This One is Mine is Maria Semple’s first novel. Many on this site have read and reviewed her follow-up bestseller, Where’d You Go, Bernadette? and I am one of them. I loved Bernadette because it was easy to empathize with all of Semple’s characters despite their profound flaws. Semple was able to craft situations which […]
**SPOILER ALERT** My book reviews are written as a discussion of a book, and not as an advertisement. Please be aware that there may be information that some would consider spoilers. Continue on at your own risk! This book has been favorably reviewed several times on Cannonball, and I have downloaded the sample several times. However, […]
Where’d You Go, Bernadette (2013) by Maria Semple was a book I first heard of through the many Cannonball reviews posted this year. It didn’t strike my interest at first; it sounded too weird. But the reviews kept coming in, and I even saw a Facebook friend gushing about it. I don’t like to feel […]
I’m going to do that thing I do when I don’t much like a book everyone else is raving about. It’s rare that a book lives up to the hype (Skippy Dies is one of the few that did), and Where’d You Go Bernadette just falls short. Bernadette lives in Seattle with her husband Elgie […]
As you’d expect from a writer on Arrested Development, this is a super smart and brilliantly funny satire novel that also makes you care about what’s going on. That’s because Semple has given us characters where you’d normally find caricatures. Loved it. Full review is on my blog here.
Looking for a summer book? I highly recommend Where’d you go Bernadette? for airports, planes, beaches or your back yard. This book is like going to a party with good friends: not all stories are to be believed, there’s delicious food and drink and lots of laughter. If you’re looking for “serious” literature avoid Where’d you […]
This book is popular among Cannonballers, and I get why. It’s got a different structure, a bit of whimsy and focuses much of its hatred on my grungy / crunchy little hometown of Seattle. In fact, the only thing that made me interested in reading the book was the tie to Seattle. However, I think […]
I’m not generally one for peer pressure, but the sheer number of reviews and effusive praise for Where’d You Go, Bernadette convinced me that I had to read this book. I did and, as I usually am with books as acclaimed as this, was let down considerably. Had the story ended with Bernadette’s (initial) disappearance, it would’ve […]
Goodreads summary: “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 […]
So many other Cannonballers have read this one, there isn’t much left for me to say. So I’ll keep it brief. Bee’s mom, Bernadette, disappears under mysterious circumstances. She’s suffered for years in a city that she doesn’t love, surrounded by people that she thought she hated. She left a failed career behind her in […]
Cannonball Read V 