts, and leaves again, much to the dismay of her parents.

When Maddie and a friend discover the body of a missing eleven-year-old girl, she schemes to find a way to parlay her luck into a job as a reporter at the Baltimore Star. She gets a job, although not as a reporter, but will not be satisfied until she reaches her goal. She understands all too well that men control her destiny and will use any means necessary, including flirtation and trust of those who provide her tips, to achieve her goal.

Lippman knows Baltimore. She spent twelve years as a reporter at the Baltimore Sun. Ironically, she says that she didn't set out to write a book in which much of the action is focused around a newspaper, noting that "Maddie Schartz surprised me as much as she surprised her longtime husband." Soon Lippman found herself interviewing her father's colleagues -- Theo Lippman Jr. was a journalist at the Baltimore Sun beginning in 1965 -- in order to get the details just right. Lady in the Lake is replete with historical and geographical references not just to the era, but Baltimore specifically. She even includes two real-lie people as characters in the book: the first African-American police officer in Baltimore, Violet Wilson Whyte who was known as Lady Law, and Oriole centerfielder Paul Blair.

The story is told by a series of narrators, primarily the lady in the lake herself and Maddie. But as Maddie encounters other characters, they are called upon to narrate the next chapter. Some reoccur, some only briefly contribute to the plot's progression. Lippman uses their voices to great effect to supply historical significance, context, and perspectives that balance Maddie's increasingly obsessive, and at times quite selfish, quest for the truth. Through her eclectic group of storytellers, Lippman explores not just the two killings, but racism, classism, and sexism, as well as the price that unbridled ambition can extract -- especially from a woman.

Lady in the Lake is a sophisticated and absorbing tale about a time and place not all that long ago that will leave readers pondering how much America has changed in the intervening years. (less)