52 weeks, 52 books discussion
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Where'd You Go, Bernadette
Week 40: Where'd You Go, Bernadette
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I read it earlier this year. I really liked it, a bit different from everything else that's out there.
Mod
I see that you only rated it three stars, though, Robin?
This is on my TBR list...will try and get to it next as it looks like a terrific book!
I wish we could give .5 stars. I'd probably give it 3.5 or 3.75. I really liked it, but wouldn't consider it one of my top reads.
I read this earlier this year and loved it!! It was a great read. The scenes with the neighbor made me laugh out loud! I recommend this book to many and they loved it too.
I thought this book was such a fun, quirky read. I laughed out loud when Bee was talking about the pros and cons of China occupying Tibet ... and I thought the emails and faxes between Aundry and Soo-yin were absolutely hilarious. Great read!
My mini review, sorry for any grammar mistakes:It’s a very original and creative book, extremely quotable, packed with funny dialogue and situations and with some extremely interesting characters, especially Bernadette. How I laughed with her craziness and is it just me, but I can completely picture the author writing a sequel to the book.
The main characteristic of the book I enjoyed the most was definitely its originality. The story is told layer by layer through a compilation of notes, reports and emails between the main characters. There are some hilarious situations especially at the beginning.
I did found the last 2 chapters and the conclusion of the story/mystery quite not up to par to the beginning, so for that reason the book ended disappointed me a bit towards the end. I felt that after Bernadette’s actual disappearance, which actually happened for my surprise really late into the book, the story kind of lost its main appeal by the introduction of a lot of unnecessary narration about Antarctica. And also lets face it the complete Antarctica part was a bit far fetched and over the top.
Part mystery, part comedy, and part satire it’s a very funny book that I overall really liked and recommend to anyone.
Boy did I need this book! I have to admit a lot of my enjoyment of it came from the spot-on interpretation of Seattle life by Maria Semple. I've lived in Seattle since I was too young to know better and worked in the private and public school sector and am currently a vendor for Microsoft. So besides the story of Bernadette and her family I just enjoyed being in environments that I know on a gut level and found no false notes to them at all. On my to buy list!
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I just met her this weekend and she is lovely. So glad you liked the book.
Let me begin by saying that based on the cover, I would have never picked this book to read. This was a fun, laugh out loud story about a family living in Seattle with an "interesting & socially challenged" mom. I enjoyed the story being told in email; quite different and fitting given the dad was a superstar at Microsoft. I thought the author did a fantastic job in her vivid descriptions surrounding the landscape & environment of life in Seattle. 3.5 stars
If I had had to rate this book through the first half I would have given it between 4 and 5 stars. I was really loving it. I thought the characters were intelligent and funny and warm. And then about halfway through I started getting annoyed (right around the intervention) and then when I found out that Soo-Lin was pregnant I got downright pissed!The author took a great premise and a fabulous first half of a book and turned it into "Days of Our Lives" - blech!
From there on in, I kept reading just to finish it but then the ending of the book REALLY pissed me off because the author has Bernadette writing to Bee implying that she is going to come home and they are going to live happily ever after. But she doesn't know about Soo-Lin....so what happens when she finds out? No amount of money is going to make that issue go away. A woman forgiving her husband for a thoughtless, drunken night of sex is one thing. Having to deal with a child for the rest of their lives, a child with a mindless, manipulative, screwed-up Mother, is entirely another. The author just conveniently forgets to address this issue.
Also, such a big deal was made about "Manjula". So where was there any conclusion to that issue? Nothing was said about it. The author either was in a hurry to finish or has watched too many soap operas and figured that her audience would just forget about all the things that had happened and accept a nice, tidy, happy little ending.
Super disappointing end to a book. Super disappointing turn to what began as a promising, funny, quirky, enjoyble novel.
The only reason I even gave it three stars was because I did like the first half so much and there was an element of creativity involved in the creation of those characters and the early dialogue.
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