Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

Bee's mom, Bernadette, is a brilliant ex-architect who hates Seattle (where they live) and also dislikes people. So Bernadette hires a virtual assistant from India to take care of various tasks for her, including planning a family trip to Antarctica as a reward for Bee's excellent marks in 8th grade.

Right before the Antarctica trip, Bernadette disappears, and Bee is left to figure out what happened.

This is a very delightful, clever, and engaging read and one of my favorites this year.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel by Deborah Moggach

Elderly Englishmen and women move to a Bangalore retirement home, and although there isn't always electricity, there are a lot of unexpected laughs and adventures.

I found this book to be slow and plodding. It alternated between being interesting and very boring. It took me awhile to get through it. It was okay. This is a case when I actually wondered if the movie might be better. Has anyone seen the movie yet?

PS: To my junior readers, this book contains mature content.

Happier at Home: Kiss More, Jump More, Abandon a Project, Read Samuel Johnson, and My Other Experiments in the Practice of Everyday Life by Gretchen Rubin

This is a sequel of sorts to Rubin's bestseller The Happiness Project. In her newest year-long project, she focuses on making changes in order to make her home a happier place. She focuses on a different theme each month, such as Parenting, Time, and Marriage, and chooses several goals to work on.

One of her goals was to "Create shrines." Rubin writes that we enjoy our possessions more when similar things are grouped together. She's a fan of children's literature, so she put all of these books together so she could enjoy them all.

I decided to try this out and re-organized the wall of books in my house. I put all of the Harry Potters on one shelf, all of the Chronicles of Narnia on one shelf, and all of the Lord of the Rings on yet another shelf. Indeed, seeing all of the series together did make me happier. I then grouped all of the other books according to subject. This made me even happier, and I enjoy looking at the bookshelves much more now.

Overall, this book was interesting to read. In general, I like Rubin, but she does come across as pretentious and busy! She is so task and results oriented that I feel tired after reading everything that she strives after. I'd love to see her write a book on Rest.

Also, she makes it pretty clear that her family is very well-off, and I think this is what allows her to spend money on family portraits and creating a miniature scene in a kitchen cupboard, etc. which is definitely not really an option for a lot of families in order to make home a happier place.

I Never Promised You a Goodie Bag: A Memoir of a Life Through Events--the Ones You Plan and the Ones You Don't by Jennifer Gilbert

Jennifer Gilbert was 22-years-old when she was brutally attacked in New York City on the way to visit a friend. She doesn't want the attack to dictate the rest of her life, so she bravely goes forward with life, buries the trauma, and never speaks of it.

She starts her own business as an event-planner and creates picture perfect weddings and parties for her clients. However, on the inside she did not feel like the perfect, successful, happy image she projected on the outside, and she finally finds that she needs to face the trauma and how it has affected her.

Gilbert is humble, funny, and aware. I liked this book.

Blackberry Winter by Sarah Jio

Heya! I know that I haven't been giving very glowing reviews lately, but that is how the cookie crumbles. And I do love cookies, especially peanut butter. However, I am in the process of reading some books that I think will be getting some very good reviews, so you'll have to be patient here. In the meantime, send some cookies to keep this reader going. Thanks!

Okay, so here goes another mediocre book. There are two story lines in this book. One is in May 1933 in Seattle with Vera Ray, who leaves her three-year-old son at home while she goes to work as a hotel maid and when she comes back in a freak May snowstorm, her son is missing. The other story also takes place in Seattle, but in 2010 after another freak snow storm with reporter, Claire, who is assigned a story about the snowstorm.

Like Sarah Jio's other books, there are many predictable coincidences and connections from the past to the present and everything is neatly explained by the end.

With that said, I did read the entire book in one sitting last week while I was at home on a rainy afternoon. 

All Gone: A Memoir of My Mother's Dementia. With Refreshments by Alex Witchel

Witchel's mom starts to show signs of dementia, and this is the story of Witchel coming to terms with losing the mom she knew. Wichel goes back and forth between recounting her relationship with her mother while growing up and the present-day dealings with her mom.

A pleasant enough read, but not a book that I found to be engrossing or one that I would re-read.

Almost Amish: One Woman's Quest for a Slower, Simpler, More Sustainable Life by Nancy Sleeth

Sleeth writes about her quest to lead a simpler, more intentional, and slower life. She addresses different areas of life like finances, community, service, and nature, and gives some really practical ideas to slow down and enjoy life and people around us.

A pretty easy-to-read book, but can, at times, be preachy, pretentious, and really conservative (she suggests that sticking to traditional gender roles keeps things more simple and clear-cut for everyone). In addition, sometimes the writing felt like it belonged in a pamphlet, not a book. There's also a lot of Scripture quoted, so if that's not something you're into, I wouldn't recommend this book to you.

I liked the ideas in this book, but I didn't like the delivery as much. The one big plus about this book though is the collection of simple recipes she includes at the back. I cooked the curried lentil soup, and I really liked it, and so did the spouse.