4 Stars. I can always count on Jonathan Tropper to pull me out of a book slump!

After picking up How to Talk to a Widower on a whim, I became an immediate fan of Jonathan Tropper and went back to read all of his other books. Each one has moments of hilarity and poignancy. This is the type of book that I find truly entertaining--one that can both make me laugh out loud and bring me to tears. I could not help but love the main character in this story; in spite of his ambivalence and lack of drive, I warmed to him immediately, and I attribute that to Tropper's gift with charac...

Kelly( and the Book Boar) was/were kind enough to write my review for me. She did an excellent job. Please read it!

Everything changes for Zack when he wakes up one morning and discovers blood in his urine. While waiting for his biopsy results to come back, Zack deals with his lackluster career, an absentee father who decides to make his re-entry into the family after being gone for 20+ years, his upcoming engagement party, and the fact that he may be in love with his best friend's widow.Like all Tropper books, Zack is kind of a loveable loser and is surrounded by an unforgettable ensemble cast. While I'm sur...

Everything Changes is a story about Zack King, a guy who has a lot going for him, but isn’t necessarily as happy as you think. Traumatic childhood experiences and Norm, his largely absent father, resurface, a tragedy leaves him and close friends struggling with elements of grief, and a health scare, a job he hates, and confusion about love add to the mix. I was pleasantly surprised by this book. This book had a great balance of dark sadness, humor and wit. While some elements in the story became...

Waiting for Biopsy Results and Other Life's Fun EventsI met Jonathan Tropper at a literary presentation in April, 2011 at Eastern Michigan University. He is a droll man with a singular, but not overpowering, wit. I was duly impressed. I have liked all of his books. I loved "There is Where I Leave You" and I almost love "Everything Changes." His total talent was apparent in "This is Where....." which, I understand, is in the works for a movie. Tropper writes for both men and women, which makes hi...

I needed a solid, entertaining audio book to get me through the last crazy weeks of school and found it in Jonathan Tropper. Everything Changes is certainly not his best work, but any Tropper is good reading.The story felt familiar -- Zach is a 30-something Jewish guy with serious father issues who faces a life-altering crisis. Drama, humor and fist-fights follow. It's the standard Tropper mix but I'm OK with that. Sometimes I want something familiar and not too challenging.I like that Tropper's...

A book about love. Not the soppy kind, or the romantic kind - but the soul fulfilling, complete and utter love that is between parent and child, between siblings, between friends, between parents and yes, between soul mates.Set around a male, in New York, yet as a female, in rural England, I could relate to Zack's feelings, confusions and journey: which must mean an awesome author, when you end up wanting to be the main character.It left me feeling sad that I don't have the complexities of the r...

I think it's a testament to Jonathan Tropper's writing skill that he can create characters that I can relate to even as they are having experiences I never have had, such as being male, having brothers or anticipating the results of a biopsy. It took me longer to get into this one than it did Book of Joe, but once it did, once again, I couldn't put it down. I completely fell in love with Zack in the end. How can you not love anyone who creates paragraphs like this one:I picture my empty cubicle,...

Jonathan Tropper's dysfunctional characters drew me in quickly and were laugh-out-loud funny throughout the book resulting in a quick one day read. As a big fan of this author, am looking forward to receiving the two remaining novels I haven't read, How to Talk to a Widower and Plan B that I ordered today. Definitely recommend!

Okay, I knew there was a reason why I gave Jonathan Tropper another chance.This book was fantastic. I started it late on a Sunday night, in the vain attempt that it would help me fall asleep, and instead, I read the entire book. Besides Tropper's writing style (which is sarcastic and funny while being warm and engaging...odd feat), the interwoven stories were interesting and touching. I immediately went to the bookstore to buy his other books. Hooray for a new favorite author.

Many people's immediate reaction to Jonathan Tropper — author of last year's critically acclaimed This Is Where I Leave You, one of my favorite books of 2009 — is to pigeonhole him as the dude version of chick lit writers like Sophie Kinsella, Lauren Weisberger and Candace Bushnell. Everything Changes certainly has elements of what could be considered "dude lit" — laughably bad dialogue, silly gratuitous sex scenes, drugs and rock'n'roll. Even the cover art plays into this notion of "for fellas

Not good. This is a book about a guy who complains. He complains a lot. You've heard of "stream of consciousness"... well, this is stream of complaining. It is incessant. Zach King, the main character, is a 30-something guy who complains about his job, his friends, his fiancé, and mostly, over and over again, his father. We have the whole magilla here: flat writing style, 2-D characters, boring plot, etc. It is draining.The book cover promises "razor-sharp wit". OK. The running gag in the book:

3.5 stars.Criticizing Jonathan Tropper for representing one specific worldview is sort of like criticizing The Ramones for not using a string section. Yet that’s usually what I hear when criticism is levied against him: his stories are too white, too male, too thirtysomething anxious. If there’s any discussion about whether or not he deals with those things well, it’s often tinged with condescension about the perspectives he’s not representing. Which, I have to say, makes little sense to me. Jus...

Two summers ago I was blown away by Jonathan Tropper's "The Book of Joe." So I've been looking forward to reading Tropper's third novel for many, many moons. And guess what? Tropper does not disappoint; his tome, EVERYTHING CHANGES, successfully captures that funny/poignant hybrid characteristic of this very gifted writer. Thirty-two-year-old Zack King finds himself in quite the conundrum. He hates his job; he's engaged to to a beautiful, adoring woman, yet finds himself hopelessly attracted to

I've decided to override my inner snob and to give this four stars.Every now and then, I need something light and readable but not too stupid. Of the two Jonathan Tropper books I've read, both fit that bill. Sure, I can point to flaws in this book, particularly Mary Sue style wish fulfillment. One major plot point here is that the protagonist, an average guy, is caught between two beautiful and kind Mary Sue-like women, both of whom want him and are willing to forgive a great deal. Whatever.But

First review and I am not sure I am doing this correctly or even if there is a "correct" way to do things. This is the second book I have read by Jonathan Tropper and I am anticipating reading his other novels. Often I can really, really enjoy a book - I mean really like it- but it is fairly rare when I read something that actually takes me somewhere else entirely. With some authors, you just feel a kinship through their style. With Tropper, it's a bit masochistic...in a good way. He tells his s...

This being my second foray into the writings of Jonathan Tropper (the first being How to Talk to a Widower) I continue to be impressed by his writing.While there are definite similarities in plot between the two books-- conflicted male who thinks his life is in order is faced with adversity and the true uncertainties of life to test his limits-- there are enough differences and the characters in Everything Changes are flawed enough to be believable and likable and there are still enough differen...

I think I have now read all of Jonathan Tropper's books and they have all been great in my opinion. Everything changes is about a guy in his mid 30's in a deadend job who is about to get married to a beautiful women while being in love with the widow of his best friend. While this is going on in his life, his deadbeat dad comes back into the families life. They hadn't seen him in around 25 years. One of his brothers is in a punk rock band and clearly has issues with his dad. His other brother is...

Well - at last one of Tropper's works worked for me. This one is just as guilty of his usual adult boy fantasy world - nice cars, beautiful women, descriptions of whom I always find offensive not to mention surreal, a tug between two to die for woman both of whom, he is surprised, like him, the usual sitcom moments and snappy one liners, the dysfunctional families, blah blah blah. Still, though - in this particular one, Zach is torn between not just two women but two sorts of love, and I actuall...