Between blogging professionally and blogging for fun, I somehow find a rare moment here and there to sit down and tackle my ever-growing ‘to read’ list. For me, the true test of a great book is one that I can devour cover to cover in one or two sittings, one that I can’t stop thinking about getting back to when I’m out for the day, and one that lingers around in my head long after I’ve read the last page. One such book is Where’d You Go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple. I inhaled it a couple of weekends ago in a 48 hour read-a-thon that left me utterly delighted.

High-level summary: A quirky family of three plans a Christmas cruise to the Antarctic and Bernadette, the mother (and the quirkiest of the bunch), mysteriously disappears before they are scheduled to set sail. There is so much more, but no spoilers here!

The story unfolds through a series of notes, emails and letters between the various characters, which is one my favourite formats (woah! Book nerd! Did I just claim to have a favourite format?!) It pieces the personalities and plot lines together in a puzzling and intriguing way until the whole story finally comes into focus. I’m always looking for fun, quick, and thrilling reads so thought I’d pass this recommendation along to you! But don’t just take my word for it, you can check out reviews by far more worthy sources here and here.

Happy reading!

xo Ali

PS – Have you discovered any must-reads lately that you want to share with me? Leave a comment below!