All Adults Here: A Read with Jenna Pick (a Novel)

Parenting adult children and living your own life produces pain and pride. With partners and children there are so many personalities in the mix that feelings both past and present need to be navigated. It is important to know and learn how each honestly feels and to accept one another. Families should be the love and support system each person needs. It is a worthy goal.

Interesting book, if not particularly well written. If you’re looking for something to just wile away the time that might have a few interesting pages in it, then this would be it.

Well this book covers a lot of timely issues. I know the author writes good books. This isn't about the issues its about the over discriptive writing. I got to where I would read the first part and skim through the chapter to continue on with the story that was at the beginning. Just tell the stories without history, psychology of why, and the angst . Well a little may be necessary? This reader found it too much.

I love family dramas, but I don’t like ones that are heavy on romance or melodrama. All Adults Here has romance and drama, but it is nothing like the soap operas I often find in this genre. Straub has created a winning cast of characters, and even though it’s slow going to begin with before you know everybody, once you meet all of the characters, it’s a joy to see them navigate these few months of their lives. Highly recommended!

“All Adults Here” is a title that drew me to read this book. I believe Ms. Straud and I agree that “adult” is a misnomer and certainly not a goal to strive for. Her characters, old and young, exemplify that if we were all adults, life would be very boring indeed.

I really enjoyed this book. The characters are interesting, complex, and likable, and the reflections on family, relationships, and changing identity felt true and often poignant.What I found jarring were the casual anti-men sexist statements that intruded occasionally but persistently throughout the book. In addition to being unnecessary, they also seemed out of tune with the themes of inclusivity and acceptance that otherwise defined the story.Apart from that, the author created a vivid small world, and the reader is drawn into the lives of the people in it, who seem familiar and believable.

I had a preconception about this book from others who read it and were disappointed. It did start out slowly because so many characters had to be introduced. But I never found it boring, just certain paragraphs I skimmed in order to get to the meat of it. It is a growing up tale of a family of mostly adults and how to come to terms with their actions and how those actions can effect each other's lives. In all, I really liked the book, feeling at times annoyed and happy about the choices each of them made.

I liked this book. Like most mothers, the main character does her best while raising her children but has regrets about things said and unsaid when she is older. As a mother with middle aged children, I can relate. The subplot about the young neighbor boy seemed like an add on and didn't do much for the plot which should have stuck to the family. This would be a good book for a book club because there are many areas for discussion.

3.5 - I rounded up. I admit that I got a bit bored in the middle, but I did appreciate the neat and clean ending. These days, I find I crave that in a book. Too much uncertainty in the world, so I seek out books with a happy (enough) ending. This book wasn’t earth shattering but it filled the bill for me right now.

Everyone seems to tackle all the issues of the day lately and this book does too. Probably could have pared some of that down and just told more of the story. That being said I really liked most of the characters and thought Cecilia‘s character was very representative of all that today’s teenager faces. I thought it had a great perspective on how we view our childhood and our parents and how our parents do the same, with different results. Neither is wrong just another side of the story.

This was a really good one! I was expecting more whining and annoying family dynamics, but I really happy this didn't fall into that. Don't you love when a book surprises you? The author had a few really well-written phrases that stuck in my brain and I enjoyed her style. The book is told via multiple people's perspectives which I always like as well. This gave me major 'The Family Stone' vibes but a more drawn out, more insightful, less dramatic version. A pretty easy read and it would be a great book club choice!

I’ve loved all Emma Straub’s books but this one was just, well, tedious. It took me 3 weeks to read it because it was just so slow. And although I appreciate her inclusion of lesbian, Bi-sexual and transgender characters, I felt her presentation was a bit Pollyanna-ish. Everyone was immediately supportive of the characters changing sexual orientations and is that the case in the real world? There’s generally a lot of bumps along the way and adjustments. That’s sort of what makes good literature.

I started out enjoying the novel but felt th author tried to fit every possible social issue and current message of political correctness into this one book: LGBQT to XYZ....Widowed mom comes out as lesbian, young adult identifies as transgender, online predators, teen bullies, marital affairs, single in vitro motherhood, social betrayals, family issues, depression, teen pregnancy, adoption, parent dying young,, small town politics and changing Main St, box store vs independent,......ugh. I was disgusted and nauseated by the end. One or two issues would have sufficed. Save the others for another five or six novels. I wanted to like it. I saw several book club nominations and public endorsements. I am rethinking even 2 stars but there were glimpses of stories I could have liked. Too much was too overwhelming. Actually told friends to avoid despite my original suggestion as our book club read....had them cancel it as choice since I got it first. Regret purchasing. Wish had only borrowed. Got excited by Jenna Bush book pic endorsement. Besides who wants to read about every possible social and personal difficulties when living through worldwide Pandemic, Covid 19 ,economic, educational and financial difficulties of our own world while being quarantined and handling our own family experiences? Not me. I resented time I wasted reading and my own choice to complete it.

Straub's book popped up in my recommended list many times. Just to warn you it is not one exciting page turner although it kept me wanting to just read one chapter the other. I was impressed how she could write about the simple things in life and about probably every one of our families. I think the best way to describe this book is that it is a story about a family that has carried hurt and are trying their best to be a family as adults. I realized while reading that childhood is a very important park of one's life. We take many memories from childhood to adulthood with us, if they were painful memories it unknowingly can be causing resentment or hurt towards family members or friends. It is important to have conversations as a family and that's what this book is all about. A good read!

The characters in "All Adults Here" are all likable. It was a good book to read at the beginning of the Covid 19 Pandemic because it is easy to read, it is basically a happy book. It is also well written. Read it and relax. It will take your mind off your troubles.

Enjoyed this book a lot. Have always liked Emma Staub's writing and insights and found myself reading many lines in the book more than once. Characters have a truth to them with believable dialogue. Makes you think twice about what you've blamed your parents for and what blame you have placed on yourself.

I adored this latest novel by Emma Straub with its messy family dynamics and focus on truthfulness and love. The main character, Astrid Strick, is a 68-year-old widow who, after witnessing the sudden death of a woman she knew but didn’t like (for forty years), she begins questioning her life and, in particular, some of the parenting choices she made with her now adult children.All of these children have their own secrets, as does Astrid: she had been in love with another woman for several years and is now determined to tell her kids and attempt to atone in other ways for some of the ways she feels she has wronged them over the years.Astrid’s daughter, Porter, at 32, runs a nearby goat farm and makes cheese. She has decided to have a baby on her own yet has not told her family about the fact that she is almost five months pregnant.Astrid’s thirteen-year-old granddaughter comes to stay, sent from the big city by her parents in the aftermath of an ‘incident’ involving a girl at her school. She, too, has issues to resolve and is a great character in the story.I loved the way sibling and parental relationships were portrayed and was so engaged by everything that happened. I also loved how tenderly and sweet the relationship was between Astrid and her lover, who works at the town beauty shop. I cannot recall when I’ve ever read a novel with older women who love each other. It’s quite refreshing.Full of insights about families and complete with a good dose of humor, this novel was one of my favorite reads so far this year.

I neither loved nor hated this book. It was a solid read covering the lives of a family. Their mistakes and failures their children and some of the ossicle who flow through their lives. Revelations and self examination in both children and adult characters. Some quite solidly described others just there. Like I said it wasn’t a book that kept me reading all night but it was a nice read to come back to every day.

If you are tired of mystery series and want a happy read (but still based in reality) this is a good book for you; I very much enjoyed it; I only gave it 4 stars since it wrapped everything up in a nice bow in the last chapter- which I often feel like the publisher demands (rather then leaving a bit open ended; and so rare to read a normalized story about lady lovers!!! thanks Emma

This is my second Straub book (previously listened to the Vacationers) and All Adults Here is the one I recommend reading if you need to choose between the two. It is an ambitious book in addressing contemporary topics such as death, abuse, gender identity from a lesbian, homosexual and transgender perspective, bullying, pedophilia, artificial insemination, and others. There's an overall theme on parenting, particularly motherhood and the quirky characters (a dozen key ones) are all different ages and we can see life through each of their lenses. It has a small town vibe and explores complicated family dynamics including sibling rivalry. There seems to be something for every reader! I really enjoyed Straub's vivid prose, metaphors, and analogies. I think I'd like to re-read this one or even listen to the audio version to absorb it a little differently next time.