Happy Book Birthday to All Adults Here!

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The backstory: I've read and enjoyed all of Emma Straub's books. All Adults Here is one of the novels I was most excited for in 2020. I'm thrilled to see it's the May Read with Jenna pick.

 The basics:  "When Astrid Strick witnesses a school bus accident in the center of town, it jostles loose a repressed memory from her young parenting days decades earlier. Suddenly, Astrid realizes she was not quite the parent she thought she'd been to her three, now-grown children. But to what consequence?"--publisher

 My thoughts: I have realized, particularly since I had a child, how much I appreciate the writing of women around my age who also have children around the age of my kid. The experience of parenthood changes so much day to day and week to week and month to month, that there is a particular kind of comfort for those who can articulate the experience that aligns with mine. Emma Straub and I were born the same year, and Hawthorne is half-way in between her two kids in age. Part of what I loved about this novel was that same shared experience of parenting, but this novel's scope is so much bigger, and Straub captures all of the complicated emotions of parenting from the perspectives of children, parents with young children, and parents of adult children. It's rare that I recommend a book to everyone, but my first thoughts when I finished were that everyone who has ever parented or been parented will find a piece of themselves in this novel. It's extraordinary, and I'm so glad it's out in the world today for everyone to enjoy.

 Favorite passage: "Parents knew that the hardest part of parenthood was figuring out how to do the right thing twenty-four hours a day, forever, and surviving all the times you failed."

Rating: 5 out of 5
Length: 366 pages
Publication date: May 4, 2020 
Source: publisher

 Want to read for yourself? Buy All Adults Here from an independent bookstore or Amazon (Kindle edition.) It's also an add-on for Book of the Month. Join now!

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