Customer Reviews

Everyone Is Beautiful: A Novel

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A wonderfully written, laugh out loud book about life, love, and motherhood. I don't think there's a mother alive who won't be able to identify in some way.

Eh. I know I'm supposed to be this book's target audience as a young mother who's experienced living across the country from my family and home, but I found the characters, especially the heroine, annoying. I also think the author had too many things that she was trying to accomplish with this book. She clearly wanted to express a need for passion as well as the concept that everyone is beautiful in their own way. But they both seemed to fall flat for me. There was a comfort/trust level amongst the characters that seemed to be lacking, even in the most intimate of relationships. Which ended up leading to a lack of communication, which is admittedly one of my biggest pet peeves.

My opinion may be a bit colored by the fact that, at this point in my life, I read to get away from my everyday life, so reading about a stressed-out mom and a couple who isn't connecting properly due to having small children wasn't really what I needed. Though there were definitely points where I could totally relate to the mother and her relationships. But instead of nodding my head in agreement and feeling comforted that I wasn't alone, I ended up feeling sad for the isolation that so many of us experience as parents.

Maybe I would have liked it better at a different point in my life? I don't know. I just wouldn't necessarily recommend it, especially to my stressed-out parent friends.

Katherine Center's writing is so honest that I spent a lot of time wincing and thinking "I'm so glad it's not just me." The book is also so funny that I found myself laughing hysterically in almost every chapter (which is rare for me).

Everyone is Beautiful is for every woman who has ever struggled to find, hold on to, and nurture authenticity in the midst of that wild, messy, wonderful thing called motherhood.

This is the perfect book club book. It's also the kind of book that you hand to a close friend and grin when you say, "I think you'll relate."

Katherine Center has done it again - created a novel about family, motherhood and sense of self that is gripping, humorous, and dramatic enough to keep me reading right up until the end. Lainie is much more than simply the downtrodden, neglected wife and mother (though she is also that) and her fight for one hour of gym time is the start of her growing up a little and discovering who she is beyond the confines of her family.

Where that discovery takes her is something Center lets unfold with the help of some characters who are quirky enough in and of themselves. One little white lie that will be horrific and family to anyone packing on a few pounds plays a major plot point later on (I don't want to give too much away). Lainie's attempts to hold her family and marriage together, while also finding her own artistic impulses and inspirations, is at the heart of this book. Tender and touching, it makes me hope there are many more such novels in Center's future.

Lanie and Peter Coates have just uprooted their comfortable lives in Houston, Texas, to follow Peter's dream--which lands them in a tiny apartment in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

After fifteen years of marriage and with three children under four, Lanie has lost herself and whatever dreams she might have had. She flounders in this new life, overwhelmed with parenting in a small space, without the support of family and friends.

Then one day in the park, another woman's seemingly innocent remark ("when is your baby due?") sends the "not-pregnant but still carrying baby weight Lanie" into a tizzy.

She is determined to make herself over into the woman she once was. Joining a gym, which requires a lot of coordinating between the two parents, becomes a compulsion, soon to be followed by another--Lanie signs up for a photography class, which she sandwiches in between the gym, her children, and whatever life she and Peter still have (not so much!)--only to discover that she absolutely LOVES it! She had been an art major in college, but this photography obsession leads her down pathways she had never imagined.

Seemingly she is making herself over after all. But what happens to the Peter-and-Lanie connection? And will the newly recreated Lanie want other love connections along with her newly discovered self? Will Peter, who is soon off to a special project in LA, turn away from his first love?

What happens to formerly-committed partners and parents when they achieve the dreams they sought?

Finding out the answers to these questions, even while admiring the dedication each character has to his/her pursuits, kept me reading into the night. I also enjoyed the humorous glimpses into the day-to-day life of a young mother parenting feisty children who regularly "swing from the chandeliers," all in the name of "just being kids."

Everyone Is Beautiful: A Novel is a novel I'll think about often, which means it earned five stars in my book.

Katherine Center draws the portrait of an overwhelmed mom and an underwhelmed (or overburdened) marriage beautifully.

I laughed out loud several times, and found myself nodding over and over again with her spot-on human observations.

One friend who also enjoyed the book said that she wished that it had gone slightly deeper, but then we decided that it would have been a deeper book, and it wouldn't have been such a delightful read.

Don't get me wrong -- this is not chick-lit, however it also doesn't go so deeply into the serious issues that it tackles that you find yourself feeling burdened down. Instead, it's uplifting.

I really enjoyed Katherine Center's first novel The Bright Side of Disaster, so when I got the chance to review her new novel from Pump Up Your Book Promotion Blog Tours, I jumped at the chance. I'm thrilled to say that Everyone Is Beautiful is just as good as, if not better than, The Bright Side of Disaster.

I love how honest Center's writing is. She doesn't try to hide anything; instead of telling us that Lanie is depressed and completely strung out, she shows us. She shows us how much Lanie gives to her family, and how there is little (if anything) left for herself. She shows us how much Lanie really needs something of her own, something to brighten her day and give her a chance to breathe. I have to say, reading the novel, I felt just as trapped as Lanie did. When Lanie finally does start doing something that is only for herself, I cheered for her. Center manages to get the reader fully invested in her characters. It's an amazing talent, and one that the author uses very effectively.

I thought the central message of this book was incredible. No one is perfect, and everyone is beautiful. How many times have we really thought of ourselves as beautiful? Not many, I'm guessing. It's always "my eyes look puffy" or "is that a new wrinkle?" or "ugh, bad hair day!" I love the idea that everyone is beautiful. It puts a positive spin on life!

I loved all the secondary characters in Everyone Is Beautiful as well. The only thing I wish for the novel is that there could have been more development of these wonderful personalities! Of course, I understand that it was Lanie's story, but it's just a testament to Katherine Center's character writing ability that I just wanted more!

As you can tell, I really adored Everyone Is Beautiful. This is a book with great characters, constant humor, an interesting storyline, and a wonderful message. I enjoyed it immensely, and I highly recommend it!

http://www.skrishnasbooks.com/2009/03/everyone-is-beautiful-katherine-center.html

Lanie Coates is the mother of three young boys. Supporting her husband's dream to become a professional musician, she's agreed to leave everything behind in Texas and move to Cambridge, MS. For the past fifteen years, she's devoted her entire life to her family. Her passion with art and painting is soon replaced with diapers and crayons. Her body, much like her life, is unrecognizable. She's lost herself, and she desperately seeks to find some semblance of the person she was. She begins to devote time to herself, and begins going the gym each night, and even signs up for a photography class. This class helps her discover a passion that was unknown to her. Unfortunately, though passion is growing in the heart of someone else as well, and it's not her husband! Just as Lanie begins to feel at peace with herself, her world is turned over and she must struggle to fix it.

EVERYONE IS BEAUTIFUL is a very honest look at hectic life of a mom. There are moments where you will laugh out loud, and moments where you will cry. As a mother of two boys myself, I could completely sympathize with Lanie's character. This is a must read of any mom, no matter the age of the child.

I really wasn't expecting very much from this novel. I began my read with an expectation that this would be a book much like the cupcake pictured on the cover; light and fluffy, and easily forgettable. Instead, I was pleased to discover a great read which made me reflect on my own thoughts and feelings of life as a stay-at-home mother to young children.

The heroine is Lanie, the mother of three energetic (to say the least) little boys, the youngest of whom is only eight months old. At the beginning of the book, Lanie explains that she has recently relocated because of a great career opportunity for Peter, her husband. Lanie has left behind her childhood home in Houston, her family, and her friends. A chance remark by a stranger at a park also convinces Lanie that somewhere along the way she has also left behind the girl she used to be, back when she and Peter first fell in love. Lanie becomes determined to reclaim her old self, but she finds this quest more difficult than she would have imagined as she tries to continue to meet her responsibilities as a wife and a mother.

I found this book to be refreshing because Lanie's life as a wife and mother, while not depicted as glamorous in any way (at one point, in an emergency, she helps her oldest boy poop into a Ziploc bag at a park), was not written as though it was one of constant drudgery. There were plenty of moments that had me smiling as Lanie's little boys tried to "help" her, and her husband Peter was portrayed as a loving, supportive, and faithful husband. I do feel that the author did a great job of capturing the exhaustion, frustration, joy, and adventure of parenthood. I also enjoyed reading about Lanie and Peter, and their relationship.

I am so glad I gave this book a chance. Ultimately, it reminded me that although I'm not necessarily the girl I used to be, it doesn't follow that this new person is any less valuable. It also reminded me to live in the moment, and be grateful for the present; stinky diapers, runny noses, and all.

I read this book at a breakneck pace (2 days!) because the main character, Lanie, is so real. The way the author endears her to the reader caused me to immediately became invested in the journey of Lanie and her family. The characters have a sort of deja vu to them, as if they were thinly disguised version of people I know in real life - but wittier and more complex! However, this is more than a book about people - its about what's important, how we fit into whatever that is, and how to fight for what we need once we figure out what that is. It captures the way so many women I know struggle to create meaning from the mundane.

If this is only the author's second novel, I can't wait to read what comes next!