Where'd You Go, Bernadette - Maria Semple

Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a friend and mom. Then Bernadette disappears.

Bee compiles e-mail messages, official documents, and secret correspondence--creating a compulsively readable and touching novel. nA misanthropic matriarch leaves her eccentric family in crisis when she mysteriously disappears in this whip-smart and divinely funny novel that inspired the movie starring Cate Blanchett (New York Times). n 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 her best friend and, simply, Mom. n n Then Bernadette vanishes. It all 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. n n To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, and secret correspondence -- creating a compulsively readable and surprisingly touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter's role in an absurd world.n