Yay, you’re here! Have you read it, have you read it? Is my enthusiasm more than a little apparent? Welcome to our Bookclub featuring Katherine Center’s Everyone is Beautiful, where we hope you link up with your own reactions, impressions and connections with this novel that has quickly become one of my favorites.
Did you want to address any of the discussion questions we proposed? I’ve stated, only a gazillion times already, how much I identified with the protagonist Lanie. Beyond the three young children and the not-so-positive self-image of my post-pregnancy body, I felt a kinship with her from the opening lines of the novel. I found myself poking my husband during my marathon reading sessions and insisting that he listen to passage after passage that I felt had come straight from my own thoughts.
I took away from this novel a new found appreciation for the minutiae of our daily lives as moms. Yes, I live it, but it was a whole different experience to watch it get played out on the pages. Lanie was as human and as susceptible to mistakes and shortsightedness as the rest of us. Yet, she found the strength to address the areas of her life that needed a little reworking. I admired her fortitude, and I envied her strength. The biggest question that I’m left with, as I remind myself that this was indeed a work of fiction, is how much of Katherine Center is in Lanie Coates!
So, how about you? Do you have any questions you’d like Katherine Center to answer? What did you take away from Everyone is Beautiful?
We are hoping to have Katherine answer those questions in our podcast. And one of you who either answers one of the discussion questions in the comments OR links up on our Mr. Linky* leaves a link to a post in the comments will win the opportunity to participate in a conference call with the author, Jennifer, and Dawn that we are going to record on Wednesday afternoon (we will make it available as a podcast). So, leave a comment by Tuesday night at 7:00pm Eastern in order to be eligible for that.
Please link up with us here, and join us for a tweet-up on Thursday, June 4 at 10 pm Eastern time, with the hashtag #EiB (we changed it, so please use this one). @KatherineCenter will be joining in with us here @5M4B for a great chat. One of you who participates in the the tweet-up that night will win autographed copies of Katherine’s first two novels. Not a member of Twitter? Join up! If you need help, email us at 5minutesforbooksATgmail(DOT)com and we’ll try to clarify how to follow along on a “tweet-up.”
And in our efforts to try to kick off our first contemporary bookclub with a bang, one of you who leaves a comment (answering a discussion question), or leaves their post link in the comments, will be eligible to win a personalized canvas painted by the author Katherine Center with a favorite phrase from the book (one of yours or one of hers). We will draw a winner at the end of the week, so jump in by Friday if you’d like to be eligible to win.
*ARGH! I thought that the Mr. Linky issue was fixed, but although it was here earlier, it’s gone now. So I’m making an executive decision and pulling the linky. In fact, because we will have non-bloggers participating within the comments, I think it’s good to look through them anyway.
Related Posts:
Everyone is Beautiful Intro and Review (featured on 5 Minutes for Mom)
Reasons to Join the EiB Bookclub
EiB Discussion Questions
Podcast and Tweetup with Author Katherine Center
Subscribe to our feed. Follow us @5M4B on Twitter.
Dawn has recommended this book to approximately 712 people in the last few months! When she’s not pestering people to read her favorite books, she’s blogging away at my thoughts exactly.
Dawn’s link (that was in the now-expired Mr. Linky:
http://mteblog.blogspot.com/2009/06/eib-bookclub.html
Jennifer’s link:
http://jennifersnapshot.blogspot.com/2009/06/everyone-is-beautiful-bookclub.html
The Link to my post:
http://abookloverforever.blogspot.com/2009/06/everyone-is-beautiful-by-katherine.html
http://herdofsteph.blogspot.com/2009/05/everyone-is-beautiful-5m4b-book-club.html
Here’s my post- http://workingmomma247.wordpress.com/2009/06/02/everyone-is-be…-book-carnival/
Here’s my Square-Peg Reflections blog response – http://squarepegpeople.typepad.com/squarepeg_reflections/2009/06/everyone-is-beautiful-is-beautiful.html
Yay! This is so fun. Thank you guys again so much for featuring Everyone Is Beautiful at the book club! And I’m loving checking out the blog reviews.
Can’t wait for the podcast and the Tweetup!
Trying once more to post a comment! Here is the link to my review.
http://www.kipiward.com/?p=437
Sorry, I don’t have a book blog but wanted to comment!
I, too, liked this book and could SO relate to having many children pulling me in too many directions. The author did very well in describing the challenges that most moms seem to face. Lanie seemed a more relaxed mom than I am and was confident in that she didn’t care too much what people thought. I admired that in her. She did seem a little disconnected with her husband, which is always a signal of trouble ahead. But I liked her optimism and courage. I would like to ask the author what other ending she considered or if the published ending was the only one.
From Dawn: We definitely welcome non-bloggers! I agree that Katherine Center was spot-on for those crazy parenting moments when all three children decide to go berserk at the same time! The disconnect with her husband was sad, but so easily understandable in their busy situation. Glad you enjoyed the book!
How did you come up with the idea for your characters in this book? Was it from someone’s life that you are familiar with or close to? Thanks.
From Dawn: Great questions– we’ll ask Katherine those during the conference call! Thanks for commenting!
Another non-blogger here, but I too just have to comment (and hope to win a goody).
I loved Lanie and swear Katherine was following me around way back when. The total immersion into the being of our children often gives we mothers the excuse/opportunity to escape from the commitment to our marriages. My question is will Katherine will be creating something else wonderful using the absolutely spot-on depiction of the turmoil a marriage faces when raising young children?
From Dawn: Oh, was Katherine stalking you, as well? 🙂 I’m right with you, and yes, those early years of parenting can take their toll on a marriage (says the mom of a 1, 3 and 8 year old!). Great question, too– we’ll put it on the list for the call!
Here’s my post:
http://booksandmovies.colvilleblogger.com/2009/05/27/book-review-everyone-is-beautiful-by-katherine-center/
Here’s my post:
http://mountainsofbooks.wordpress.com/2009/06/03/everyone-is-beautiful-bookclub-5m4b/
A question I’d ask Katherine (that I think someone else already asked) is, how much of Lanie is Katherine?
Here’s my post. Thanks for the recommendation Dawn, I thought it was a perfect summer read!
What a great book! Here’s my post.
My link did not go through yesterday.
I loved this book. It was a quick and easy book but at the same time it hit some deep issues that I think all women, not just moms, experience. Being a Southern girl, relocated to New England with two small children, and later to Texas (with the same slightly older children), I felt an immediate connection to Lanie. The initial isolation and almost sense of abandonment she feels seemed familiar. I don’t think moving cross country is a prerequisite to those feelings…we can have those perceptions at any point in life. In the midst of her circumstances, though, Lanie demonstrates what should be a life skill for us all — she embraces friendships with the people around her, without regard to how incredibly different from her they are. We see how we can all benefit from and be beneficial to those around us. When we moved to Texas I ran into a college friend in a bookstore and we were able to pick up our friendship where we left off years ago. When Lanie immediately meets her high school friend in the park, I was reminded how important someone familiar can be in a time of transition. Lanie finds time for herself which she uses to define/redefine herself, which in turn, makes her more useful to her family. She doesn’t let her college degree (a choice we all made at a young age) limit her job and hobby possibilities for the rest of her life. This book does an awesome job of using humor and bluntness to address the small and big issues of life that we all experience in some way…in the end we are encouraged and empowered to keep going.
From Dawn: It sounds like you have such actual similarities with this story! And I so agree that the humor and bluntness was a perfectly real way to address these issues. I’m so glad that you enjoyed this read!
I would love to read this book…please add my name to the giveaway. thanks.
kmkuka(at)yahoo(dot)com