Bellwether

Summary:

A romantic comedy on two scientists using the chaos theory to predict fads in our society. They are Sandra and Bennet, working on the premise that a tiny action like the flap of a butterfly's wings in Arizona has an impact on the whole world, perhaps resulting in a hurricane in China. The couple's work on fad-diffusion produces comic as well as tragic results.

Staff Review:

Bellwether by Connie Willis is a science fiction book for people who might think they don't like science fiction. While Willis is the winner of many notable science fiction awards including eleven Hugo Awards and seven Nebula Awards, this book reads like a romantic comedy. Connie is a Colorado author, and this endearing, charming novel takes place in Boulder.

The main character, Sandra Foster, is a scientist in Research and Development at HiTek, a fictional research company. Sandra is a sociologist studying the origins of fads. She is an avid library patron, and a witty observer of human behavior. At HiTek, Corporate is continuously calling meetings to discuss new simplified procurement forms, along with the simplified instructions for filling out the procurement form. Sandra is also plagued by an incompetent, insufferable office assistant named Flip who misdelivers packages, throws months of research in the garbage, and generally causes trouble wherever she goes. 

Due to Flip delivering an important package to the wrong office, Sandra meets Dr. O'Reilly, a mysteriously geeky yet charming fellow scientist at HiTek. Dr. O'Reilly is studying information transfer in animals, and his experiment is nearly a complete loss when Flip loses his funding request form. Will Dr. O'Reilly lose his job? Will Dr. O'Reilly and Sandra end up together? Find out in the pages of this charming, funny novel that happens to take place in the world of Science.

-- by Amy S.