This was a solid three star book for the first half, but it had me by the end. It’s probably unfair to judge this book so heavily in comparison with another, as if it’s not its own thing, but it’s inescapable for me. Like many people, I absolutely fell in love with Semple’s second novel, Where’d You Go, Bernadette, when I read it back in 2012. My love was perhaps stronger because the book came out of nowhere. I hadn’t been planning to read it, […]
Where’d You Go, Maria Semple
The struggle with enjoying a newer book by an established author, and then going back to their previous works, is your expectations for their debut are high. Halfway through This One is Mine I double checked that this Maria Semple was the same Maria Semple who wrote Where’d You Go, Bernadette. She is. This One is Mine tells the overlapping stories of Violet Parry, her husband David and his sister Sally during a tumultuous time in their lives. David is a multimillionaire record executive and Violet had a successful career […]
“I’m not too good when exposed to people”
Over the summer I cancelled my SiriusXM membership because between borrowing CDs from the library and downloading books off Overdrive I almost always had an audiobook to listen to in the car. Typically, I leave my book listening to the car but not with Where’d You Go, Bernadette? I couldn’t put it down (so to speak) and since it was downloaded onto my phone I didn’t have to. Bernadette went with me to my lunch break at work, while I was cooking and even while I was […]
Satire with a heart
3.5 stars. This is a strange little book. I know a lot of cannonballers have read this and it was so popular that most people will have at least heard of it. It’s been on my TBR for ages and ages honestly. I might not have read it if I’d known it was satire. My preferred satire delivery method is via the screen not the printed word. It makes me uncomfortable to devote several hours to it. Luckily, Where’d You Go, Bernadette is a cross […]