Gentlewomen's ClubHi, I am Annieke and I am a recently relapsed bookworm. After a ten year hiatus, I recently rediscovered reading and I haven’t been able to put my e-reader down, devouring one book after another. One of my favourite finds so far is Laurie Frankel’s This Is How It Always Is. It’s an absolute gem, and I have been recommending it to pretty much everyone I talked to (apologies to those who already heard me gushing about this book !)
This Is How It Always Is tells the story of Rosie and Penn Walsh-Adams and their five sons Roo, Ben, Rigel, Orion and Claude. Like most parents, all Penn and Rosie want for their children is to be happy – and if that requires Claude to be a girl, then so be it. The family embarks on a journey of princess dresses, fairy tales and transformation. Claude becomes Poppy, and while most people quickly embrace the feisty five-year old with her beloved purse, not everyone is as understanding.
This is a book about family, identity, growing up and being different. It is an ode to love and acceptance. The author, who is the mother of a trans-gender daughter, said about the book: ¨for my child, for all our children, I want more options, more paths through the woods, wider ranges of normal, and unconditional love. Who doesn’t want that? I know this book will be controversial, but honestly ? I keep forgettting why.¨
I hope you will love this book as much as I did, and I look forward to discussing it with you!
This Is How It Always Is – Winner of the 2018 Washington State Book Award and Named a Best Book of the Year by: Amazon | People Magazine | The Stranger | Bustle | The Globe and Mail | Seattle www.lauriefrankel.net
