The most-cited title on summer 2012 book previews, Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple comes out next week and gets an early plug from the NYT‘s Janet Maslin. It’s done the trick; the book rose to #113 on Amazon’s sales rankings, its highest point so far.

Maslin often jumps the pub date to be the first to review a book that is likely to be talked about. In this case, however, Glenn Young of Michigan’s Petosky News beat her to it, with a review that is the polar opposite of Maslin’s. It seems you need to be a fan of the cult TV show Arrested Development (which Semple wrote for) to get the book’s humor. Young acknowledges that he is not.

Maslin, however, says that Semple’s writing for TV was a great background for this “divinely funny, many-faceted novel.”

Expect to see many more reviews next week. Libraries are showing holds ratios ranging from 3:1 up to 12:1 on light ordering.

Where’d You Go, Bernadette Maria Semple Retail Price: $25.99 Hardcover: 336 pages Publisher: Little, Brown and Company – (2012-08-14) ISBN / EAN: 0316204277 / 9780316204279

Hachette Audio; Thorndike Large Type in Dec.

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