On My Bookshelf [Where'd You Go, Bernadette?]



When I first started Where'd You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple, I loved it!  Parts of it were just laugh out loud funny, Bernadette is entertaining and even lovable despite herself, and you found yourself rooting for her.  Although the disjointed writing (the story is told through emails, notes, and many different points of view) took some getting used to, I tore through the first half of this novel. 


Then came the middle.  Somehow the story lost me.  Without giving away too many details parts of it just weren't believable for the characters and just seemed tedious.  The ending, for me, was a let down. All in all, with such a fantastic start to this book, I was disappointed.  However, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that I seem to be in the minority here, and the book has received rave reviews from friends!  (Which is how it ended up "on my bookshelf".)

Amazon says:
Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom.

Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette's intensifying allergy to Seattle--and people in general--has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic.

To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, secret correspondence--creating a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter's role in an absurd world.

What's on your bookshelf??  Winter is always my favorite time to curl up with a good book, and I'm compiling a list of titles I'd like to include.

Happy Reading!