All posts by Jen

About Jen

I'm a grad student studying publishing and currently working at a job I loathe. My goal in starting this blog is to gain writing experience and also to explore issues that affect me and my peers.

Philadelphia Reading Olympics

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Today I volunteered at the Philadelphia Reading Olympics, a city-wide reading competition for middle schoolers sponsored by Philadelphia Reads, the Free Library of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia School District, among others. While anyone who knows me personally knows that I don’t have much experience being around children and don’t plan to have children of my own, I thought that anything that encourages people of any age to read is worth helping.

My (back row, third from the right) with my coworkers and fellow volunteers at the event!

Me (back row, third from the right) with my coworkers and fellow volunteers at the event!

For the past few months, teams of fourth, fifth, and sixth graders prepared for the event by reading twenty selected books. Then they went to local college campuses to compete against teams from neighboring schools. Each team had to answer three rounds of twenty questions each about the books they read, and earned points for each questions they answered correctly. The teams got a red, green, or blue ribbon at the end, depending on the total of points they earned. So they weren’t really competing against each other, they were trying to earn as many points as possible in order to win a ribbon.

I kept score for the first round and read the questions for the next two rounds. And yeah, I’m not saying that Alex Trebek has a hard job, but reading off of cards for an hour isn’t always as easy as it looks. It was nice to see kids excited about books and reading. In an age where everyone has a smart phone and (as the college security guard commented to me on my way in) young people are more attracted to computers than to books, it’s great to know that there are still kids out there who love to be challenged by a good book.

What I also took away from this experience is that I apparently know nothing about what kids are reading in school these days. Out of the twenty books the kids had to read for the competition, I had not heard of any of them. I guess no one reads Where The Red Fern Grows anymore.

This was a fun few hours and a good volunteer experience. I hadn’t heard about the Philadelphia Reading Olympics until recently, but I’m glad I did, and I’ll probably volunteer again next year if I can. If you care about books and live in the greater Philly area, check out their website and see how you can help out too. And if you don’t live in Philly, see if there’s a similar event in your town!

Best Worst Book Cover?

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Two years ago, movie fans rejoiced when Simon & Schuster announced that they were going to publish Greg Sestero’s memoir in which he details his experiences as one of the lead actors in the infamous 2004 movie The Room. Well, fans of The Room rejoiced anyway. Boring people, who don’t love bad movies ironically, probably paid no attention.

It’s been a long two years, but the book, The Disaster Artist, is finally being released on October 1!  No information was released about the book since S&S’s initial announcement in 2011, and for the longest time, fans weren’t even sure if there was ever really going to be a book.

So weren’t we all thrilled when we got our first glimpse of the book cover? After seeing so many fan-created book cover concepts, we could only imagine what the actual cover would look like. This is what we got:

It’s just so, so…blah! The first thing I thought when I saw it was “That’s it?!” Just a boring stock image of a celluloid strip, that’s all they came up with? Not only does it say nothing about the movie, it looks like something an eighth grader made with Photoshop.

I wasn’t the only person who felt this way. My other Room-fan friends were also left disenchanted by this obvious and unimaginative cover. Is S&S trying to drive up sales by making this book look like any regular film criticism book? Have they never even seen the hilariously awful movie that inspired the book?

The fan-created cover concepts are infinitely better! Any one of them would be a better representation of the movie’s spirit and humor. Take a look at these fake covers:

These fans clearly get what the movie is about, and that is, when you take yourself too seriously, hilarity often ensues. Just in looking at the cover, it seems that The Disaster Artist is trying to take itself too seriously. And as Johnny taught us before his unfortunate demise, “Don’t plan too much, it may not come out right.”

Ok, maybe I’m being a little crazy. It’s just a book cover after all. I’m still dying to read it, and I’m counting the days until its release. I just hope that Sestero and his co-author Tom Bissell (because you didn’t actually think that Sestosterone actually wrote the book by himself, did you?) will live up to the fans’ expectations. And even that is a pretty easy task, because the fans don’t know what to expect!

So what do you think? Do you hate the book cover as much as I do, and are you going to read it when it’s released?

My Big Kinky Erotica Post, Part Three

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I’ve been having so much fun writing these erotica posts that I decided to go for another round!  I’ve got some great books for you to check out, some old and some new.  I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I did.

The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty by Anne Rice (1983)

The original naughty trilogy!  These infamous books were published back in the 80s, but the popularity of you-know-what has led the publisher to reprint them.  Now almost thirty years after their first run, they’re being enjoyed by a new generation of readers…and Anne Rice is getting lots more royalty checks.

Claiming is the first installment in Rice’s Sleeping Beauty trilogy.  Written under the pseudonym A.N. Roquelaure, the books put an erotic spin on the classic story of Sleeping Beauty.  Read: forget Disney.  At the beginning of the first book, the Prince awakens Beauty from her hundred-year sleep by taking her virginity.  He then tells her that she belongs to him, that she is to address him as “my Prince,” and that he intends to bring her back to his castle as his sex slave.

Beauty is then brought in bondage to the Prince’s kingdom, where she is routinely beaten, displayed nude, and otherwise abused for the pleasure of the Prince and his mother the Queen.  Upon arrival, Beauty discovers that she is only one of dozens of princes and princesses who were sent as tributes to the kingdom to be trained as sex slaves for a period of five years.  Though as first Beauty is repulsed and shamed by the way she is treated, she grows to love her captors and becomes desperate to please them.

This book is very heavy in BDSM (think more hardcore than Fifty Shades) and features both male and female dominance.  Some acts might be too disturbing for certain readers, so be warned.  Still, I enjoyed this book for its beautiful language and lush setting.  Plus fairy tales traditionally contain some pretty heavy themes, especially the Sleeping Beauty story, which has been shown to contain several erotic elements.  So, it was interesting to read a purely adult take on a story that is nowadays considered to be for children.

Overall, the story is a little slow, but not boring.  Not all of the sex acts were to my taste, and the sex was over the top at times, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the book.  It’s hot, it’s well written, and it’ll definitely change the way you look at fairy tales.

***

The Angel (The Original Sinners) by Tiffany Reisz (September 2012)

Nora Sutherlin is back in this follow-up to The Siren, which was released this past July.  And while I liked the first book, I enjoyed this sequel so much more!  This book throws a lot more twists and turns into the story, and fleshes out the main characters.

About a year after the events of the first book, erotica author Nora is still with longtime lover Søren.  While their D/s relationship is stronger than ever, Søren is now facing a turning point in his career which has prompted an investigation into his past.  Not wanting to risk exposing his secret life as a sexual dominant, he sends Nora away to stay with a friend for the summer.  Enter Suzanne Kanter, the tough journalist who is investigating Søren.  If she uncovers the truth, will she be able to deal with it?

As I said, The Siren is good but I loved The Angel.  Søren has a bigger part in this book, and a lot of time is put into explaining his backstory.  The more I learn about him, the more intrigued I am by him.  There is also more about Nora’s past in this story, which made me like and understand her more than I did in the first book.  I wasn’t sure I quite got her when I read The Siren, but there’s more to her than I originally thought.  Michael, who was briefly introduced in the first book, is now a main character, and I hope to see more of him in the next book.  Zach and Wesley, who were protagonists in the first book, are not featured as much.  Being as I wasn’t too crazy about them to begin with, that was ok with me.  But who knows, maybe I will be surprised by them the way I was surprised by Nora and Michael.

I’m really enjoying Tiffany Reisz’s Original Sinners series, and I enjoy them more than the Fifty Shades trilogy.  The sex is definitely harder, and the story is better.  Reisz has actual first-hand knowledge of the BDSM lifestyle, and these books definitely have more realism and much better writing than Fifty Shades.  It’s the most realistic and dynamic set of characters I’ve even encountered in a romance/erotica book. Plus Søren is just wicked hot, and after reading The Angel he just became hotter than Christian Grey in my opinion. Definitely going to read the next installment in the series, The Prince!

***

If I Were You by Lisa Renee Jones (August 2012)

It calls itself a mix of Fifty Shades and Basic Instinct, but for me it’s Fifty Shades-lite.  The first in a new trilogy (I’m starting to see a pattern here), this romantic thriller is about a woman trying to find out what happened to a girl who disappeared.

Sara is a teacher, living a simple life with her roommate in San Francisco.  When her roommate purchases some items at a storage auction, Sara discovers a series of journals belonging to a woman named Rebecca.  Sara reads the journals, and quickly becomes enthralled in Rebecca’s life, including her dangerous, highly sexual relationship with a mysterious man.  But what happened to Rebecca, and why would she just leave her journals in a storage locker and then abandon it?

Sara begins uncovering clues about Rebecca’s life, and even lands a summer job at the prestigious art gallery where Rebecca worked before her disappearance.  She works hard to prove herself to the fastidious but seductive gallery owner Mark, while at the same time she finds herself attracted to the quirky but wealthy artist Chris Merit.

The story is decent but familiar, and the characters are okay but nothing special.  At least not yet; there are still two other books in the trilogy.  The sex is fun, but there isn’t much of it until the second half of the book.  I’d recommend this one for people looking for more story than sex.  Of course Mark is the most interesting character because we know the least about him.  I might check out the sequel and see what happens with him!

***

Lip Service by M.J. Rose (2000)

Here’s one that’s also light on the sex but with a great story!  It’s thirteen years old but is enjoying a resurgence in popularity thanks to the recent erotica explosion (pun intended).

Julia Sterling is fortunate enough to live a life of privilege; she lives in Manhattan with her psychiatrist husband and adoring stepson.  But for Julia, her enviable life comes with a price: her seemingly perfect marriage is devoid of passion.  Her husband treats her like a child instead of a wife, and denies her need for intimacy while trying to coax her into taking antidepressants she doesn’t think she needs.  She smiles at parties and makes nice with the right people, but inside she is lonely.

Then a friend asks her to write a book about his work; he runs a clinic specializing in sexual disorders.  Julia quickly becomes fascinated with the clinic’s most unorthodox method of treatment: phone sex.  To research the book, and to fulfill her own hidden desires, Julia becomes a phone sex operator at the clinic.

For Julia, working at the clinic is scary, thrilling, and therapeutic at the same time. It gives her the insight to see her marriage for what it really is, and the confidence to see herself as a capable and independent person. But as with many things, there’s more to Julia’s secret profession than she thought, and more secrets at the clinic than her friend lets on.

This is a great story with a touch of eroticism and well drawn-out characters. If you’re looking for a book that’s a little daring but not too sexually explicit (well, compared to these other books at least), I would recommend Lip Service.

Book Review: Panorama City

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Panorama City by Antoine Wilson (pub date 9/25/12)

 

Imagine you only had a few days to live, and you found yourself alone in a hospital room with your thoughts and a tape recorder.  What message would you want to leave for when after you’re gone?  Oppen Porter knows exactly what he wants to say, but what he doesn’t yet realize is that he’s not dying.

Twenty-eight-year-old Oppen describes himself as a “slow absorber,” and indeed he is.  But while most people dismiss him as being simple-minded or mentally challenged, his outlook on life is full of more wisdom than one might think.  Panorama City is Oppen’s life story, as dictated by him for the benefit of his unborn son.  For most of his life, Oppen lived with his shut-in father and spent his days riding his bike around town and performing odd jobs.  But after his father’s death, Oppen goes to stay with his loving but stern aunt in Panorama City, where he learns a lot about life and about human nature.

From working a “respectable job” in a fast food restaurant to seeing a psychologist at his aunt’s request, to meeting a false preacher at his aunt’s church, Oppen narrates the details of his life with wit and surprising wisdom.  The everyday things about life that we all take for granted are given a new spin with Oppen’s childlike but insightful perspective.

Panorama City is sure to engage you and make you laugh.  The stream-of-consciousness style prose makes you feel like you are sitting with Oppen while he is telling you his story.  And while this writing style can sometimes be distracting, in this book it flows well and adds an extra dimension to the story. A quirky and understated book; give it a chance and it may surprise you.

It’s True, I’m Back!

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I’m back…for real this time!

I read somewhere a few years ago that all blogs start with the best of intentions, but that most stop after a few months. For a while, it looked like Chicks Dig Books had beaten the odds. I was going strong for over a year when then suddenly I stopped posting. So what the hell happened, and where did I go for eight months?

In September of 2012, I lost a loved one to cancer after watching her rapidly deteriorate for four months. Between the building depression, the strain that this illness and death placed on my marriage, grad school, and working at a job I hated, something had to give. I just didn’t have the energy anymore, and while I loved working on Chicks Dig Books, it started to feel like a chore.

Then from January to April I was working like a crazy person on my thesis project, while sending out resumes and going to job interviews. Now, my thesis is done, I graduated just a few days ago, and I also got a job working for an academic journals publishing company in Philadelphia. Things have finally turned a corner for me and my husband.

Maybe nobody cares, and that’s okay, but I care, and I feel guilty for having neglected the blog and for losing touch with readers, authors, books, and publishers. To anyone who sent me an email or a tweet and didn’t get a response, I apologize. Now that I finally have free time again and the willingness to do it, I’m picking up where I left off! I’ll be posting new reviews shortly, and I will be attending this year’s Book Expo America.

So watch out, Chicks Dig Books is making a comeback!

Early Review: Conning Harvard

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Conning Harvard by Julie Zauzmer (pub date 9/18/12)

“Harvard does not stand for fame, fortune, or even intelligence.  When the university proclaims its own highest value, it embraces truth.”

We all love a good con story.  Because just as much as it is fun to pass judgment on a person trying to get something for nothing, it’s equally fun to hear about just how they did it.  Conning Harvard is a play-by-play account of how a crafty young man from Delaware faked his way into the prestigious university and took thousands of dollars worth of scholarships and prizes that he didn’t earn.

Adam Wheeler was an average kid from a regular family who dreamt of something bigger.  The book describes him as a perfectionist who pressured himself to achieve flawless grades.  But rather than rely on his own talents, Wheeler built his academic career on lies and forgeries.  Even before getting into Harvard, Wheeler got accepted to Bowdoin College with fake SAT scores and plagiarized entrance essays.  After two years at Bowdoin, he decided to set his sights on the Ivy League.

With more fake test scores, falsified credentials, and transcripts from schools he never even attended, Wheeler won acceptance to the ultra-selective Harvard University, a school that receives about 30,000 applications every year.  Then while attending Harvard, Wheeler continued to plagiarize and lie his way through his coursework.  He even became so bold as to apply for the famed Rhodes scholarship, an action that would lead to his undoing.

With unbelievable attention to detail, fellow Harvard student and “Harvard Crimson” reporter Julie Zauzmer describes every step Wheeler took to get into the university.  Every fake test score, every plagiarized essay, every edited recommendation letter, is laid out in this book.  Included are quotes from several of Wheeler’s teachers and friends, as well as a few photocopies of Wheeler’s falsified transcripts.

While Conning Harvard is definitely worth reading, I have to say that the writing style is cumbersome at times.  The book often reads like a college thesis, with long sentences and too many parantheticals.  While the subject is fascinating, the writing lacks dramatic flair.  Also, there were some details that could have been excised in my opinion.  Some information, like the number of people who attended Wheeler’s high school (mentioned multiple times), as well as pages and pages of  minutiae about the Harvard application process, slowed down the flow of the book and should have been cut or whittled down.

Despite these technical issues, I would recommend Conning Harvard to anyone who enjoys a good con or heist story.  What makes Wheeler’s story so compelling is the different ways in which people perceive his actions.  Some see him as purely a cheat and a liar who got what he deserved, while others were a little happy to see the elitest university suffer public embarrassment.  Read the book and tell me what you think!

Early Review: Call the Shots

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Call the Shots by Don Calame (pub date 9/11/12)

Another YA treat that I picked up from BEA!  This one is part of a series but it can be read on its own.  I haven’t read any of Calame’s previous books but Call the Shots is a self-contained story and I was able to pick up on the characters pretty quickly.

Coop, Sean, and Matt are fifteen, best friends, and always coming up with new schemes.  When wise-cracking Coop hears about an upcoming indie horror movie festival, he knows he can make a movie that’ll win the top prize.  At first his friends aren’t interested, but then Sean finds himself in a situation in which he needs cash fast, and decides to go in on the project.  With movie-buff Sean as the screenwriter, the three boys begin working on their idea for the next big horror flick: a monster movie featuring zombie/vampire/human/chimp hybrids.  All they need is start-up funds, actors…and a camera.

Soon the project becomes more complicated than they had imagined.  Between borrowing money from Sean’s stoner uncle, and using his psycho girlfriend’s camera on the condition that she star in the movie, the guys start to wonder if they’ll ever finish their masterpiece.  At the same time, Sean is dealing with an unrequited crush on a girl at school, a drama teacher with too many suggestions for his screenplay, and a twin sister who hates his guts.

I really enjoyed this cute and funny story.  It has great comedic timing, and realistic characters.  I think it’s harder to write teenage characters than some people think; they can sometimes sound too adult or too childish.  But the boys’ witty dialogue felt very natural to me.  Due to its rough language and drug references, this is definitely a book for older teens.  And if you’re an adult who enjoys YA, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by this book.

My Big Kinky Erotica Post, Part Two

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I hope you enjoyed my previous post on erotic classics from decades past.  But if you enjoy modern erotica more than the older stuff, give these titles a look!

Bared to You by Sylvia Day (June 2012)

There’s a lot of buzz about this book, and it seems to be at the top of a lot of summer to-read lists.  Some dismiss it as just a Fifty Shades copycat, while others say it’s better and even hotter.  The first in a new erotica trilogy (of course), Bared to You is the story of a young woman’s relationship with a possessive but emotionally distant millionaire.

Okay, so it’s pretty much exactly like Fifty Shades.  Come on, even the cover art is similar!  The only major differences between the two are the settings (Bared is set in New York) and the personality of the female protagonist.  Unlike the virginal Ana in Fifty Shades, Eva is just as emotionally damaged as her lover Gideon.  She was sexually abused as a child, and this makes it difficult for her to trust men, especially men like Gideon, who is hiding secrets of his own.

The sex scenes are a lot of fun and main characters are passable, but the story doesn’t really go anywhere other than “I like him but I’m not sure he’s right for me.”  Plus it’s so hard not to keep comparing this book to Fifty Shades when it’s so similar.  However, I will give the writing credit for being a lot more adult (i.e. no “inner goddess” or “holy Moses”).  There are hints that Eva and Gideon will enter into a D/s relationship in the next book, but this book contains very few BDSM elements.

If you want hot sex scenes with gorgeous people in them, Bared to You delivers.  The writing is pretty good, I just wish there was more to the plot and the characters.  I’m optimistic that the next book will explore the main characters in more depth.  The sequel is due out this October, and I’ll probably read it and review it in a future post, because I am curious to find out what happens!

***

Please, Sir: Erotic Stories of Female Submission by Rachel Kramer Bussel (2010)

If short stories are your thing, then this collection will definitely get you all hot and bothered!  Please, Sir contains twenty-two BDSM stories involving female submissives.  This is a very diverse collection that spans across the BDSM spectrum, from spanking and light bondage to choking, punishment, heavy bondage, and multiple partners.  While there is some hard play in some of these stories, there is also an aspect of love and caring depicted as well, which makes this book rather intriguing.

This is a very well-edited collection, with a pretty wide range of topics to suit a variety of tastes.  There were only one or two stories that didn’t appeal to me (one involved “water sports”…but hey, to each her own), but I definitely enjoyed the vast majority of them.  A few of my favorites were “Anticipation,” “Long Time Gone,” and “The Negotiation.”

Aside from being engaging and arousing, what’s also appealing about these stories is how all the characters are regular people.  No gorgeous billionaires or geniuses with perfect bodies here.  The characters in Please, Sir could be your friends, coworkers, or neighbors.  Reading this book might make you look at the people around you and wonder who among them has a secret kinky side!

***

Best Erotic Romance by Kristina Wright (2011)

If you’re in the mood for steamy sex but BDSM isn’t quite your cup of tea, then pick up this collection of hot short stories.  Trust me, it’s anything but vanilla!  From Cleis Press, the same company that published Please, Sir, this book offers passionate sex in a variety of fun situations.  The writers include Bared to You author Sylvia Day.

The main theme of this collection is romantic relationships.  The men and women in this book find themselves at different points in their relationships, and for them, sex and emotion are always connected.  ”First Night” tells the story of a couple’s wedding night, while in “Memories for Sale,” a couple wonders whether to end their marriage.  The couple in “What Happened in Vegas” decide to turn their off-and-on tryst into a long-term relationship, and in “Drive Me Crazy,” a manager and her subordinate decide to become more than just coworkers.

The sex is passionate, and the stories all portray loving couples in different kinds of relationships.  This collection is a great combination of romance and erotica, and is perfect for those who prefer more upbeat stories with happier endings.

***

SM 101: A Realistic Introduction by Jay Wiseman (1998)

OK, so this one isn’t fiction, but I have a good reason for adding it in here!  I keep hearing about how the resurgence in the erotica genre has led to a huge boost in sales of ropes, cable ties, and other things that can be used to spice up one’s sex life.  And while that’s totally awesome, what some may not realize is that there are certain techniques involved in using this “equipment,” and everyone should know how to play safely.

SM 101 is written by an active member of the BDSM lifestyle, and is a great guide for newbies who are interested in experimenting with different types of play.  It covers everything, from spanking (yes, there are different ways to spank ;) ) to bondage, clamps, knots, and any kinky thing you can think of.  It also covers safe words and contracts, and I’m willing to bet that EL James used this book as a reference for the Fifty Shades trilogy.

This book is extremely useful not only because it emphasizes safety, but because it tells you how to use toys and equipment in the most pleasurable way.  It could definitely use an update so that it’s more up to date with today’s technology  (it mentions payphones as opposed to cellphones for example), but it’s still a great book to get if you’re looking for bold new things to try with your significant other.  And it’s available for Kindle so no one has to know what you’re reading :)

Early Review: The Yellow Birds

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The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers (pub date 9/11/12)

“Nothing is more isolating than having a particular history.  At least that’s what I thought.  Now I know: All pain is the same.  Only the details are different.”

There have been a great number of novels written about war over the years, but I imagine that very few of them are as visceral and real as this one.  Bold and gripping, this book is about the damage battle does to the one who survive.

The Yellow Birds is written by an Iraq War veteran, and tells the story of the friendship between twenty-one-year-old Private John Bartle and eighteen-year-old Private Daniel Murphy.  Since basic training, when Bartle made an impossible promise to Murphy’s mother to protect her son, the two young men have been like brothers.  But as the war progresses and takes its toll on them and on their strict sergeant, Murphy becomes uninvolved with the world around him.  And soon Bartle finds himself seeing and doing things he never thought he would have to.

There is more to the plot but I don’t want to give too much away.  I went in not knowing much about the story and found myself surprised and moved by how emotional it is.  I think other readers should have the same experience I did.  The Yellow Birds is more about the effects of battle on the soldiers than it is about the actual war.  Author Kevin Powers wrote some incredibly deep passages where Bartle describes the many racing thoughts and emotions that consume him after he is discharged.

Even if you think you don’t like war stories (I usually don’t), I encourage you to give The Yellow Birds a try.  It reminded me of the film The Hurt Locker, so if you enjoyed that then you should definitely read this book.  It has a great protagonist, beautiful prose, and universal themes that anyone can relate to.  I liked that there was no hidden agenda in this novel; it didn’t strike me as either pro-war or anti-war.  It simply relates the sometimes devastating effects that combat has on the people who volunteer to serve their country.  Sad and thought-provoking, this is a great piece of literary fiction.

Book Review: Where’d You Go Bernadette

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Where’d You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple (pub date 8/14/12)

“A little social anxiety never hurt anyone, am I right?”

We all know a “Bernadette.”  She’s the one who doesn’t join in with the rest of the group, the one who chooses not to adhere to social convention, the one too smart and too interesting for the room.  She’s the one you might think is weird, but might surprise you if you got to know her.  In this novel, author Maria Semple introduces us to just such a character.

Bernadette Fox is a wealthy wife and mother living in Seattle.  Her husband is an executive at Microsoft and their teenage daughter, Bee, is a gifted student about to move across the country to an exclusive boarding school.  But just below the surface, Bernadette is a wreck.  A once-successful architect and still a legend in the field, she left her profession suddenly and moved from Los Angeles to Seattle.  This turn of events led her to become increasingly agoraphobic, anxious, and socially awkward.  She would become a nuisance for the other mothers at Bee’s private school, a worry to her husband, and a neighbor from Hell.  Then one day, shortly before she was supposed to take a family trip to Antarctica, Bernadette suddenly vanishes.

The story is told largely from Bee’s point of view, as she tries to discover the cause behind her mother’s disappearance.  The point of the story is not only finding out where Bernadette went physically, but emotionally as well.  What would cause a successful career woman and recipient of a genius grant to suddenly give up her profession?  Why would a someone who spent her life creating beautiful buildings choose to live in a dilapidated house and let it fall further into disrepair?  Why does everyone judge her so harshly?

Where’d You Go Bernadette is delightful.  I absolutely loved this book; I read the first third and the entire second half in one sitting each.  It’s an absorbing character study and a wicked satire of wealthy Seattle society and Microsoft corporate culture.  Hilarious is some parts and touching in others, it’s a book that can be enjoyed by many different audiences.  Until now, I wasn’t aware that Semple wrote for Arrested Development (and other shows), but I can definitely see the resemblance in the dialogue and writing style.  I would recommend this book to just about anyone.  Bernadette is a character you won’t be able to get out of your head for a long time!