Where'd you go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
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.

Written in several points of view, Bernadette, her husband Elgin and daughter Bee.  As well as her enemies from the school Bee attends.  This story makes you want to read to the end.  I enjoyed the majority of the book but felt that the final chapter was not the outcome I expected.  It was a bit of a let-down and had a more juvenile feel to it.  But I still enjoyed it and glad that I listened to it on CD as the readings of emails is hysterical!

I have not posted a book in so long!  Not because I haven't read but just been lazy about posting.  Most of my reading has been listening to books in the car so it's been awhile since I've just held a book and read it cover to cover.  

Returned by Jason Mott

Now an show on ABC called Resurrection which I've seen a couple of episodes so it made me want to read the book.

It was extremely powerful and more moving than I expected.  What would you do if your loved ones returned from the dead exactly the same while you have aged and moved on with your life.  Well this starts happening all over the world.  Even more fascinating is there is no reason of who returns and while many do not.  Plus they might come back in a completely different country, Jacob died 50 years ago at the age of 8 years old in Arcadia but returns in China.  A FBI agent returns him to his parents, Howard and Lucille, who have to decide to keep him or not.   The town they live in becomes the base camp of the returned (at first not wanted) but then where the government forces all returned to live.   When it becomes apparent that there are more returned than living people the living start taking radical action.  Lucille and Howard decide to take a stand no matter the outcome.

Beautifully written and while not the most uplifting book I really enjoyed it.  It made me pause and think who would I want to come back.

The unlikely pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

Soon after his retirement from a brewery in a quiet English village, Harold Fry receives a surprising letter. It's from beloved friend and colleague Queenie Hennessy, whom he hasn't heard from in 20 years, writing from a distant terminal cancer ward to say good-bye. This letter returns Harold to a horrifically painful part of his past, threatens his already troubled marriage, and ultimately leads to a crisis that casts into doubt everything he thinks he knows about himself.

He decides to embark on a 600-mile walk to say goodbye to Queenie in person. During this entire time Harold spends his time reflecting upon his past and wishing he had done things differently.  Halfway through his travels he meets a reporter who writes about Harold's unlikely pilgrimage and suddenly Harold is an overnight sensation.  He starts having fellow walkers and even a dog following him.   But the big question  is will he make it. And will his wife be there waiting for him when he's done.

I had read about this book as it is on the longlist for the Booker prize. I was intrigued by the title and the cover.  During a visit to see my friend Stanley he had the book on his reading table and he later told me how much he enjoyed it.  So I knew I was in for something special.  This book does not disappoint.  It is moving and lovely to read.  The descriptions are just amazing.  I can see this being a book I go back and re-read periodically as I think I will get different impressions every time I read it. 

Better Off Without Him by Dee Ernst

Mona Berman is an expert at Happily Ever After – after all, she’s a best-selling Romance writer and happy endings are what she does best. So when her husband of twenty years leaves her for somebody 15 years younger, 20 pounds lighter, and French, she’s got a lot of adjusting to do, both personally and professionally. Lucky for her she’s got three savvy teen daughters, a few good friends, and Ben, the world’s sexiest plumber, to help her along the way.

First she decides that her next book will be the anti-romance – her heroine finds the best part of her life AFTER getting dumped. Next her daughters tell her she needs to start practice dating, and summer at the Jersey shore is the perfect place for that. She’s also juggling her soon-to-be-ex, a loony aunt, and a match-making neighbor, while Ben is sending her romance-driven imagination into overdrive. Can Mona’s life imitate art? Can she write her own happy ending?

I was intrigued by the concept of an book within a book.  While this wasn't exactly the case I did enjoy the story of Mona and adjusting to life without a husband.  I did find the ending a bit too romance pat for my taste but enjoyed the relationships Mona has with her family and friends.  This is a modern romance for a modern woman.

Comforts of a Muddy Saturday by Alexander McCall Smith

An Isabel Dalhousie book

Now established as a new mother Isabel is adjusting to life with Jaime.  But this wouldn't be an Isabel story without a moral delimma to investigate. A doctor's career has been ruined by allegations of medical fraud and Isabel cannot ignore what may be a miscarriage of justice. Besides, Isabel's insatiable interest is piqued and she finds herself asking questions. Would a respected doctor make such a grave mistake? If not, what explains the death of the patient? Clearly, an investigation is in order.

Meanwhile, there is her baby Charlie, who needs looking after; her niece Cat who needs someone to mind her deli; and a mysterious composer who has latched on to Jamie, making Isabel decidedly uncomfortable. Whatever the problem, whatever the case, we know we can count on Isabel's instincts to help her find the right solution.

Reading one of these novels is like curling up on a rainy day and this installment didn't disappoint.

Off the Grid by P. J. Tracy

Latest Monkeewrench book

On a sailboat ten miles off the Florida coast, Grace MacBride, partner in Monkeewrench Software, thwarts an assassination attempt on retired FBI agent John Smith. A few hours later, in Minneapolis, a fifteen-year-old girl is discovered in a vacant lot, her throat slashed. Later that day, two young men are found in their home a few blocks away, killed execution-style. The next morning, the dead bodies of three more men turn up, savagely murdered in the same neighborhood.

As Minneapolis homicide detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth struggle to link the three crimes, they learn that there have been similar murders in other cities around the United States. Piece by piece, evidence accumulates, pointing to a suspect that shocks them to the core, uncovering a motive that puts the entire Midwest on high alert and Monkeewrench in the direct line of fire. Before it's all over, Grace and her partners, Annie, Roadrunner, and Harley Davidson, find themselves in the middle of a shocking collision of violence on a remote northern Minnesota reservation, fighting for their lives.

This is one of the better books in the series, back to the spiderweb of storylines that all intertwin into a jaw-dropping conclusion.  I really enjoyed this book as it focused more on Leo and Gino plus we are getting to know a bit more about Harley and Roadrunner as so many of the previous books focus on Grace. 

Careful Use of Compliments: An Isabel Dalhousie by Alexander McCall Smith

Isabel is now a mother, Charlies, her newborn son, presents her with a myriad wonders of a new life. Her lover, Jamie presents her with an intriguing proposal: marriage. In the midst of all this, she receives a disturbing letter announcing that she has been ousted as editor of the Review of Applied Ethics by the ambitious Professor Dove. None of these things, however, in any way diminishes Isabel's curiosity. And when she attends an art auction, she finds an irresistible puzzle: two paintings attributed to a now-deceased artist appear on the market at the same time, and both of them exhibit some unusual characteristics. Are these paintings forgeries? This proves to be sufficient fodder for Isabel's inquisitiveness. So she begins an investigation... and soon finds herself diverging from her philosophical musings about fatherhood onto a path that leads her into the mysteries of the art world and the soul of an artist.

I quite enjoy this unusual philosopher.  Alexander McCall Smith is one of my favorite writers and I find all his series so different from each other. He really makes the city of Edinburgh come to life.   this series is not for everyone as it is not a traditional mystery but more of a philosophical look at life and relationships.