Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple - 3 stars but I'm tempted to give 2

[Charlotte]

Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple
3 stars but I almost gave it 2...

What I liked... Similar to Where'd you go, Bernadette. It's set in Seattle. Now that I live in the area, it's fun to read others perceptions and giggle about the quirks and uniqueness of the area that you don't realize exists when you are just visiting.

It follows another "crazy lady" character that gave me flashbacks of her Bernadette character the whole time. I think Timby, the main characters son, might be my favorite character in the whole book.

The book seemed so sporadic. It hopped around all over the place and there didn't seem to be much cohesiveness. And what almost ruined the whole book for me is the dog Yo-Yo... poor Yo-Yo. He doesn't die but he does get forgotten and it screwed me up so much that I couldn't continue reading until I found out what happened. I skimmed ahead and couldn't see any mention of him, so I had to google Yo-Yo and Today will Be Different and I found a blog that talks about what happened, setting my mind at ease so that I could continue with the book. This doesn't give anything away because it's not the main plot of the book.

It follows the main character (I'm forgetting her name) as she tries to have a better day, be more present, be a better mom, be a better wife... and then the craziness ensues. There are flashbacks that provide backstory as to why she's freaking out about seemingly little things and similar to Where'd you go Bernadette at the end you are filled with a sense of she's not crazy, she's just got a lot going on...

All in all, I enjoyed the writing, the dog piece distracted me, and the story was meh and wrapped up too quickly.

[Joi]

I don't remember much about this despite reading it in the past few years. I went back and read my own review- and the standout for me was also the Seattle references, haha.