Julie's Review: Today Will Be Different

Author: Maria Semple
Series: None
Publication Date: October 4, 2016
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
Pages: 272
Obtained: publisher via Edleweiss
Genre:  Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 3/5
Bottom Line: Disappointing
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Library

Summary: Eleanor knows she's a mess. But today, she will tackle the little things. She will shower and get dressed. She will have her poetry and yoga lessons after dropping off her son, Timby. She won't swear. She will initiate sex with her husband, Joe. But before she can put her modest plan into action-life happens. Today, it turns out, is the day Timby has decided to fake sick to weasel his way into his mother's company. It's also the day Joe has chosen to tell his office-but not Eleanor-that he's on vacation. Just when it seems like things can't go more awry, an encounter with a former colleague produces a graphic memoir whose dramatic tale threatens to reveal a buried family secret. TODAY WILL BE DIFFERENT is a hilarious, heart-filled story about reinvention, sisterhood, and how sometimes it takes facing up to our former selves to truly begin living. ~amazon.com  

Review: Today Will Be Different was disappointing in a nut shell. I rushed to finish it just to finish it, if that tells you something. I felt that a book that was 272 pages was something I could quickly get done. I tell you most of these 272 pages were painful. I didn't connect with anyone in the story. I kind of felt that they were all caricatures of someone Ms. Semple knows.

I totally go where Eleanor was coming from. Trying to change how you look at life can be challenging and sometimes the little mantras help out. Let's face it though, Eleanor was a bit too far gone to have a mantra change her life. I found her to be scattered and completely self-centered. Heck she didn't even know what was going on with her husband. Also not for one minute do I believe she accepts her husbands change of heart regarding something they were both aligned on.

The mystery of the secret Eleanor was keeping was a bit disappointing after all the build up. I thought it was going to be a bit more dark.

If you are hoping for another Bernadette, look elsewhere because Eleanor isn't the heroine I was looking for.


 Google+

Julie's Review: Where'd You Go, Bernadette

Author: Maria Semple
Series: No
Publication Date: August 14, 2012
Publisher: Hachette Audio
Length: 9hrs and 39 minutes
Narrator: Kathleen Wilhoite
Obtained: Mine via Audible
Genre:  Contemporary Fiction
Rating: 4/5
Bottom Line: A clever story with lots of humor and heart.
Grab, Just get it at the library, or Remove from your TBR list? Grab!

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. ~amazon.com

Review: Where'd You Go, Bernadette is a wonderful story about the love between a mother and daughter, when the mother doesn't quite fit in with the rest of the mom's. See Bernadette is pretty much a genius when it comes to architecture but she gave that career up and has been living the life of a stay at home mom since Bee was born. To say that's made her a little off, is to say the least. Bernadette has, in a lot of ways, lost her $%!@. Having said that she is fiercely protective of her daughter, Bee; who in turn is protective of Bernadette.

There is much to chuckle at during the course of the novel. It is funny, it is honest and it is an interesting look at someone who has gone a little over the edge. Bernadette and Elgy have both receded into their own worlds. Except his is more commonplace, the workforce. You see, Elgy is a big wig at Microsoft and spends a lot of time working on his project, Samantha 2, so he's rarely home.

Of course, Bee goes to a private school and with that come the mother politics. Based on the last couple books that I have read dealing with mom's, I'm not so sure women should rule the world, man can we be bitchy and we are all guilty of it. Is it all a bit extreme, of course it is, which makes you able to chuckle through it.

I listened to it via Audible and thought that Ms. Wilhoite did a fantastic job with all the different characters and dialects. You know when she was Bee, Bernadette or any other character. I imagine that reading all the emails and letters might have been a little off putting for some but it was wonderful to listen to. I feel like the emails showed the insight to Bernadette's issue(s) and it connected Bee to her mom in a way that she might not have known.

If you are looking for a sweet story that does address some difficult issues, then I highly recommend Where'd You Go, Bernadette. I can't wait to see what Maria Semple writes next.



 Google+