This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel

The Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club Pick 'Every once in a while, I read a book that opens my eyes in a way I never expected' Reese Witherspoon (Reese's Book Club x Hello Sunshine book pick) 'It made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me think' Liane Moriarty, No. 1 New York Times bestselling author of Big Little Lies This is how a family keeps a secret...and how that secret ends up keeping them. This is how a family lives happily ever after...until happily ever after becomes complicated. This is how children change...and then change the world. This is Claude. He's five years old, the youngest of five brothers, and loves peanut butter sandwiches. He also loves wearing a dress, and dreams of being a princess. When he grows up, Claude says, he wants to be a girl. Rosie and Penn want Claude to be whoever Claude wants to be. They're just not sure they're ready to share that with the world. Soon the entire family is keeping Claude's secret. Until one day it explodes. Laurie Frankel's This Is How It Always Is is a novel about revelations, transformations, fairy tales, and family. And it's about the ways this is how it always is: change is always hard and miraculous and hard again, parenting is always a leap into the unknown with crossed fingers and full hearts, children grow but not always according to plan. And families with secrets don't get to keep them forever. What readers are saying about This Is How It Always Is: 'This writing is glorious. A fabulous book. Topical, moving, full of magic' 'One of the most amazing and thought-provoking books I have ever read. It's warm, well observed and funny' 'A beautiful love story of two people who meet, fall hopelessly in love and then create a wonderful unique family of five'

Reading Challenge category: a book with a six word title

I LOVED this book. I don't even know what else to say about it.

We will discuss at book club next week, and I'm so excited to do so. The richness of things to discuss makes this a perfect book club pick. While I loved this book, it broke my heart many times, for many reasons. The author sums up so much in this quote from her end note. “I wish for my child, for all our children, a world where they can be who they are and become their most loved, blessed, appreciated selves”. “I know this book will be controversial, but honestly? I keep forgetting why”. Definitely worth a read.

I kept seeing this book on Hardcover and although I wasn't going to read it at first, after seeing it for the umpteenth time I was like "fine, okay, I will read it." That's probably not the best way to decide what book to read, but it worked out for me because I liked it a lot.

This book was not at all what I was expecting it to be, it was definitely better and I feel like I went through a brand new experience that I could not have had went through otherwise. Rosie and Penn were such a great couple, the understanding between them and the way they worked together naturally, without fuss, was beautiful. They made a beautiful big family together and nurtured it in a way that most families should do. I am saying most and not all because I don't think a certain style can apply to everyone, but Rosie and Penn are an example to follow.

And because Rosie and Penn did such a great job, all of their kids were amazing. I liked all of them and I enjoyed seeing them grow. Also, while reading I thought that for sure this book could not have been written by someone who did not have kids or grew up in a big family. I know the author has a daughter from the Author's Note in the book, and I think she does have siblings based on my looking it up, but I could not find any certain answer (not that I looked very hard), but either way, the family dynamics in the book is flawless, if these are not real kids, then I don't know what they are.

I might have said, me and others I am sure, that this book is about Claude and/or Poppy, but I don't think it is. Yes, they are a big part of it, but this is mostly about the family itself, about Rosie and Penn trying to make the right decission, their approach to new, to unexplored, to continue rising their kids with the same care and responsability no matter what. And I liked that angle so much. It is new and unexplored for me too and I really can't say anything but wonderful job to Rosie and Penn, they are such awesome parents.

If I would have known more about this book before reading it and if Hardcover wouldn't have been pushing it in front of me, I would have not read it and I would have missed out. So thank you to the forces that brough this book to me, it was an amazing read.