The Gays Mills Public Library holds monthly book discussions on the second Wednesday of the month. The April 9 book selection is ‘Where’d You Go, Bernadette’ by Maria Semple.

Bee Fox is a nice kid, a good musician and a great student. But her mother, Bernadette, is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect.

It all begins with a promise: If eighth-grader Bee Fox earns a picture perfect report card, she and her family will depart on a cruise to Antarctica. The prospect of the trip is exciting; too exciting, it soon becomes apparent, for Bee's brilliant, severely agoraphobic mom, who, just a day before the scheduled departure simply disappears. Taking the loss of her mother to heart, Bee begins a feverish, yet systematic search for her, thus piecing together in the process the dynamics of an unforgettable family.

To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents and secret correspondence—creating a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a daughter’s unflinching love for her imperfect mother.

If you would like to join the discussion but need a copy of the book, call 735-4331 or email motis@swls.org to have the library to reserve your copy.