By: Jennifer Weiner
ISBN: 9781501133541
Publisher: Atria Books
Publication Date: 05/10/21
Format: Hardcover
My Rating: 5 Stars +++ Author Q&A Interview Top Books of 2021
Book Giveaway Contest
Congrats to Winner!
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From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Big Summer comes another timely and deliciously twisty novel of intrigue, secrets, and the transformative power of female friendship.
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?
From the manicured Main Line of Philadelphia to the wild landscape of the Outer Cape, written with Jennifer Weiner’s signature wit and sharp observations, That Summer is a story about surviving our pasts, confronting our futures, and the sustaining bonds of friendship.
Celebrating 20 years of Jennifer Weiner's books & writing!
Enter Here Book Giveaway Contest (closed)
That Summer (hardcover copy-US only)
May 1-20, 2021
Congrats to the Winner of "That 🐚 Summer" Book Giveaway Contest Samantha Golarte Laredo, Texas
Voting results for your favorite JW book in 20 yrs.
First Place: BIG SUMMER Second Place: MRS. EVERYTHING Third Place: IN HER SHOES
Voting results for favorite JW character.
First: Daphne (BIG SUMMER) Second: Jo (MRS. EVERYTHING) Third: Maggie (IN HER SHOES) Thanks, everyone!
My Review
Mega talented superstar #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Weiner returns following Big Summer, with her latest, THAT SUMMER. Also, set in Cape Cod, the author tackles the #MeToo movement and many more emotionally charged topics ripped from today’s headlines.
THAT SUMMER opens with a woman named Daisy (whose real name is Diana, opening an email meant for another woman named Diana.
This sparks a conversation, and the two unlikely women meet up for drinks in New York, and a friendship develops. However, was the meeting planned or by chance?
Daisy and Diana are opposites—Daisy, a housewife, married to a successful lawyer with an outspoken spirited, quirky teenage daughter, Beatrice.
She did not graduate from college, due to her circumstances and chose to marry instead. Everyone takes her for granted. She also is a great cook and has a cooking business that no one in the family seems to take seriously.
Diana is a career woman and independent. However, is she really? Things are not as they seem. The two women find they have more in common than they could have imagined and a friendship develops.
There is an ongoing mystery developing and Jennifer takes us back to a time with Diana in her teens and suffered a horrific tragedy on Cape Cod one summer. T
his forever changed the course of her life. She has held on to this painful secret for so long. Now, as an adult, she is trying to move on from her past. However, can she?
She tries desperately to put the past behind her until she is confronted with the past head-on.
Slowly the cards are placed on the table and these two women are connecting in ways they could not have imagined. The ugly past is revealed and many have been living a lie. Do you really know your spouse?
Beautifully written, Jennifer weaves a heartbreaking tale of triumph over tragedy.
All the while, she skillfully draws a connection between appearance, status, and perception, from privilege, social class, career choices, success to age, body size, social status, bullying, rape, abuse, accountability, forgiveness, revenge, and much more.
THAT SUMMER is not a light fluff beach read; however, it is so much more!
The setting and descriptions are vivid and evocative, and the innermost feelings of the characters are emotional and come alive on the page.
Character-driven and suspenseful, fans of Weiner and new fans alike will become immersed in this storyline as well as the adorable beach cottage, new relationships, crafting, seashells, art, and most of all mouthwatering food descriptions.
When reading JW books, they transport you. You can almost smell the wine, taste the gourmet food, and hear the ocean.
I fell in love with Michael and Diana and the adorable beach cottage and the restaurant. I have read all JW’s books, and this was one of my favorites! Highly recommend!
The audiobook is a Must Listen narrated by none other than Sutton Foster (from Younger TV)!
NOTE FROM JENNIFER: "I’m so thrilled to have Sutton Foster @suttonlenore as the narrator for THAT SUMMER.” (True story: my older daughter is a Broadway fan antic and a Sutton Foster superfan, so when I was lucky enough to be asked to do a cameo on @youngertv, I, of course, brought Lucy with me, and Sutton Foster could not have been nicer.) She’s a huge talent and a lovely person and I am so excited to hear what she’s done with THAT SUMMER....which you can order on audio."
P.S. Readers, I am a huge fan of Younger TV (favorite) and loved the episode with guest Author Jennifer Weiner when it came out. If you missed you you can see a clip on Jen's IG and her personal note.
I am #currentlywatching Season 7 now - the final season (on ParamountPlus) Going to miss this show! Also, a big fan of Sutton Foster and she does a killer job as narrator of THAT SUMMER audiobook! It is fabulous! Highly recommend the book and audio.
For more view my Elevator Ride with the Author.
A special thanks to Atria and NetGalley for an advanced reading copy and audio copy.
An avid fan, needless to say, Jennifer Weiner is a mega-star!
TWENTY YEARS! This year, the author is celebrating 20 years of books starting from Weiner’s hit debut, Good in Bed, in 2001, having sold more than two million copies!
After graduating from Princeton, she worked as a journalist before writing full time. According to the Publisher’s Weekly recent review, to date, she’s written 14 novels, a few children’s books, an essay collection, and a short story collection. Atria says she has more than 15 million books in print overall, and, according to her agent, she’s been on the New York Times bestseller list for 258 weeks, or nearly five years, throughout her 20-year career.
Weiner has also been a favorite in Hollywood, with her 2002 novel In Her Shoes made into a 2005 movie (loved) starring Toni Collette and Cameron Diaz. Her 2019 novel Mrs. Everything was optioned by the production studio Sister and is currently in development as a TV series. Last year, it was announced that Mindy Kaling will produce and star in an adaptation of Good in Bed for HBO Max. And, never one to waste time, Weiner has also been a contributing opinion writer at the New York Times since 2015.
View Q&A Elevator Ride Interview with
Author Jennifer Weiner
Praise
"Weiner's storytelling skill is such that she paints an uncompromising, complicated portrait of the insidious dangers of the patriarchy that is also a lot of fun to read. Weiner's latest is a summer banger with a ripped-from-the-headlines plot, which is sure to garner lots of attention." —Booklist (starred review)
"Weiner follows up Big Summer with another emotionally charged drama, this one centered on a #MeToo reckoning. Weiner's writing is infused with evocative depictions... [and her] legions of fans will applaud this emotionally affecting and often surprising story."
—Publishers Weekly
"Fans will enjoy references to the murder plot of Weiner's previous novel, Big Summer (2020), and sprinklings of Weiner's signature descriptions of food and cooking."
― Kirkus Reviews
“This twisty novel about female friendship will make the hours fly by.”
—Good Housekeeping
Publishers Weekly Interview
"Don't Call Jennifer Weiner's New Novel a Beach Read"
By Jen Doll | Mar 05, 2021
About the Author
Photo Credit: Andrea Cipriani Mecchi
Jennifer Weiner is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of seventeen books, including Big Summer, Mrs. Everything, the children’s book The Littlest Bigfoot, and an essay collection, Hungry Heart: Adventures in Life, Love, and Writing.
A graduate of Princeton University and contributor to the New York Times Opinion section, Jennifer lives with her family in Philadelphia.
Visit her online at JenniferWeiner.com.
