Review

Where'd You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple

Publication date: August , 2012

Little, Brown and Company 

Source: Audio book  

Links : Goodreads / Amazon 

A compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter's role in an absurd world.

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.

                    My Thoughts                   

So for starters let me start out by saying that I have been transitioning to audio books since this works best for me with a new baby in the house.

Where'd you go Bernadette was a perfect witty and fun light read. The entire book is a series of emails, letters, notes or correspondences from one character in the story to the other, all which daughter Bee has to put together to find out what happened to her missing mother Bernadette. Im not sure if I would have loved the idea of reading a novel that way ( just a collection of emails back and forth )  but listening to the audio version of the book I found it refreshing and fun. Also just as a side note... These people write very in depth emails!!! ( just to mention that in no way have I ever written an email or text even that can hold a candle to the ones that they wrote ). This book was perfectly done and I found myself laughing out loud many times. Bernadette is a unique character that completely didn't fit in to the suburban gossipy community in Seattle she found herself living in, she was an odd duck as was her daughter Bee, and the hunt to find Bernadette all while she was finding herself was an amazing journey to go on.

I highly recommend the Audiobook version. The reader did an awesome job with everyones voices. so easy to listen to. Hope to find more good light reads such as these!

Movie News: 
In other news this book is getting made into a film, staring Cate Blanchett as Bernadette, I'm not quite sure I see her in that role but am interested to see how she does. Personally I picture a younger Susan Sarandon in that role. They have also cast Kristin Wigg as the nosey bothersome neighbor Audrey who lives down the hill from Bernadette, and I think she would make a perfect Audrey ! Can't wait to see how it all turns out.