Recommendation Friday #4

So this is my second recommendation Friday. And this book is a book that actually got me back into reading after straying away from it for a good few years. This book was a great read, very fast, funny, and just kept me engaged the whole time. And I think I owe everything to this book, a big thank you to bringing me back into the reading stream and reading community. It’s
Where’d You Go Burnadette? by Maria Semple.

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 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.

So, this book, was, oh my goodness. It’s all I can say. It’s not like some crazy murder mystery like Gone Girl or whatever but it’s much more light. Burnadette is hilarious. And it wasn’t something I’ve ever read before.  It’s written so nicely, and it’s not dark at all. The character is sharp, witty and just down-right funny. There were some real surprises, and I hated to put it down. As the ending approached, I was so eager to find out what had happened/would happen, so I didn’t put it down, I basically couldn’t.

The way Semple wrote of Burnadette and figuring out who she was it kind of just made you like her more and more through the book in her “stick it to the man” and “die yuppie scum” lifestyle. I loved the unique mix of emails, letters, documents, etc. that helped tell the story. I loved Bee’s voice, Bernadette, and so many of the cast of characters.

Either way, if you’re looking for something fun, funny, quirky and a bit different to read. I highly recommend this book