Where'd You Go Bernadette? -- A Review

I have been absolutely tearing through books this summer -- I'll have to get back on good terms with the library so I can start borrowing books instead of paying for them or else I'll go broke... Anyways, second on my list for the Summer Reading Challenge was Where'd You Go Bernadette? Here's what I thought about it!

title :: Where'd You Go, Bernadette?
author :: Maria Semple
summary from goodreads :: 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. [goodreads]

my thoughts :: This story is told by Bee and through a compilation of e-mails, notes, documents, and various other forms of communication. At first it was a little tough to keep up with the different changing voices -- but once all of the characters were established it was much easier. Bernadette appealed to me as a character because she's similar to a lot of the highly intelligent but not so-good-with-people characters I love [Bones, Dr. Spencer Reid, etc..] -- she's struggling in Seattle where all of the people have always lived there [having moved to a small town in high school -- I can totally relate to her struggles]. I also really adored Bee's character  -- she was tenacious and definitely not one to be told "no" there were times that my heart broke for her and times that I was just as excited as she was. I quite honestly could not put this one down!

would I recommend this book? :: absolutely -- I actually read it more on a suggestion than because it was on the NYT Best Sellers list. I would recommend this book for anyone who enjoys satire and a good little mystery.