Everyone Is Beautiful

Everyone Is Beautiful by Katherine Center

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This book had been on my to-read list on the library website for quite a while. I have over 100 books on there, like ripe, juicy cherries waiting to be plucked and enjoyed, and sometimes I forget why one is there. I couldn't remember when or why this one made it's way onto the list, which convinced me it'd been there too long and needed picking before it soured on the tree.

Oh, I was so glad I picked it.

Everyone is Beautiful is a story of women and how we view ourselves and one another. Have you ever made the dreadful mistake of asking a non-pregnant woman when she's due, or wondered why your gorgeous girlfriend is so hard on herself about her looks? Have you puzzled over why one friend chose a less-attractive mate or why your own mate chose you? Have you learned yet, to see the beauty in yourself that is yours to embrace not despite the flaws, but because your flaws make you real and human and beautiful on their face?

Protagonist Lanie has become lost in her family life. She cares for her husband who is chasing his own career dreams. She cares for her children, growing up in their own personalites despite her best efforts to corrall their little-boy wildness. She depends on her aging parents and the undependability of her two brothers. Her life is thrown into turmoil when she is moved across the country to a new city where she is unfamiliar with the parks, the streets, the other moms, and even with herself. In discovering where she fits into this new life, she finds a way to reinvent herself and come to terms with accepting herself as she is, even while bettering herself for her own happiness.

This is a lovely, enchanting read with one of the most poignant and "real" love stories involved that I've read in a long time. Marriage can be complicated and difficult, but choosing the love that you know can be monumentally rewarding, as the author points out when Lanie and her husband reconnect through their own growth as individuals. I recommend this book highly.



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