Beth’s Comments (group member since Aug 23, 2016)

Beth’s comments from the 'Where'd you go Bernadette?' re-read! group.

Hello everyone!
So sorry for missing a week, last week was very hectic for me and I lost track of time but, I am back with my thoughts on the rest of the book as today would have been the last day for the re-read!

Part 5 - Dangers Passed
We are now in January and it starts of with a letter to Bee from her father. She is currently in boarding school and there still hasn't been any sign of Bernadette.

I am so intrigued of where she has gone!

Soo-Lin talks about her feelings about Elgin, which, after reading about what she thought of him in her emails made me already think she had a thing for him.

And then we find out Bernadette has been found and Soo-Lin is pregnant and she says its Elgins baby.

Awkward.

It comes out that Bee had gotten FBI Confidential emails, faxes, letters and she says she is writing a book on this. All of the stuff that has to do with Bernadette going missing. The headteacher at the school writes to Elgin that Bee should be sent home to spend time with her family at this time. Does she know about Elgin and Soo-Lin? Does she even know that Bernadette might have been found?

Elgin and Soo-Lin where meant to meet Bernadette when she got of the boat but, it seems like she has slipped past them again and they can't find her. They are given a pad that has indents in from something she has written on top that talks about Audrey-who we all know, she doesn't have the best of friendships with. But what does Audrey have to do with all of this?

Audrey sends a fax to her husband, telling him that everything Bernadette had done to her was a lie and she found all the FBI notes and copied them all before putting them back with Soo-Lin before she noticed and we find out that Audrey was helping Bernadette when she escaped her home.
Soo-Lin tells Audrey how the thing between her and Elgin was just a one night stand. She is falling in love with him and he doesn't feel the same way plus, Bee is back from boarding school and she hates Elgin and doesn't care for Soo-Lin. So, Elgin and Bee decide to go on the trip they where meant to take with Bernadette at Christmas.

Now part 6!

Bee and Elgin are on their trip and it looks like Bee is trying to trace Bernadette's steps and she still hates Elgin.

People believe that Bernadette fell of the boat and has died while Bee is holding on to small information that she could be alive. She loved her mother.

Then Bee believes she knows where Bernadette is but she still doesn't find her and breaks down crying. Her and Elgin hug and talk about how they both miss her and how he regrets writing that letter to the doctor and they really have a big talk which is great for their relationship!

And then Elgin starts to think and they figure out a few things and they find out that Bernadette is on a scientist island! And bee finds her.

How amazing!

I loved the lost letter that Bee finally gets from Bernadette and I just loved this book!

What did you think of this book and the ending?

I loved that there was quite a bit of humour in this book but also some serious issues and some heartbreaking moments that wrapped this book up nicely!

Tell me your thoughts!

Hello everybody!
If you have missed any of the re-reads, defiantly go check out the other topics to catch up on what we have read so far and from what we have read it seems we are getting into the really good bits.

I am really loving this book, what are you all thinking of it? If you're re-reading is it just as good as the first time you've read it?

So, today is pages 171-212 and it is part 4 - INVADERS.

We start of with a police report of Audrey who assaulted the night manager in the hotel she is staying at and finds her son with other friends in his hotel room with drugs and alcohol. She decides to take Soo-Lin's offer up and moves her family in with her but Soo-Lin is too busy. Elgin is having a doctor coming by to possibly commit Bernadette.

He wants to have Bee go to the boarding school in January and has invited his brother around. It is now December 21st and it is really close to when Bernadette goes.

Also, Bernadette's suitcase was empty and Elgin found that odd. But, since reading we all know she is terrified to go on this holiday.

We also have reports from Dr Kurtz, the doctor Elgin contacted about Bernadette. Elgin seems determined to get Bernadette the best possible help. Dr Kurtz talks about her going to talk to someone, not to go to a mental hospital.

But another report from Dr Kurtz talks how they hope Bernadette will admit her illness and check herself into Madrona Hill.

Bee is at the Radio City Christmas Spectacular with the youth group. It all gets too much for her and she thinks about how much she adores her family. How she feels so much love but also alone. The next day she is at World Celebration Day. She thinks she see's her mother there but when she looks, she's gone and it's the last time she see's Bernadette.

There is a letter from Dr Kurtz saying that she love loves her job but after the mysterious event surrounding Bernadette's intervention it looks, like she has decided to quit.

What mysterious events?

Manjula, Bernadette's virtual assistant, who we found out was actually scamming Bernadette, has stole Elgin air miles to get to Seattle and sent an email to Bernadette to confirm that she would be alone in the house when Elgin and Bee would be off on holiday.

Dr Kurtz records the conversation between Elgin, Bernadette, herself, Soo-Lin and the FBI.

They tell Bernadette that Manjula isn't who she thinks she is and what has been going on.

Even though Elgin is going off on one at Bernadette, basically saying she makes him sic, Dr Kurtz had me chuckling a little bit with his input.

I have to say, the transcript of that conversation did have me laughing but we found out some things. Elgin, as it seems has so much anger in him that he just shouted it all at Bernadette. It looked like she was actually going to go on the holiday with them and then they think they have it all wrong.

Then she goes the bathroom and doesn't come back.

So that is the end of this part! What did you think?

Was I the only one laughing at those parts?

Where do you think Bernadette has gone? What will Bee think?

Let me know your thoughts! I am very excited to carry this on next week.


Beth x

Hello everyone!
It is another Monday and time to carry on reading Where'd You Go Bernadette! If you haven't started yet no worries. You can go to the previous discussions to start there and join in as this will obviously spoil you so defiantly join in!

So, now we are on to part 3 - MENACE TO SOCIETY.
We learnt a lot more about Bernadette in the previous parts but it didn't give us a lot of hints about why she went.

Audrey is staying at the Westin after there was a mudslide at her house and it wrecked it...All because Bernadette ordered a big sign for outside her house.
Audrey and Soo Lin constantly email each other with updates. Especially since Soo Lin works with Bernadette's husband Elgin. She has a lunch with him which she tells Audrey about in her email how he doesn't really know about with happened with the sign and he ask her what Bernadette is like when she see's her.

Bernadette takes Kennedy, Bee's friend, to the space needle restaurant for her birthday with Bee and Elgin joins them later but after finding out about the mudslide he isn't happy with Bernadette and ask her why she won't talk to him and why she won't go to the doctors.

There is still so much more we need to find out about Bernadette. Bee tells him he needs to stop as it is Kennedy's birthday and he shouldn't be shouting at Bernadette.

Obviously the emails from Soo-Lin makes you think that she has some feelings for Elgin but we will just have to wait and find out. Also, Audrey seems to not believe anything bad about her son Kyle. Even though he is selling pills at the school and is constantly getting into trouble.

Bee doesn't believe that Audrey doesn't know about TED and then it shows a transcript of the time Elgin doing the TEDtalk by a blogger. Showing how quite a few things went wrong at the talk but Elgin was just taking it in stride and wasn't annoyed and they talk about the robot they made Samantha. That part had me laughing a lot-it really showed Elgin in his element!

And we find out about Samantha 2. A chip they can put on a persons head and they can basically control smart things with their minds and he wants it sent of to paralyzed veterans to help them live their lives.

Elgin has asked a doctor about Bernadette and basically, if she doesn't seek treatment and she does suffer from what they believe she suffers from she will be taken to a psychiatric hospital - Is this where she disappears too?

Soo-lin and Elgin chat over messages and she is saying how her ex husband was an abuser, mentally, and how Bernadette could be doing the same to Elgin.

And now we find out that the Delhi virtual assistants international, which Bernadette uses, doesn't actually exist and Elgin has been informed by the FBI.

And that is how this section ends!
What are your thoughts on this part?
What do you think of Soo-lin?
And what do you think Elgin will do now he has found about Bernadette and that she has been giving all their credit information to someone who is basically scamming her?

See you next monday!

Beth x

Hello everyone.
So now we are on the 2nd part - Bernadettes past and present.

We find out that Bernadette doesn't want to be found and people should respect that. They talk about how she is the most influence architect. We find out about her past working with people and when she met and married Elgin. With comments from people who knew her. All from an article that is meant to be getting released in February but someone wants it pulled - why? The interview also shows how much she infected people, happily. How she would be working on a project and the next minute, the people would be helping her. And about a house she spent 3 years making a house that, when she went on holiday was demolished in one day and she had no idea about it.

After that her and Elgin upped and left and no one knows what she has been up too since then. She has a big mystery around her that people want to know about.

She is writing an email to Paul, telling him what has been going on in the last 20 years and here we find out she feels like a failure because of the Twenty Mile House and how it is eating away at her.

Is this why she disappears?
She feels like after doing one project and destroying it that she will destroy everything she touches.

I also love her humour in the emails she writes. I have laughed out loud quite a bit.
And then we find out another grief she is dealing with: a miscarriage so, it seems she is actually holding a lot inside of her.
She writes about loving this Paul and that is basically this reading part-the email. It goes into much more depth about her feelings and what she has been going through.

What do you think about Bernadette?

Do you like the quirky humour?

What do you think about this Paul character?

Hello everybody!
It is a start to another week which means the continuation with the re-read of Where'd You Go Bernadette? Today, we are reading pages 38-98. If you haven't started yet you can go to the other discussion before reading the rest of this as it has spoilers.

SO, lets discuss!

We left on Bernadette's daughter, Bee, getting accepted into boarding school. She is emailing Manjula, who she sends all of her financial stuff too.

The school want Bee to stay behind a grade but her father doesn't want that to happen and we find out that Bee was born with a heart defect and spent her first 5 years in and out of hospital. They take her back each year for a check up, which she doesn't need but it shows how worried her parents are about her, even when walking into the hospital as they start to freak out in case it's bad news.

We are now in December-getting closer to the day Bernadette disappears and still, there is no indication why she leaves.
I also want to know what Audrey and Soo-lin have to do with it. I know they kind of have some bad blood with Bernadette but, we do have a few emails exchanged between the two and it has got me thinking.

Bee is a wonderful character. She is very helpful to others, I do love her quick wit as well.

Bernadette is a bit of a worry wart and she relays on Manjula to organise, contact and pay everything she needs doing.

Soo-Lin is now the admin of a team headed by Elgin-Bernadette's husband.

After reading this I have realised that Bee is actually reading all these emails, letters etc as she talks about things in the letters.

Bernadette doesn't sleep and no one has seen a picture of her in 20 years. She hardly leaves the house and she is terrified of going on holiday.

And then, she ordered a billboard which was so big and it caused a lot of havoc at her neighbours house who had quite a few people around. The weather was terrible and there was mud everywhere.

I so wanted to high five Bee when she told Audrey off and stood up for her mother! It was a fantastic scene that I enjoyed so much! Bee has to put up with so much and she has finally snapped and gave Audrey a piece of her mind and it looks like what Audrey screamed at Bernadette really changed her as Bee says she was never the same after this event.

Elgin tells the story of how he and Bernadette met. How they have been together for 25 years. He was always caught up in work and she went through many miscarriages before she had Bee. He is also realising that things aren't right with Bernadette and he is wondering if she has always been like this. We also read about their night out to dinner, just them two after she fell asleep in the pharmacy and he found her with some work friends including, Soo-Lin.

She also talks about a guy who she has seen 4 times and it sounds like she is being followed.

And that is where it ends. Elgin finishing the letter to a Doctor as he is worried for his wife. He says she is different from the woman he fell in love with but he speaks so highly of his daughter.

So, what did you think of this section?
We now find out that the whole outburst with Audrey changed Bernadette...is that why she goes away?
What do you think of Elgin?

I really like this section as it gave more insight to their lives. We find out more about Elgin and other characters and how some might have something to do with what happened to Bernadette.

Bee is my favourite character. Like I said before, she is very quick-witted and has a good heart.

I cannot wait to carry on the next section next monday! Let me know your thoughts.

Hello guys,

Today I am kicking of the Where'd You Go Bernadette? Reread or read if you haven't read this book before. Today we will be discussing pages 1-37.

This book starts off by our main character asking her dad what does he think happened to her mom and he is deflecting the answer by telling her it isn't her fault and not actually telling her where her mom has gone and then we jump back to November where the main character, Bee, has just gotten her review from school and her parents, her mom is present since she goes before Christmas, and they are praising Bee for doing so well. She was told she was allowed a present for doing so well and she decides she wants a family holiday at Christmas - this moment her mother starts to act weird, wondering why and hoping by the sounds of it to not be this Christmas as we already know that she disappears.

Now we read an email from the mother to her assistant-a virtual assistant she has hired from India. Her boss isn't all that happy with her about doing it and she is freaking out about going on this holiday and it looks like she has social anxiety.

We get introduced to some characters beside Bee and her parents. Ollie-O, Manjula, Tom the blackberry abatement specialist, Audrey. We find out that Bernadette's husband is Elgin Branch-who is a level 80 corporate VP-and someone was surprised to see him on the bus and he is described as rude and anti-social as she is and the woman on the bus actually googles Bernadette doesn't seem to exist and it looks like there is going to be some layoffs at the job they all work at.

And then we find out Bernadette tried to run some one over? And that the story seems to be told in emails, letters, and some conversations, which I found really interesting.

Bernadette seems to heavily relay on Manjula. She sends all her bills and the holiday info to Manjula to book and also talks about her problems to Manjula.

We also find out Bee has applied to go to boarding school, which her mother also did, and Bernadette has decided to move close to her boarding school so she won't miss out on seeing her everyday.

And then the pages 1-37 end with Bee's acceptance to her boarding school and Bernadette freaking out about her family trip...

Sorry for it being so lengthy. But I wanted to get as much as I could in. What where your thoughts on the first 1-37 pages?

I thought it was the perfect opening for this story. It has gotten me thinking about why Bernadette could of possibly gone. She seemed to love her family but her emails to Manjula shows just how much she really doesn't like people and about her life, that she would do anything for Bee. So that is why I'm confused at why she goes but it has also gotten me very excited to read what comes next!

What did you think of Bernadette?
Did you like how the story was set out in emails, letters etc?
Let me know down in the comments for us to discuss!!