Maria Semple

A brilliant novel from the author of Where'd You Go, Bernadette, about a day in the life of Eleanor Flood, forced to abandon her small ambitions and awake to a strange, new future. Eleanor knows she's a mess. But today, she will tackle the little things. She will shower and get dressed. She will have her poetry and yoga lessons after dropping off her son, Timby. She won't swear. She will initiate sex with her husband, Joe. But before she can put her modest plan into action-life happens. Today, it turns out, is the day Timby has decided to fake sick to weasel his way into his mother's company. It's also the day Joe has chosen to tell his office-but not Eleanor-that he's on vacation. Just when it seems like things can't go more awry, an encounter with a former colleague produces a graphic memoir whose dramatic tale threatens to reveal a buried family secret. TODAY WILL BE DIFFERENT is a hilarious, heart-filled story about reinvention, sisterhood, and how sometimes it takes facing up to our former selves to truly begin living.

Today Will Be Different

Arihant Verma

Scattered timeline. 

Both a bane and a boon was lazy loading the parts of the story – set in the past – at the point of need. Towards the end, I was crying in desperation that this pattern, on which the whole book is seemed to be based, which when had started had taken me in awe, breaks.

Excessive use of the pattern above made for abrupt, distended staccatos of sentences, paragraphs and even whole scenes.

I didn't quite hit off with many descriptions that are foreign to me, which are coupled with where the story is set. The descriptions of streets, sometimes even people's clothes, description of football ( soccer ? baseball ? what was it ? ) and the like.

There was an abrupt change of voices. From first person to third person narration, and back to first person again. I was like whaaaaaaaat?

The book was darkly comical and humorous, yet it's the kind of dark and satirical humour that encompasses people's lives everyday. It needs pin point observations ( and write them as exactly as possible ), and cut throat honesty to bring it out. Maria brings it to the table so effortlessly. The characters and their building up ( no matter how few in the book, a good thing for me actually ) was so refined. I do not know how she made them with such few words to show how they are what they'd usually do, depending on different days and mood.

The use of short sentences, the skill of not using adverbial phrases in dialogue attribution is another thing I learnt.

I really learned from the imagery she put in words. It was very exact. If I'm going to read a book which I didn't particularly liked ( in terms of the flow of the story told ), again, this might be that.

Laura Mauler

** spoiler alert **
           Let me start by saying that I devoured this book in one day. That is always a good sign. 

The narrative shift partway through was a complete shock: we start with a not-too-serious story about a wealthy neurotic mother having a "rough" time, and then switch to a story of deeply bonded sisters whose relationship is destroyed over time in sharp acidic bursts. The emotions in this portion were so horribly sharp I had to stop reading and reach out to my own sister to tell her how much I love her (a sort of superstitious assurance that this story will never be us, never). 

So then the book is moving back and forth between the plot of the sisters (the past) and the plot of the older-sister-turned-neurotic-mother (present). And here's where it gets complicated, since the former is so compelling and real and the latter is.... not. I mean, the older sister/mother just goes bonkers. It's been set up in the early pages that she gets away with acting like an asshole, but this is unbelievable. I think that it may have worked if things were slowed down, if she did these things over several weeks instead of in one day, and if more information was given to explain her behavior. As far as I can tell the only explanation for the present-day plot line is "My sister and I no longer have a relationship and the pain of it is making me selfish and a little nuts". When I finished the book I had the strong feeling that the author had simply run out of time.

In summary, this starts as a good book, bursts into a great book, and then fizzles back into a book that is pretty good (but could have been great).

Ashley Johnson

Fun without being boring or lazy, easy to devour, not quite as good as "Where'd You Go, Bernadette."

Cindy Lieberman

A day in the life of Eleanor Flood, a scatterbrained artist, wife and mother who has spent the past decade not working on her publisher-advanced graphical memoir, indulging her now 8-year-old son's interest in shopping for clothes and wearing makeup, avoiding deep friendships, not thinking about her estranged sister, and being barely supportive of her husband, a successful surgeon-to-the-stars. Eleanor seems almost incapable of navigating herself through a typical day. Today Will be Different promises an atypical day, but delivers a jumbled, incoherent mess (much like Eleanor herself), despite the author's attempts to inject humor and mayhem. As other reviewers have aptly noted, Eleanor lacks the heart of Bernadette, the heroine of Semple's first novel. 
Today is a quick read and mostly entertaining. It just doesn't have the same balance and satisfactory payoff as Bernadette. If Eleanor were a real person, myopic and frazzled, I'd steer clear. 2.5 stars.

Nadine 

Kerry Gibbons

Pretty good, pretty enjoyable. The narrator is neurotic beyond measure and I’m not sure if there was a *point* to this story, but I still generally liked it.

Rachel Briggs

Man... this was a roller coaster ride. At one point I was confused as to why this book had low ratings, at other points I felt like I was slogging through a stream of consciousness, and then at some points I was questioning what the point of this book was. 

And the ending.... the ending! I won't give it away, in case you are planning on reading this - but just know, It made me so mad! If Today Will Be Different wasn't 260 pages, I would have DNF'd. 

If this book and been about the story of two sisters and their relationship with each other, it would have been 5 stars. Take out the poet, take out the religion, take out the random art installation, take out the distain for prep school moms. Focus on Elenore and Ivy... and Timby (the greatest kid to ever exist). 

Where'd You Go Bernadette still lives on my favorites shelf, and so I am sad that Maria Semple disappointed me so much. But the prompt that led me to this book so so fitting, the lowest rated book on my TBR...

Allyson Marrs

The pace of this book was exhausting, in terms of trying to keep up with it. The narrator flitted from each thought and memory, and it became difficult to remember where you were in the story, and what exactly you were supposed to be aware of happening. Liked it enough for Maria Semple's signature charm, but definitely more confusing than her others.

b.andherbooks

Eleanor vows today will be different as she goes through a 40 something crisis of womanhood, motherhood, and wife-hood.

I had fun reading Eleanor's stream of concious ramblings, but not as much as I enjoyed Bernadette's. This also felt very similar to Where'd You Go, but not quite as tightly plotted. The addition of the short graphic novel was a nice treat.

Jan Talkington

A light, easy read about a day in the life. Things twist and turn and while it says there are laughs, I didn't find myself having many. Everyone can relate to plans going awry and life being out of control. Sometimes it's good to see that happens to other people in ways that make your own look easy to bear.

Diane Calello

Amelia C 

Gigi V

Allison Dempsey

Lindsy Rice

Caroline

Patricia Nelson

Gabby Holt

Rebecca Harwood

Katrina Meyers

Coley T

Rebecca Shaffer

* Instant New York Times Bestseller * Named a Notable Book of 2016 by the Washington Post, one of Amazon's Top 100 Books of the Year, one of New York Times Book Review's 100 Notable Books, one of The Guardian's Best Books of 2016, one of NPR's Best Books of 2016, a Must-Read Book of 2016 by PopSugar, one of EW's 20 Best Books of 2016, one of Glamour's Top Ten Books of the Year, and one of Kirkus Reviews' "Best 100 Fiction Books of 2016" A brilliant novel from the author of Where'd You Go, Bernadette, about a day in the life of Eleanor Flood, forced to abandon her small ambitions and awake to a strange, new future. Eleanor knows she's a mess. But today, she will tackle the little things. She will shower and get dressed. She will have her poetry and yoga lessons after dropping off her son, Timby. She won't swear. She will initiate sex with her husband, Joe. But before she can put her modest plan into action-life happens. Today, it turns out, is the day Timby has decided to fake sick to weasel his way into his mother's company. It's also the day Joe has chosen to tell his office-but not Eleanor-that he's on vacation. Just when it seems like things can't go more awry, an encounter with a former colleague produces a graphic memoir whose dramatic tale threatens to reveal a buried family secret. TODAY WILL BE DIFFERENT is a hilarious, heart-filled story about reinvention, sisterhood, and how sometimes it takes facing up to our former selves to truly begin living.