READ THIS! {Where'd You Go, Bernadette?}

When I disappear, it is usually because of exhaustion. I know I've been MIA this week (blame school work and a long weekend with little sleep and please forgive me), but it is actually quite fitting for today's review of May's READ THIS! selection, Where'd You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple.



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This month's READ THIS! selection is described by Amazon as, "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." 

I absolutely fell in love with Bee, Bernadette, and their amazing adventure. Bee tells the story, creating a world in intricate detail and she takes you through e-mails and private conversations to help you piece the story together, as she as. Laugh out loud funny, I couldn't put this down - and savored every single moment that I was reading it. It also made me cry, and by the end of the novel, I felt as though I truly connected with Bee and Bernadette - and wished that they were real. Semple created an incredible world here, and I am so happy that I was able to be a part of it. The bond that we are able to explore between Bee and Bernadette was remarkable - and beautifully written.

Did you join me in reading Where'd You Go, Bernadette? this month? I know a few of you did! Did you enjoy it as much as I did? Bernadette is seen by many of the people around her as coming undone, or as someone who has always been a bit crazy. Do you agree with those around her? Or did you find that perhaps she is misunderstood and not really all that crazy? Did Audrey Griffin surprise you in her actions throughout the novel? And did your perception of her change from a "love to hate" to "love to love," or did you simply tolerate her by the end of the story? I'd love to hear your take on this novel!

As May comes to an end, and the official start of summer is almost here, I thought another fun book was a great idea for June's READ THIS! selection, and so the novel for this month is Divergent by Veronica Roth.



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A young adult story in a similar style as The Hunger Games, Amazon describes this novel as, "In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself. During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves . . . or it might destroy her. Debut author Veronica Roth bursts onto the literary scene with the first book in the Divergent series—dystopian thrillers filled with electrifying decisions, heartbreaking betrayals, stunning consequences, and unexpected romance."

 

The beginning of a series with four books in total (3 is due out in October), I am excited to be pulled into a new world, and to fall in love with a new series! I've been reading up a storm this month (15 books so far, and I think I'll finish the one I'm reading now before tomorrow night - making it 16), and I am loving every second of it!

Will you join me in reading Divergent by Veronica Roth this month? I hope you will! And make sure to check back at the end of the month for the June's READ THIS! review!