From the Bookshelf of Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge…

This Is How It Always Is

Laurie Frankel

Start date: May 1, 2019

Finish date: May 31, 2019

Discussion: 2019 Monthly Challenge

Why we're reading this: Our monthly read for May 2019 (a book about a family)
[close] Our monthly read for May 2019 (a book about a family)

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2019 Monthly Challenge

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What Members Thought

Feb 11, 2018 Anna rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I feel like this is an important book. I was at a meeting one time about our school district's funding which devolved into a horrific discussion of transgender bathrooms in the schools, in which the women were terrified transgender children were going to molest their children. It was one of the most misinformed and horrific conversations I've ever heard. The lack of understanding/empathy around the issue of non-gender conforming/transgender children was nauseating. I want all those women to read ...more

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Apr 12, 2020 Gina rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

What an incredible book of, get this, a loving, functional, family. Rosie and Penn are loving parents to a brood of boys, or so they think. When the smart, delightful Claude knows that he is really a girl, his parents do exactly what they should do to support their child. But that doesn’t mean it will be an easy road ahead.
A truly wonderful book.

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Dec 19, 2017 Debbie rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: choose-kind

Analytical, problem-solving Rosie (an ER doctor) and creative, romantic Penn (a writer and stay-at-home-dad) live in Madison, Wisconsin with their four children, all boys. When Rosie discovers she’s pregnant again, she’s absolutely sure that this time she will get the daughter she’s been waiting for. And then Claude is born. It takes a few years for the family to realize that Claude is transgender.

This was an emotional read for me, mainly because of Penn and the story-within-the story about Gru ...more

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Sep 15, 2018 Katrina rated it liked it

I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this book. What I liked is the writing. I liked how the author wrote about the husband and wife and the family dynamics in general. I also appreciated how the parents blindly navigated through unknown and unexpected parenting regions and how it strained their marriage, but didn't break it. ...more

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Jan 05, 2020 Jeannine J9 rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2020

This book was one of the best books I’ve ever read. Really tough subjects in the book yet the author writes so eloquently and addresses each aspect so thoughtfully. I loved this entire family and felt like I lived their lives with them. One of my 5 best ever books.

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