Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Book Review - Hungry Heart by Jennifer Weiner

Hungry Heart – Adventures in Life, Love, and Writing by Jennifer Weiner is heartwarming and endearing.  It’s like hanging out with a good friend who “gets” you.  She’s now a bestselling author (Good in Bed, In Her Shoes, et al), but she’s also a mom, daughter, sister, wife, and is a mix of Nora Ephron and Tina Fey. (That’s a good thing!)  From the cover – hilarious and moving, Hungry Heart is about yearning and fulfillment, loss and love, and a woman who searched for her place in the world and found it as a storyteller.

She always felt like an outsider, even in her own family. She was a “big” girl – healthy and athletic (competed in rowing), but loved to eat, loved to read, and just followed a different path.  She was smart and knew it and didn’t let it hold her back. She found her voice in a newsroom, then as a novelist, and now as an activist and New York Times columnist.  She worked hard at her craft. In a class with John McPhee she learned about revising and revising again.  P. 110 Every piece of prose had to be whittled and buffed, fine-tuned and reworked and rubbed down and polished again, until it was as close to perfect as you could get it.

I enjoyed this book – whether it was her describing living in Philly and dealing with her kids. Or it was divorcing and rebounding. I liked the chapter about her grandmother in the retirement home and the “mean girls” there. Nothing in life really changes. You have to learn to be part of a group whether you are a kid or a senior. Jennifer Weiner has learned to adapt and embrace her differences to be part of a group. She’s found her writing niche and keeps honing her craft. She embraces social media and tries her best to help for positive change.

P. 402  Keep swimming. Keep talking. If something’s wrong, speak up. I will always love you, and I will always see you, all of you, inside and out. And every single part of you is perfect.
Wise words from Jennifer Weiner.


10 comments:

  1. Appears to be a wonderful book to read by a talented author.

    Yvonne.

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  2. I have read some of her work. This sounds good.

    Betty

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    1. I am a fan and you will like her even more

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  3. Is this an autobiography or fiction?

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    1. Auto bio. If you've read her fiction you will appreciate it even more

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  4. Those groups sure seem to stay no matter the age.

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  5. Sounds like a great book. Thanks!

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    1. I enjoyed it immensely and it's a fast read.

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