Where the Grass is Green and Girls are Pretty

 Where the Grass is Green and  Girls are Pretty is the newest book written by author, Lauren Weisberger. Weisberger is best known for her novel, The Devil Wears Prada, and she has a number of other entertaining novels.

In this newest story we meet two sisters living perfect lives. Peyton Marcus has it all.   A career as a popular TV anchor for the most viewed morning show, an apartment in New York City. Her husband, Issac, who loves her and a teenage daughter, Max who is on her way to college in the  fall.  Peyton is the obsessed  woman who works out at the gym and has beauty treatments to keep her looking young  and  worries about making sure she is always presenting the perfect image to the world. 

Her sister, Skye also has it all, living the life of a stay at home mom in the town of Paradise.  She has the perfect, loving husband, Gabe, and a beautiful young child, Aurora. She is trying to find herself as her daughter gets older and Skye is feeling like she needs to make an impact on the world and use the expensive college degree she worked hard to get.

Jealousy is such an ugly thing.  Each sister has jealous memories of their shared childhood.  Though they are close and tell each other everything now there are secrets each is afraid to share.  Their mother, whose outrageous behavior pulls them together, is misunderstood.  As the story develops the secrets each sister holds onto builds.  Sometimes one's actions have far rippling affects.  That is the case in this plot.  As we find out the extent of the mistakes Peyton and Skye make and how it extends out to affect their husbands and children, and finally each other.   It strains their relationship.

The story is told in a delightful entertaining way, but the messages of jealousy and envy are well  developed.  There is much to discuss about the world of college admissions to the relationship of siblings  and the need to the best.  Wanting the most for your child..even  if its not what your child may want.  Your child as a reflection of yourself.

Weisberger captures the current dichotomy between teens and their parents in this quote about how parents are not caught up on the social changes today.  "Did they totally  understand the social changes that were taking place in her generation? Of course not. They still expressed incredulousness when Max told them that this boy came out as gay or that girl came out as transgender, and it wasn't a thing. That these were un-newsworthy announcements. They struggled with the idea that people had pronoun preferences. They could grasp the concept that a whole lot of her friends, and maybe even  Max, thought of sexuality as fluid, and something that happened on a continuum , not a fixed point on a straight line.  Hell, they probably freak out if she wanted to marry someone who wasn't Jewish one day, despite being the lest religious people she'd ever met.  And the y were  the liberals ones! The New Yorkers!"

This example really captures the age gap  between not only teens but millennials  and their parents today. I remember when I was young how old fashioned my grandparents and parents seemed. Now I feel like one of those out of touch elders, trying hard to keep up with the times.

This was book was very enjoyable to read and it brings up many issues I think so many people struggle with and might not want to admit.  The only character I was unsure about was Peyton's husband who stands by her through thick and thin.  He is so easy going and accepting of her personality and her foibles and shortcomings and never really seems to get angry enough with her.  It did not seem realistic.