If you are anything like me, you’ll hear a book mentioned, make a mental note to read it sometime, and then completely forget about it.

I’m especially bad at doing this whilst listening to books discussed on The High Low podcast.

As such, when my ‘To Be Read’ pile started dwindling during the lockdown, I  Googled books that had been featured on the podcast and ordered a few that seemed good at first glance.

And that is how I found Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple. I really enjoyed The Lost Sister so I thought this story, which followers Bee’s search for her missing mother sounded like a good fit.

The premise is simple: Outside of her husband and child, Bernadette doesn’t have many close contacts within her local community. This is because she has dedicated the last decade and more to raising her daughter Bee, who had health problems as a child.

When Bernadette goes missing Bee is the only one who can really help. Or rather is the only person who seemingly wants to help.

Only I didn’t realise before starting the book that Bee is a teenager.

The book is mainly made up of Bee’s diary entries, along with emails between Bernadette and her assistant and messages sent between other parents at Bee’s school. The mixture of perspectives certainly works well and helps to giver Bernadette’s character more depth. Despite the fact, Bernadette never speaks directly to the reader, the multiple perspectives us a greater insight into her thought process as well as the consequences she doesn’t register.

However, the mixture also means that many of the other characters do not get to develop the same level of depth as Bernadette. As a teenager who has lost her mother, you would expect Bee to have a whole host of intense emotions… yet she seems almost detached. The feelings she expresses in her diary come across somehow flat – if not verging on whiney – given the circumstances.

Though perhaps I am being unfair.

I expected this book to be intense, full of mystery and dark humour. I wanted it to explore mother-daughter relationships and I guess I just wanted this book to be more than what it is.

I don’t want this to come across as negative, because it was an enjoyable read regardless. Just be warned Where’d You Go, Bernadette? Is the type of book best suited to being read around a pool somewhere sunny, rather than a book that will draw you in on a cold, dark evening.

Which is not to say it is boring -the plot is certainly full of unexpected twists. It’s an easy read that will keep you entertained, though it is unlikely to be one that you cannot put down.

If you are looking for a book that will offer a bit of light escapism without consuming you, it will be a perfect read.

As you can probably guess from the title of the book, this story is all about sisters – so it instantly had me intrigued.

My sister is one of my favourite people. She’s strong, fiercely intelligent and the funniest person I know… over the years she’s been both my hero and my mentor. I cannot imagine life without her and the relationship we have. In short, I am incredibly lucky and I know it.

The plot (no spoilers) is simple, Becky’s parents separated when she was young and now in her thirties, she discovers her mum may have had another child, so sets out to find her.

The narrative alternates almost perfectly between Becky and her mum Selma, though they cover different times and places.

Whilst the book follows the search for the ‘Lost Sister’ it explores so much more. From an outsider’s perspective, Selma is your typical ‘fallen woman’ trope – she’s confident, she’s sexy and she knows it. She leaves her husband and is more interested in her writing career than her child.

Selma is everything society believes a woman should not be. She acts like a ‘good’ woman wouldn’t. She offers to bake for a child’s birthday purely to show off… then buys a supermarket cake to pass off as her own. She knows she has to keep up appearances, but honestly, she’s beyond caring. Her fucks have well and truly flown and they are not coming back.

Her daughter is the antithesis. She’s honest, whilst Selma gains a reputation for deception. She’s family orientated, kind to her elderly neighbours and rescues dogs. She’s the heavenly Madonna to the fallen angel.

As the plot progresses it’s hard not to fall for Selma – she serves as a stark reminder. Our parents aren’t just parents. Before us, and after us they are people. People with hopes, dreams, desires and fears. They have their faults and their sins. They are human.

Touching upon mental health, romantic relationship and family ties, it could be viewed in a similar light to The Third Life Of Grange Copeland.  The influences of a poor mother-daughter relationship are passed down the generations, with each new daughter running from the same hurt.

The characters are well crafted, the descriptions of food are numerous and the geography vast. Basically it’s the perfect piece of escapism for our current lockdown.

The plot twists are often and unforeseen. In fact, I had to ring my mum at the end (she’d lent me the book pre-lockdown) because I was flabbergasted by the ending – and for two reasons.

Whilst it focuses on families, it just goes to show that we never really know what someone is going through and that personal redemption is often granted, but invisible.

It may be a blogger/millennial faux pass to admit, but I didn’t know much about Emma Gannon until recently.

Sure I’d seem people talking about her first book, Ctrl, Alt, Delete: Growing Up Online  but it had never really piqued my interest.  Then I discovered her podcast, and whilst I’m not a dedicated fan I do enjoy dipping in and out of her episodes… cherry picking the ones that sound interesting or feature women I find admiring.

And it was through her podcast I learnt about this book: The Multi-Hyphen Method: Work Less

Create More and Design A Career That Works For You.  Now that my Master’s degree is well and

truly behind me, I’ve been toying with the idea of a side hustle and this book seemed like a great

place to start.

But… this book was neither an introduction to the topic, or even the warm up act. Normally I don’t

like to post negative reviews when it comes to books because even if you don’t like the content you

can appreciate the work that went into creating it. However, this book is disappointing all round.

In Emma’s defence, she has always said The Multi-Hyphen Method is not guide, or a tool kit. Even if the sub-title hints

at it ever so slightly. Instead it can be best described as a brief history of work and thin tales of

Emma’s previous roles, job perks and the odd ‘terrible’ boss.

Giving a brief history of work, work places and possibly some predictions for the future could

have been fine. And there are some places where it is fine. Emma raises some interesting points

and insights into the different industries she’s worked in. It’s interesting to hear about how she

handles her career when most of her family don’t have the experience or knowledge to offer

guidance.

That said… Maybe it’s just a hangover from all of my academic reading, but this book just seems

lacking somehow. Most of Emma’s references come from online magazines such as Refinery29 or

interviews with friends. And whilst love reading Refinery29, I just wished she would have included

some actual studies or research… or anything really.

I really wanted to love this book, to feel motivated by it and inspired. But instead I just felt tricked…

rather than a book, it would best be described as a printed blog, by a blogger that was only

publishing new posts for the sake of publishing new posts.

If you’re interested in work places practise and the history of work, I’d recommend the Eat, Sleep,

Work, Repeat podcast by Twitter’s Bruce Daisley any day.

Maybe I’m just not the target audience. If you’re fresh from school or have yet to enter the world of work then maybe this book could be a starting point. If you’ve started work, or like me been working for a while, I’d suggest giving this book a miss.

If you’re in the market for a new self-help book, this one may be of interest.

If I were an essay writer, I could easily write one about this book, and then a separate essay on the fact it has become a micro-trend on Instagram over the last few months. Alas, I’m just a basic blogger, so a review will have to do.

This book has divided opinions left, right and centre – and I can see why. For the first few pages, if not chapter, I hated it. Like really hated it.

It follows the main character Eleanor, who I found to be cold, difficult and at points plain rude. Stubborn as I am though, I ploughed ahead and I am so glad I did!

Looking back, the fact the book was difficult to get into, could just be a sign of the genius of Gail Honeyman. Although the book touches on many ideas, the main theme is loneliness. Just like the novel itself, many of the other characters find Eleanor odd and hard to deal with. So they don’t. They exclude her and ignore her. They make jokes when they think she can’t hear.

When we see headlines about loneliness, it’s easy to conjure up images of house bound pensioners or young kids that are being bullied at school. We often overlook the “normal” people. Adults who live in a town or a city, speak to their family regularly and work full time… but are desperately alone. The person everyone assumes is fine.

I really want to talk about this book in detail, but at the same time I don’t want to risk dropping any spoilers. You’ll just have to trust me when I say you won’t see the plot twists coming. At all.

This is easily the best book I’ve read in a long time. And despite reading it whilst basking in Greek sun, when I finished the final page I felt a little bit lost. A little bit down because I didn’t want it to be over. I wanted to carry on watching the characters grow and heal – I wanted a non-creepy live stream of Eleanorand the others.

Whilst it is well written, and undoubtedly a great story this book is so much more. It’s a reminder that people don’t always mean to come across the way they do. A reminder that we never know what people are going through, or have survived. A reminder that a small act of kindness, even just an acknowledgement or short chat, can go such a long way.

In the words of Plato“be kind, everyone is fighting a hard battle.”