Little Earthquakes: A Novel (Paperback)

Three women are brought together in a pre-natal yoga class. Each one comes from a different background, but one thing they do have in common, besides being pregnant, is that each one seems to have the perfect life. Becky is married to a doctor with a successful practice, and despite having the mother-in-law from Hell, manages to maintain her sense of humor and balance. Kelly is a consultant, striving to escape her roots of poverty and hand-me-downs, and putting together the perfect life. Ayinde is married to a celebrity, trying to keep her life as 'normal' as possible despite the price of fame. When Ayinde goes into labor, and her husband is off playing a game somewhere, the friendship between the three women is bonded together.

And then there is the first person narrator, Lia, who sees these three women, and longs to be a part of them. Is she a stalker, crazy or is there something more? As with any of Jennifer Weiner's novels, there are plenty of twists and turns, as we get to know this quartet of women, and their problems and joys.

For Becky, it's Mimi, and the fact that her husband, Andrew, won't stand up to her. For Kelly, it's her husband, Steve, who loses his job and turns into a couch potato -- and discovering that it's not what she thought to be a working mother. And Ayinde may be enduring the most difficult situation of all when her husband comes home smelling of another woman's perfume.

I don't want to give away much more of the plot, as half the fun of reading one of her books is discovering the not so perfect lives of her characters, the wickedly funny situations that they find themselves in, and the fact that the reader can feel connected with these women and their problems. She also steers clear of the 'happy ever after' endings that are so common to fiction geared towards female readers. As the title suggests, little earthquakes keep rumbling through our lives, it's how we cope that matters.

For readers of her previous novels, I don't have to urge them on to find this one. New readers need not worry that this is part of a series, all of her novels are standalone. But be sure to plan several hours where you won't be disturbed and curl up with this one. It's just as funny as it is soul-satisfying, and you'll find yourself laughing out loud at these pert little tales of new mothers and families. Pick up a copy of Little Earthquakes for vacation reading. Another book I need to recommend -- completely unrelated to Jennifer Weiner, but very much on my mind since I purchased a "used" copy off Amazon is "THE LOSERS CLUB: Complete Restored Edition" by Richard Perez, an odd, sometimes raw, but highly entertaining little novel I can't stop thinking about.