Novel by Maria Semple
Reactions: Fun, adorable, quirky

If you’ve already seen the movie, you will still absolutely enjoy this book. I enjoyed the movie starring Cate Blanchett. So, I wasn’t sure if I’d enjoy the book. But I once again, I was pleasantly surprised – I enjoyed it a lot!

What makes the book so different from the movie is the narrative style. The entire book is told documentarian style through a collection of emails, notes, FBI files, etc. There is a slight amount of first-person narrative from Bernadette’s daughter B, which makes more sense as the book progresses.

Cate Blanchett was the absolute perfect casting choice for Bernadette. After having seen Blue Ivy, no one can play a neurotic middle aged woman hanging on by her last thread as well as Cate can. I also give credit to Cate’s portrayal for accentuating her love for her daughter. It’s certainly in the ebook, but the movie spends a few extra minutes on a scene or two that make that love shine through so much more.

Obviously the book has more nuanced characters. We really come to understand the nuisance neighbor Audrey in the book. While I understand why the movie had to curtail that character’s story arc, I do appreciate that the outcome was still the same. And the husband isn’t as much of a sympathetic character as he was in the movie. You kinda don’t like him in the book. Again, I understand why they had to change it for the movie. Besides, who can be mad at Billy Crudup?!

This was a fun, quick read. I enjoyed every page of it and found it hard to put it down, even knowing mostly how it would end. I highly recommend this if you need a light, quirky book in your life.