CBR Bingo entry Backlog. This is gonna sound weird, but this novel lost me when it started introducing too much plot. I was loving it for the first half when we were just learning about the characters and making fun of people in Seattle (no offense, Seattle), but then things went off the rails for me, and not in a fun way. Where’d You Go, Bernadette is a story about a semi-dysfunctional family living in Seattle. Bernadette was once a celebrated Los Angeles architect who […]
This is why your children were returned to you shoeless, jacketless, covered in mud, and full of fantastic stories.
Many of you fellow Cannonballers read this one and you folks are not ambivalent about it. It appears to be a like it or leave it situation. I gotta say, I thought it was tremendous. This is a modern tale that pokes fun at Seattle, Microsoft, progressive schools, helicopter parents and impersonal technology that allows us to outsource our lives. Elgin, Bernadette and Bee live in an upscale Seattle neighborhood. Elgin’s job at Microsoft affords them an affluent lifestyle but they live in a dilapidated former […]
The author has a formula, but it’s a good one
I love love loved Where’d You Go, Bernadette. I reviewed it back at the beginning of the year and my opinion stands – Maria Semple’s writing is just addicting. Today Will Be Different takes place over a smaller timeframe and doesn’t have quite the same stage presence as the other novel, but damn is it hard to put down. Y’all, I finished this in hours. It does feel a lot like Bernadette, it’s like the second verse in the same song. Eleanor is a bundle of quirks […]
Fortunately Gone, I Wait for You
Where’d You Go, Bernadette is a perfectly fine book. I think a lot of people like it a lot. It’s the story of Bee, a teenager in Seattle, whose mother Bernadette disappears one day. Most of the book covers what leads up to her disappearance, while the end talks about the aftermath and the efforts to find her. I found this book quite engaging and finished it in just a few days. I liked the format (it’s mainly a series of emails sent between different […]