June 1, 2015

BBBC: Where'd You Go Bernadette


It's June!!!!!!!! June means Little Miss Kemp shall be arriving shortly. Everyone in our family is beyond enthused for her upcoming arrival! My mother plans to arrive on June 18th, and she has firmly explained that no baby can arrive before then! We will surely try our best, lol! How fitting that last month's book included a mother-daughter relationship.

Ok, let's see what this book is all about.

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.

Such a witty and entertaining read! How Maria Semple weaves various formats ( e-mails, letters, F.B.I. documents, correspondence with a psychiatrist and even an emergency-room bill) for the background to a riveting story is beyond me!

Now, I must admit that the various formats at first made me so confused and perplexed, especially in the first chapter. My mother also read this book, in like 2 days, and she assured me that it all comes together in a marvelous way, and she was so right!

I must give this book high praise for Ms. Semple's writing, but also the message that I took away at the end. You learn about the suffering that Bernadette has faced for nearly 20 years, and I truly sympathized for her character. It made me step back and realize that everyone has a history with multiple dimensions impacting their present. An individual's present way of being has been molded from their life experiences, and we must keep this in my mind when judging others' actions, in my humble opinion :)

I too loved the mother-daughter relationship that is so present throughout the book!

For the month of June, Heather from Love To Be Busy has chosen "The Year We Left Home" by Jean Thompson.

Now, head on over the the other Members' blogs to see what they thought about the book! 
Heather - Love To Be Busy

We have yet another NEW Beauty Blogger Book Club member! Please help me welcome Stephanie from The Wonky Brow! Stephanie blogs about beauty products and sharing her #365DaysofEmpties with the world!

I honestly could not be more thrilled for our new members! I hope you check out their blogs!

The Beauty Blogger Book Club began in January of 2015! We currently have 6 Members with various blog content. Each month, one of the Beauty Blogger Book Club (BBBC) members chooses a book for the Club to read. At the beginning of the following month, we each write a book report/summary for our readers to enjoy and share the book for the following month! The "Club" provides all of us bloggers an opportunity to network and read books outside of our comfort zones!

Michelyn Cynthia
Question of the Day:  What book have you recently read that you think the BBBC should read & review?

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