Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Today Will Be Different  By  cover art

Today Will Be Different

By: Maria Semple
Narrated by: Kathleen Wilhoite
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $19.48

Buy for $19.48

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

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.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.

©2016 Maria Semple (P)2016 Hachette Audio

What listeners say about Today Will Be Different

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    441
  • 4 Stars
    437
  • 3 Stars
    417
  • 2 Stars
    166
  • 1 Stars
    84
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    684
  • 4 Stars
    360
  • 3 Stars
    211
  • 2 Stars
    87
  • 1 Stars
    67
Story
  • 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    355
  • 4 Stars
    384
  • 3 Stars
    370
  • 2 Stars
    187
  • 1 Stars
    111

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

So disappointing - Bernadette fans will be sad

Any additional comments?

This is a ridiculous book, I adored Where'd you go Bernadette and this book does not compare. I found this boring and miserable to follow. Eleanor, the protagonist, is impossible to connect with. The writing is no where near the caliber of Where'd you go Bernadette. Also, this book is peppered with not so subtle propaganda. If I were you, I would save my credit to avoid a colossal let down!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

36 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great story but narration was hit and miss

I love Maria Semple's previous books, and loved this one too.

But this narrator! How do I describe her? At times she was brilliant, but at other times her performance really detracted from the story. The narrator's son Timby may have been a normal kid if I read the paper version, but instead his voice was a mix of whine and high-pitched nasally French horn. Kids don't sound like that! The poet in the story had a hokey southern accent despite the fact that the story was set in Seattle. A posh modern artist sounded like a 1940's Brooklyn gangster. And worst of all, a disabled man in a wheelchair was made to sound like he had an intellectual, rather than physical, disability.

The narrator was often spectacular and I'm sure she is talented. Maybe the producer convinced her to use these exaggerated and frankly strange voices? In any case, I wish she hadn't.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

29 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Heard a clip. Was what I expected with lots of twists and turns.

I, myself am an older mom struggling with identity, insecurity, a wobbly career (due to choosing children over the climb to the top) and trying to put all of the pieces in place. I had many parallels that made me feel 'not-so-bad' about my place in life and give a bit of inspiration to get up, shower and make today a better day. I found this story to be a nice, relatable story in which I got reprieve from my own issues.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

22 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

This will make you feel like you're going crazy!

Would you try another book from Maria Semple and/or Kathleen Wilhoite?

I loved Where'd you go Bernadette, and I feel that this has great potential, but it wanders around and then overall wraps up quite sharply. There are so many asides here that its hard to find the main thread of the plot. I preferred some of the asides, and overall think that Eleanor is someone I would dislike in real life. Her mental wanderings drove me crazy!

What about Kathleen Wilhoite’s performance did you like?

She keeps the voices of the main characters distinct, which I think would be tricky, and she keep the story moving along quickly.

Could you see Today Will Be Different being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

No way.

Any additional comments?

The first minute of the audiobook says that it contains a mac and PC compatible pdf file of drawings. Audible does not give you that file, and technical support did not believe me. I was very annoyed by this.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

15 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Weird, but fascinating.

This was a fun story to listen to, even if I have no idea what the point really was.

The narrator made some choices for the characters that I think would have sounded much differently in my head if I were reading the book. Sometimes I think she made characters sound more shallow and crazy than the words sounded to me. There were also at least 3 three blatant mispronunciations of words. (Not faulting the narrator, but I always wonder how those sneak past editors and such.)

Having said that, I did laugh out loud at some of it, especially her super-annoying portrayal of Timby. I swear that's how my kids sound on my worst days. And the things he said - so spot on for a typical kid in 2010s that I thought he might be my kids' classmate.

All in all, interesting, entertaining, and weird.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Not worth the credit.

What disappointed you about Today Will Be Different?

The story was all over the place. I didnt get bast the 2nd chapter.

Would you ever listen to anything by Maria Semple again?

Maybe

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

Too scatterbrained of a character. I get what the author was trying to do but the story was not interesting at all.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Like the other book. Liked the book. Hated the ending.

Like she got bored and just wanted to wrap it up. Quit before the last 30 and make your own ending.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Not "Where'd You Go Bernadette?"

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

It was somewhat entertaining, but too close a shadow of "Where'd You Go, Bernadette?", without a great plot. I truly loved Bernadette. I hosted our book club with Bernadette, and it was one of our happiest meetings ever.

Would you be willing to try another book from Maria Semple? Why or why not?

Yes. She has wonderful, biting wit in general and such a way with children's dialogue and a personal way of interpreting the thoughts and actions of mothers who have or had serious professions -- along the ilk of Liane Moriarty, but in Seattle and with more laughter. Still, this particular book needed a fresher theme.

What about Kathleen Wilhoite’s performance did you like?

Oh, she's perfect for these books. 5 star all the way.

Did Today Will Be Different inspire you to do anything?

No, not at all. I just want her "child" to grow up a bit & have the heroine move on a little bit...new turf. What if they had to head up the new tech/art/legal business in the Asian region, etc. and move to an international school....Maria Semple's observations of people are priceless.

Any additional comments?

Encourage Maria to move up to the problems of a high school? Move across country? Dye her character's hair? Who knows? But, don't change her sometimes biting comments on her fellow citizens - those are priceless.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Whine about first world problems

Not a lot of substance here. It lacks the twists and turns of Bernadette. I kept waiting for it to get better. It didn't

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Yes, Different: Bernadette Good, This Bad

OK, so we're all back for more because we all loved Where'd You Go, Bernadette? While waiting for this, I went back and read Maria Semple's first novel, This One Is Mine, which was good not great. And I, like you, waited with anticipation for her follow-up to Bernadette. Well, I ain't holding my breath for the next one. Because Today Will Be Different is different -- it's bad.

Basically it's Bernadette redux, with several differences: 1. The epistolary structure is gone, replaced by no structure, even (one could argue) negative structure, major story lines abruptly ending because new, unexpected ones drop in out of the blue (e.g. What's up with her husband? Never mind, she has a sister she's never mentioned before, let's complain about that for two hours, and then drop it too). We also lose Bernadette's multiple points of view, trapped solely inside Evelyn Flood's first person monologue.

2. Whatever was endearing about the neurotic Bernadette (and it was actually her daughter who was endearing), ultra-neurotic Evelyn is just annoying, especially since there's no reason under the sun for her to be so neurotic -- she even jokes about her silly first-world problems, but after several hours of hearing her whine about one ridiculously trivial issue after another, give me a break, this isn't funny, it's annoying.

3. The ending. The only thing that could redeem this book was the ending. I was teetering between three stars and four stars, enjoying Semple's sense of humor, annoyed by Evelyn and the haphazard storytelling, waiting for it all to come together. Then we learn what's really going on, what makes today different. Not only does that take it down to one star for Story (because there is no zero star rating), it makes me not want to read/listen to Semple ever again.

What was she thinking? Blech!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful