Today's recommended read: 'Where'd You Go, Bernadette' by Maria Semple

Posted March 23, 2020 6:00 am

Lisa Miner

You may have seen the movie "Where'd You Go, Bernadette" with Cate Blanchett and Barrington teen Emma Nelson. If not, add it to your list. But before you stream it, check out Maria Semple's novel first. The movie, while good, tinkers with the plot a bit and doesn't completely capture the nuances of this laugh-out-loud funny read.

Bernadette Fox is an agoraphobic, once-famous architect now living with her husband and daughter, Bee, in a Seattle neighborhood full of overbearing, judgmental moms. Emails with her "virtual" assistant, school memos and hysterically funny invoices advance the plot as Bernadette's world comically unravels. Then, as her husband and others stage an intervention, Bernadette disappears.

Any harried mom can identify with this flawed, funny woman and her loyal, loving daughter.

Read, laugh and enjoy.

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