WHERE'D YOU GO, BERNADETTE by Maria Semple

This is what is known as an epistolary novel, but such an adjective sounds way too serious for this book.  It’s a manic whirlwind of hilarious emails, blog posts, letters, teenage musings, transcripts of conversations, medical bills, police reports—you name it.  Bernadette is a former Los Angeles architect who specialized in the use of local building materials.  Now she’s in Seattle—a city she detests and mercilessly skewers—and has abandoned her career for reasons to be revealed later in the book.  Her husband Elgin is a rising star at Microsoft, heading up Bill Gates’ favorite project.  Their daughter Bee has requested a trip to Antarctica as a reward for her topnotch academic performance.  When something seems too good to be true, like this perfect family or a virtual assistant who charges 75 cents an hour, trouble must be lurking just around the corner.  Then when nextdoor neighbor Audrey Griffin demands that Bernadette cut back her infringing blackberry vines, Bernadette complies, but a domino effect of chaos and hilarity ensues.  Audrey is so preoccupied with making the perfect impression that she’s oblivious to her son’s misdeeds. Bernadette, on the other hand, is borderline reclusive and delightfully wacky.  She is the enigmatic force that drives this story, and we finally get a close-up glimpse of her when we learn the details of her architectural accomplishments.  Her family’s wheels come off when Elgin becomes a little too close to his administrative assistant and begins questioning whether Bernadette’s antics are an indication of a mental breakdown.  Common sense is apparently not his forte, nor Bernadette’s either, for that matter, and thus Bee, wise beyond her years, has to step in to restore order.

THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU by Jonathan Tropper

I can see how this book, alternately funny and poignant, would be a good candidate for a movie, but it's an even better novel. Judd Foxman and his three siblings, along with their stiletto-wearing, breast-enhanced mother, are sitting shiva for their recently deceased father. This means that the five of them, plus their families, will be spending the next week in the same house. Judd and his beloved wife, Jen, however, have separated, after Judd discovered her in their bed with his boss. Judd, nursing an acutely broken heart, is somewhat lost after the demise of his marriage, but his brothers are not any better off. His older brother Paul harbors a mountain of pent-up resentment against Judd, blaming him for an unfortunate encounter with a dog, which destroyed Paul's plans for a professional baseball career. The youngest brother Phil is basically a screw-up that delivers outrageous fabrications about his current occupation to anyone who asks. Wendy, their sister, manages to steer clear of most of the mayhem, but there is so much emotion that needs to be aired, particularly between Judd and Paul, that plenty of sparks fly. Scattered among the fistfights and slamming doors are some very funny, memorable moments, including some potty humor, some hilarious banter with children in which the word "donkey" is substituted for the word "ass," and a pot smoking scene in the synagogue. Judd occasionally throws out some bitterly honest remarks that both shock and amuse, and almost every night he has nightmares of having an artificial leg. Then one night he dreams that his father removes the prosthetic to reveal a perfectly uninjured leg. My guess is that this dream symbolizes how broken his life is and that this family reunion in honor of his father somehow has the potential to help him restore order. Phil's current girlfriend, Tracy—an older woman and Phil's former shrink—offers Judd some very sage advice that we can only hope he has the good sense to follow.

Amazon: 4 stars (190 reviews)

Barnes & Noble: 4 stars (73 reviews)

SAMMY'S HILL by Kristin Gore

This is the second book I've read recently that reviewers compared to Bridget Jones's Diary. This one is by Al Gore's daughter and takes place in the familiar (to her) surroundings of our nation's capital. Like Diary, there are a bunch of lewd, hilarious emails, including one that goes awry when Sammy, our heroine, accidentally clicks the Reply All button. Isn't that the scenario we're all a little nervous about in the electronic age—our gossip reaching unintended audiences? Despite that incident, Sammy has a little more common sense than Bridget, but she makes some horrendous choices in men and in pet stores. She's also a little accident-prone, reminding me of another funny heroine, Stephanie Plum, from Janet Evanovich's novels. In Sammy's case, this trait perhaps explains her constant musing on how she would cope with certain disabilities. In actuality, it appears that she should focus more on spin control for her various faux pas, but then again, the consequences seem to slide off fairly easily. There are lots of thinly veiled references to real people in Washington, and these just add to the fun. The best, though, is the typo she makes in an email at the end of the novel. It's a riot, and I can't wait to read the next installment.

BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY by Helen Fielding

I saw the movie years ago, so that this novel composed of diary entries was fresh and hilarious. Bridget is obsessed with her vices—food, alcohol and cigarettes. She's a procrastinator who tends to bite off more than she can chew and a singleton whose family and "Smug Married" friends badger her about her unmarried status. Her greatest asset is her wit, though, and that is what sustains her. Her email repartee with her slimy but handsome boss regarding her uber-short spandex skirt is side-splittingly funny. The other possible man in her life is Mark Darcy, a very successful lawyer who seems a little too buttoned up for Bridget's tastes. Scattered among her neurotic quests for a boyfriend, her job blunders and dinner party fiascos are sources of embarrassment that somehow morph into successes. On the periphery is the drama playing out with her parents, who separate when her mother yields to her inner cougar tendencies. This is somewhat of an unnecessary distraction, as Bridget's foibles are more entertaining, from trying to program her VCR to assessing the feng shui of her apartment.

FAT OLLIE'S BOOK by Ed McBain

Fat Ollie is a detective investigating the assassination of a local politician. He's an equal-opportunity bigot, and his novel, except for the last chapter, has been stolen from his patrol car. Yes, he's written a very short (30+ pages) novel, Report to the Commissioner, and has no backup copy, because he composed it on a typewriter. So there are two crimes being solved here, and how they become intertwined is hilarious. The transvestite prostitute, Emilio/Emmy, who stole the novel, doesn't realize that it's fiction and starts doing some sleuthing of his own to locate the people in the book. There's also a drug deal going down in the middle of it all, with some two-bit crooks who have no idea what they're getting into. Needless to say, this is not a thriller or a serious mystery. Fat Ollie's novel is included in its entirety and provides lots of laughs, especially as its author repeats himself to be sure that he's covered all the bases grammatically. And the protagonist of Ollie's book is a female cop, so that it's almost as if Ollie is channeling a woman in the book. It's a not-too-subtle parallel with the Emilio/Emmy character.

A SPOT OF BOTHER by Mark Haddon

This book is about a family with one of each, as a friend of mine would put it—a homosexual son, a daughter who can't seem to choose the right husband, a mother who's cheating, and a father who's obsessed with his own mortality. George's anxiety over his wife Jean's affair, or perhaps the fact that she might leave him, has led to his being convinced that a patch of eczema is really cancer. George becomes increasingly irrational, while his daughter Katie has second thoughts about her upcoming marriage and his son Jamie realizes that he has lost the love of his life. George's hilarious actions have just the right amount of poignancy as we witness just how pitiful he has become. Still, everyone in the family is wrestling with his/her relationship issues in an offbeat comical manner. Jean ultimately has to choose between her unbalanced husband and her lively lover, who George unwittingly invites to dinner. Jamie has to try to win Tony back and overcompensates for his past inhibitions with regard to his sexual orientation in the presence of his family. Katie weighs her family's disapproval and her own emotional detachment against the knowledge that Ray, her dull fiancé, is a loving and sane partner, contrasting sharply with her charismatic but shallow ex-husband. Here's a family that has definitely put the fun back in dysfunctional.

THE STEPHANIE PLUM SERIES by Janet Evanovich

The books in the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich are my favorite beach reads. They're also great for a break after reading something long, challenging, or depressing. Evanovich never fails to please with mystery, sex, and laugh-out-loud humor. Stephanie is a sometimes inept, sometimes lucky, sometimes wily bond enforcement agent in Trenton for her uncle Vinnie. She is divorced from Dickie, who cheated on her with Joyce, also a bounty hunter for Vinnie. Stephanie's main sidekick is another of Vinnie's employees, Lula, a large black ex-prostitute. Are you getting the picture here? The characters are wacky and hilarious, especially Stephanie's family, including her randy granny, whose favorite social activity is seeing who's laid out at Stiva's funeral home. Stephanie's love life always figures largely into the plot, as she's torn between two men. Joe Morelli, whom she's known since childhood, is a hunky cop who wants to marry her However, he doesn't relish the idea that the future mother of his children is being shot at on a regular basis. Ranger is another skip tracer for Vinnie who's sexy to the point of being scary. These books are as addictive as chocolate.

SKINNY DIP by Carl Hiaasen

Skinny Dip by Carl Hiaasen isn't a whodunit or even a mystery, because we know in the first few pages that Chaz Perrone has thrown his wife Joey overboard from a cruise ship. Joey, however, a former collegiate swimmer, survives the plunge by hanging on to a bale of marijuana. Then Mick Stranahan, a former cop, rescues her and brings her back to his island paradise, and they fall in love. I'm not kidding. So you'll have to suspend reality here, but who cares? The story is an enjoyable romp, and Mick and Joey surreptitiously torment scumbag Chaz as a means of revenge while hiding the fact that Joey is still alive. The big questions are what was Chaz's motive, since Joey's fortune is unobtainable (did I mention that she's rich and beautiful?) and why did Joey marry him in the first place. The book is full of colorful characters, especially Tool, a big hairy oaf that changes allegiances during the course of the ensuing mayhem. Along with the fun, the author drills home his message of the need to protect the Everglades from corrupt politicians and big business, who will go to any lengths to hide their sins of pollution.