That Summer by Jennifer Weiner (read more books .txt) 📕

Thanks, as always, to my assistant, Meghan Burnett, whose indefatigable good nature and good cheer made the isolation feel less lonely, and who, in addition to her stellar work handling all aspects of my working world, has become one of my trusted first readers.

Sarah Christensen Fu keeps my website spiffy and my newsletter on schedule.

Out in Hollywood, I’m grateful for the help of Michelle Weiner (no relation) and to my brothers, Jake and Joe Weiner (relations). And, on a very practical level, I’m grateful to everyone at the UPS Store on Fourth and Bainbridge, who acted as a miniature warehouse/shipping center/office during the pandemic and were unfailingly helpful, whether they were printing manuscripts or shipping books or towels or Girl Scout cookies. Thanks to Scott Vradelis and to Dennis Jardel, Ben Quach, Victor Rivera, Alix Fequiere, and Henry Vradelis.

I am grateful to all of the librarians and the booksellers who have hosted me for events, who’ve recommended my books to readers and recommended other people’s books to me. Thank you for loving stories and for treating readers and writers with such generosity and kindness.

Of all the characters I’ve written, Beatrice Shoemaker is one of my favorites, and she’s very much inspired by my own girls. I’m grateful to my daughter Phoebe, who is sweet and caring, who asks me “How was your day?” and actually cares about the answer, and especially to my daughter Lucy, who is funny and opinionated, for her help in explaining teen culture and social media, for occasionally letting me look at her Finsta, and for not being as difficult IRL as Beatrice was in fiction. It’s true what they say: the hours can feel long, but the years go by fast. Lucy’s gone from being a baby to a little girl to an almost-adult playwright/director/stage manager in training, on her way to college, and it has been such a privilege to be her mom. The world is imperfect and there’s still a lot of work to be done, but my daughters and their friends give me faith that the kids are going to save us all.

I am grateful to Bill Syken, husband and first reader, for his love and support, for being calm when I’m not, for his wonderful cooking and for laughing at (most of) my jokes. There’s no one I’d rather quarantine with. And, of course, my dog, Moochie, is a loyal muse and a faithful companion.

My mom, Fran Weiner, and her partner, Clair Kaplan, probably love and appreciate Cape Cod more than anyone. I am grateful to my mother for introducing me to the Cape, and to Clair for teaching me and my daughters how to clam. And, of course, I am grateful to you, my readers, for your willingness to come sit beside me and let me tell you a story.

Finally, Carolyn Reidy, who died unexpectedly in 2020, was a force in the world of publishing. She was the president and CEO of Simon & Schuster and one of the very first people to believe in me as a writer. She published my first book, and every book since then, and was a tremendous advocate and a brilliant editor. When I was stuck, her suggestions would be pithy and direct, and pretty much always right. When I was done, she’d read an early version and send me a long, beautifully written letter about specific scenes she liked or lines of dialogue she appreciated. I was always grateful for her contributions to my books and for her advocacy of me and of women in publishing. Carolyn was one of the smartest and best-read people I’ve ever met. She understood how fiction worked, and, maybe more important, she understood how writers work. She was a pioneer who opened doors for the generations of women who came behind her. I was lucky to have worked with her and proud to have been one of her authors.

That Summer

Jennifer Weiner

This reading group guide for That Summer includes an introduction, discussion questions, and ideas for enhancing your book club. The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book.

Introduction

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Big Summer comes another timely and deliciously twisty novel of intrigue, secrets, and the transformative power of female friendship.

Topics & Questions for Discussion

1. Daisy and Diana are originally framed as opposites—Daisy as the timid housewife and Diana as the woman about town. However, the two end up having more in common than they could have ever imagined. Compare and contrast these characters and what they learn from each other.

2. From That Summer’s onset, Weiner draws a connection between appearance, status, and perception; Diana even calls her executive get-up “drag” (p. 96). What are some other ways that characters signal their status? Across the book, do you think clothes are used more as a form of personal expression or as performance? In particular, you might think about Beatrice’s style and how it differs from her mom’s or Diana’s.

3. Our two main characters first meet as the result of a name mix-up. What is the importance of other names in this novel? In what ways do they serve as protective shields, or possibly burdens?

4. Various characters struggle with society’s suffocatingly narrow definition of success. In high school, Beatrice observes that “all the kids bragged about how little sleep they’d gotten and how much coffee they’d consumed” (p. 44). Daisy creates her own dichotomy of better/worse life outcomes (“Instead of a college graduate, she’d become a mom” [p. 32]). Does this novel argue that success should be equated with happiness? Which character is ultimately presented as the most “successful”?

5. Diana still thinks about what her life would have been like if she’d never been raped; “sometimes, the sorrow of the