“Galer Street School is a place where compassion, academics, and global connectitude join together to create civic-minded citizens of a sustainable and diverse planet.

From Maria Semple’s Where’d You Go, Bernadette.

Over twenty years ago, Bernadette Fox was a brilliant, award-winning architect, but after disaster struck her most famous project, she left it all behind.  Bernadette and her husband, Elgie, moved to Seattle so he could better continue his work with Microsoft, and Bernadette focused all her attention on their daughter, Bee.  While Bernadette can’t stand the annoying “gnat” parents from Bee’s school, there are two that she can’t get away from: her neighbor, Audrey, and her husband’s administrative assistant from work, Soo-Lin.  Despite major health issues as a young child, Bee has grown into a brilliant, healthy 8th-grader who wants to take a family cruise to Antarctica as a reward for her years of straight-A’s.  As Bernadette and her virtual personal assistant from India, Manjula go back and forth preparing for the trip (which is especially terrifying to homebody Bernadette), other areas of life quickly begin to unravel as Audrey complains both about Bernadette’s overgrown blackberry bushes and Bernadette’s lack of involvement at Bee’s school.  Things quickly slide out of control in Bernadette’s financial, emotional, and mental world, leaving Elgie feeling that there is only one solution for the good of the family.  During Elgie’s planned intervention for his wife, the anxious, obsessive Bernadette disappears from their home and continent.  While Elgie and the world assume the worst for Bernadette’s health and safety, Bee refuses to give up on the mother she loves and leads her father on an unbelievable adventure that will change their family forever.

Fascinating read filled mostly with letters, emails, and other correspondences between the characters, but all through Bee’s retelling if the story.  Witty and fun, this book is a easy read that is impossible to put down.  While part two drags a bit, it does allow the reader to get to know Bernadette very well.  Where’d You Go, Bernadette does not disappoint with a heartfelt, hilarious, and unexpected story.