Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple

The long awaited third novel by Maria Semple, author of Where’d You Go Bernadette and writer for TV’s Arrested Development and Mad About You, is out!  Today Will Be Different is about Eleanor Flood, anxious writer, mother and wife, getting a grip.  It is hysterical and a little sad and very much on point, all at the same time.

Eleanor is way over due turning in her graphic novel memoir to her editor, her son attends an elite private school and often has to come home sick to spend time with Eleanor, her husband is a famous plastic surgeon who is on vacation unbeknownst to his wife, and her sister Ivy is married to an idiot and at odds with Eleanor.  Actually, Eleanor is at odds with everyone.  If she was at a bookstore, she would be the person with 10 self help books in her arms.  At a coffee shop, she would be in exercise clothes eating a cinnamon bun.  At school, the mom who signed up for homemade treats and brings granola bars from the back of the pantry. She means to change and get a grip on her life, but it just seems to elude her.  I would find her annoying if there wasn’t just a little bit of most working mom’s realities in her character.  And if she wasn’t so funny…I laughed out loud, snickered, nodded…all through this novel.  Two thumbs up!