A smart, comic page-turner about a Silicon Valley family in free fall over the course of one eventful summer from the author of Watch Me Disappear and the upcoming Pretty Things When Paul Miller’s pharmaceutical company goes public, making his family IPO millionaires, his wife, Janice, is sure this is the windfall she’s been waiting years for—until she learns, via messengered letter, that her husband is divorcing her (for her tennis partner!) and cutting her out of the new fortune. Meanwhile, four hundred miles south in Los Angeles, the Millers’ older daughter, Margaret, has been dumped by her newly famous actor boyfriend and left in the lurch by an investor who promised to revive her fledgling post-feminist magazine, Snatch. Sliding toward bankruptcy and dogged by creditors, she flees for home where her younger sister Lizzie, 14, is struggling with problems of her own. Formerly chubby, Lizzie has been enjoying her newfound popularity until some bathroom graffiti alerts her to the fact that she’s become the school slut. The three Miller women retreat behind the walls of their Georgian colonial to wage battle with divorce lawyers, debt collectors, drug-dealing pool boys, mean girls, country club ladies, evangelical neighbors, their own demons, and each other, and in the process they become achingly sympathetic characters we can’t help but root for, even as the world they live in epitomizes everything wrong with the American Dream. Exhilarating, addictive, and superbly accomplished, All We Ever Wanted Was Everything crackles with energy and intelligence and marks the debut of a knowing and very funny novelist, wise beyond her years.
Download and start listening now!
"What happens to a family when everything they've built up, apart from their relationships- their reputations, material possessions, and dreams- come crashing to a halt? They are stripped down and forced to find themselves and each other amidst the wreckage. And they learn that everything that was destroyed doesn't really matter in the end. As I read this, the characters I didn't want to like in the beginning, I grew to love by the end."
— Amber (4 out of 5 stars)
" okay - a little depressing. "
— Denise, 2/18/2014" Again a reminder to surround yourself with women to help you when the men screw you over. Just kidding... or am I? "
— Erin, 2/15/2014" A good fun read with a good ending. "
— Corina, 2/13/2014" Really, more like two-and-a half. It kind of reminded me of "Valley of the Dolls," but not nearly as trashy--which is why "VOD" is better. Still, it was a good pool read, and I polished it off in two days... "
— Rain, 2/13/2014" A truly awful book filled with caricatures of suburban stereotypes, I finished it just to see how the ending would pile on the cliches of suburban self-destruction. "
— Myriah, 2/7/2014" Very predictable story. Easy chick lit. "
— Rebecca, 1/18/2014" Hard to feel bad for people who have so much, but keep making mistakes over and over again. Margaret complains about her mother not communicating, yet she never does. Characters do not seem to learn anything. Book has a very whiny tone. Same old repeating mistakes. ... what's the point. "
— Carol, 1/18/2014" Now one of my favorite books. "
— Beth, 1/11/2014" Ending was sad but the journey took a little too long "
— Ceping, 1/3/2014" It was the only paperback I took to the beach, so I read it, but did not enjoy it. "
— Janet, 12/18/2013" Pretty depressing book. I would say, don't bother with it. "
— Kim, 12/15/2013Janelle Brown is the author of This Is Where We Live and All We Ever Wanted Was Everything. She is also an essayist and journalist whose writing has appeared in Vogue, the New York Times, Elle, Wired, Self, Los Angeles Times, Salon, and numerous other publications.
Rebecca Lowman is an actress and audiobook narrator who has won numerous Earphones Awards. She has starred in numerous television shows, including Law & Order, Big Love, NCIS, and Grey’s Anatomy, among many others. She earned her MFA from Columbia University.