Where’d You Go, Bernadette
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.
This book is in a different format than usual, with faxes, emails and some narrative from Bernadette’s daughter Bee. Sometimes I find this way of writing awkward, but Semple does a great job with it and it just plain works with this plot and the characters. When you look at the fact that Bernadette’s husband is a mastermind at Microsoft, the electronically conveyed portions make even more sense. After all, who is more apt to use non-traditional forms of writing than the daughter of a man who is a computer marvel?
I found the descriptions of Bee’s school to be absolutely hilarious, especially when juxtaposed next to the description of Seattle’s usual residents – not all the type of fashion and beauty upkeep you would expect from such a pretentious school where the kids go on to boarding schools.
I don’t usually find architecture interesting but this book made it much more so. I realize it was meant to make it wild and crazy, but it really did make me think more about the design of houses and buildings.
I also enjoyed the foreign virtual assistant aspect. I have read about these virtual assistants in the past and I find it amusing that Bernadette totally relied on one for everything, even an as a therapist of sorts.
I really enjoyed Where’d You Go, Bernadette and will be checking out more of Maria Semple’s novels. Do you want to learn more about the book and Maria Semple? Here’s some links:
- Read an excerpt
- Listen to an audiobook excerpt
- Maria Semple’s Facebook page
- Where’d You Go, Bernadette Facebook page
The publisher is also supplying 3 copies for me to give away! To enter, just use the Rafflecopter form below. Giveaway is open to US and Canada, 18 and over, no PO boxes - if you don’t have an alternate address to send a prize to, please do not enter. Contest ends 8/30, 11:59 PM EDT. Good luck!
I was given a copy of this book in order to provide a review. This did not influence my opinion in any way. All thoughts are 100% my own. This post contains affiliate links.
32 comments
1 ping
Rose Wendy
September 5, 2012 at 2:00 pm (UTC -4)
Congrats to the winners!
Christy Maurer
September 4, 2012 at 10:16 pm (UTC -4)
That book sounds really cute! I’d love to read it
Thanks for doing the review!
Rose Wendy
September 4, 2012 at 1:27 pm (UTC -4)
thanks for the review. sounds like the kind of book i like to read.
Jocelyne Alldrick
August 30, 2012 at 11:52 pm (UTC -4)
50 Shades!
James Coyne
August 30, 2012 at 11:33 pm (UTC -4)
Forever Odd by Dean Koontz
Barbara R.
August 30, 2012 at 10:27 pm (UTC -4)
I liked, The Amish Bride (The Women of Lancaster County), by y Mindy Starns Clark, Leslie Gould
lknott
August 30, 2012 at 6:23 pm (UTC -4)
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. Not New out but new to me!!!
Jaime Nicole
August 30, 2012 at 10:20 am (UTC -4)
I’m not sure when it came out, but I loved The Art of Racing in the Rain.
Lucy Black
August 29, 2012 at 6:50 pm (UTC -4)
It sounds very interesting.
Ed Nemmers
August 29, 2012 at 3:37 pm (UTC -4)
Anna Quindlen’s “Too Many Candles, Not Enough Cake”!
Melissa
August 28, 2012 at 8:36 pm (UTC -4)
Beth Ann Bauman’s JERSEY ANGEL. I couldn’t put it down!
Caryn S
August 28, 2012 at 12:27 pm (UTC -4)
I liked The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach
Cathie Shane
August 25, 2012 at 5:42 pm (UTC -4)
I think my favorite book is Sacajawea. It is a long read but something I can not put down once I start. I have read it several times and the corners of the pages are frayed and tattered from my thumbing through.
Carla Bonesteel
August 24, 2012 at 12:17 pm (UTC -4)
I love the Twilight Series…all of them.
Mike W Davis
August 23, 2012 at 1:47 pm (UTC -4)
All the Kings men–Narnia Chronicles–theres to many that I have read and reread this year
Ambrielle Bender
August 23, 2012 at 8:08 am (UTC -4)
Spell checked (no certain logic) by C.G. Powell
Susan @ The Book Bag
August 23, 2012 at 12:50 am (UTC -4)
The Healer of Fox Hollow – what an amazing book!
Jayde Ann Shrew
August 22, 2012 at 5:41 am (UTC -4)
my favorites are books by Lavyrle Spencer. especially November of the heart. the setting is my hometown in Minnesota. J Wresh
Bonnie Yee
August 21, 2012 at 1:55 pm (UTC -4)
The book sounds different and ver interesting.
Bonnie Yee
August 21, 2012 at 1:56 pm (UTC -4)
Oops, I enjoyed The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings the most so far this year.
Kathy P
August 21, 2012 at 9:45 am (UTC -4)
Loved Gone Girl
adrienne warren
August 21, 2012 at 3:17 am (UTC -4)
non fiction drift by Rachel Maddow
Fiction still life with crows by douglas patterson and lincoln childs
Anita Yancey
August 20, 2012 at 1:27 pm (UTC -4)
My favorite of the ones I read was Patter of Wonds by J. Mark Bertrand.
Andrea B.
August 20, 2012 at 11:30 am (UTC -4)
My favorite book so far in 2012 was Angel of Thanksgiving by Henry Ripplinger.
Kathleen Pearlman
August 19, 2012 at 10:42 am (UTC -4)
I read so much it’s hard to name a favorite. I won an ARC of Hiss and Hers by M.C. Beaton and I liked it a lot.
LOIS PAYTON
August 16, 2012 at 2:39 pm (UTC -4)
hunger games, GOD BLESS AND KEEP YA’LL SAFE IN HIS LOVING ARMS.
Susan Meyer
August 16, 2012 at 10:04 am (UTC -4)
My favorite books have been and always will be Magic Kingdom for Sale Sold series by Terry Brooks.
Monica Platz
August 16, 2012 at 9:08 am (UTC -4)
My favorite was Gone Girl
Laura Royal
August 16, 2012 at 8:23 am (UTC -4)
hunger games
Mary Ann Woods
August 16, 2012 at 7:32 am (UTC -4)
My favorite book so far is Wild.
Melissa Stoneback-Tuttle
August 16, 2012 at 3:50 am (UTC -4)
the hunger games series
Joy Person
August 16, 2012 at 2:47 am (UTC -4)
The Hobbit…..finally read the book. It’s been sitting on my shelf for a very very long time
Best of 2012 Giveaway Hop - Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
December 26, 2012 at 12:54 pm (UTC -4)
[...] read a lot of books this year but one stands out to me more than many others. I reviewed Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple back in August. While definitely a “different” book, I enjoyed it. I know [...]