Book Review // “That Summer” by Jennifer Weiner

Remember when I said in my last book review that I need a cheerful, happy novel next? Well that didn’t work out. 🙂

Nevertheless, I can highly recommend today’s book. “Last Summer” is the second book I’ve read by Jennifer Weiner and both were so good. After the first few pages you think you’re in a fun summer story, but then there is a dramatic twist in the plot and you really want to know how it ends. Since I finished listening to the audio book, I almost miss the main characters, Diana and Daisy.

“Last Summer” is the story of two women, Diane and Daisy, whose lives are irrevocably intertwined. Fate brings them together and the story shows that even strokes of fate can lead to beautiful friendships. This book is about friendship and family, but also very much about how to find your place in society as a woman. The book is also set in the context of the #metoo movement.

The Book

Daisy Shoemaker can’t sleep. With a thriving cooking business, full schedule of volunteer work, and a beautiful home in the Philadelphia suburbs, she should be content. But her teenage daughter can be a handful, her husband can be distant, her work can feel trivial, and she has lots of acquaintances, but no real friends. Still, Daisy knows she’s got it good. So why is she up all night?

While Daisy tries to identify the root of her dissatisfaction, she’s also receiving misdirected emails meant for a woman named Diana Starling, whose email address is just one punctuation mark away from her own. While Daisy’s driving carpools, Diana is chairing meetings. While Daisy’s making dinner, Diana’s making plans to reorganize corporations. Diana’s glamorous, sophisticated, single-lady life is miles away from Daisy’s simpler existence. When an apology leads to an invitation, the two women meet and become friends. But, as they get closer, we learn that their connection was not completely accidental. Who IS this other woman, and what does she want with Daisy? SOURCE

The Author

You might already know some of Jennifer Weiner. She is the author of “In her shoes”, which was turned into a movie with Cameron Diaz and the novel “Bug Summer” which was a hit last year (also a recommendation).

Jennifer Weiner is an American journalist, writer and tv producer. You might already know some of her work. Her debut novel was “Good in Bed” (2001) and her book “In her shoes” was made into a movie with Cameron Diaz, Toni Collette and Shirley McLaine. Last year, she published “Big Summer”, another book I would highly recommend. The perfect mix of feel good and crime.

Author Jennifer Weiner (Source: Instagram)

It’s funny how one summer can change everything. It must be something about the heat and the smell of chlorine, fresh-cut grass and honeysuckle, asphalt sizzling after late-day thunderstorms, the steam rising while everything drips around it. Something about long, lazy days and whirring air conditioners and bright plastic flip-flops from the drugstore thwacking down the street. Something about fall being so close, another year, another Christmas, another beginning. So much in one summer, stirring up like the storms that crest at the end of each day, blowing out all the heat and dirt to leave everything gasping and cool. Everyone can reach back to one summer and lay a finger to it, finding the exact point when everything changed. That summer was mine. That Summer

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