Bellwether
by Connie Willispublished
June 2nd 1997
(first published 1996)
by Spectra
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binding
Paperback, 247 pages
isbn
0553562967
(isbn13: 9780553562965)
description
A sociologist who studies fads and a chaos theorist are brought together by a strange misdelivered package. This book has all the wit and clever writ...more
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Read in October, 2003
I received this book as a book swap.
Sandra Foster is a researcher at the HiTek corporation - studying fads in the hope that by quantifying and analyzing them, she'll discover a formula that the company can use. She occasionally gets caught up in the lives of her co-workers, and has intermittent dates with Billy Ray, a country boy who follows the latest fads, not only in clothing, but in ranching as well.
Sandra's nemesis is Flip, a Gen X /ultra-trenty clerical assistant who, with every ...more
Sandra Foster is a researcher at the HiTek corporation - studying fads in the hope that by quantifying and analyzing them, she'll discover a formula that the company can use. She occasionally gets caught up in the lives of her co-workers, and has intermittent dates with Billy Ray, a country boy who follows the latest fads, not only in clothing, but in ranching as well.
Sandra's nemesis is Flip, a Gen X /ultra-trenty clerical assistant who, with every ...more
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Read in May, 2008
recommends it for:
anyone
A fun novel, sort of a proto-Passage, centring on two scientists, Sandra Foster (who's researching the origins of fads) and Bennett O'Reilly (who's investigating information diffusion), whose professional and personal lives converge, despite (or because of) the incompetence of Flip, an "assistant" with an "i" branded on her forehead and unusual uses for duct tape.
Many of Willis's favourite themes are here: the bewildering disconnectedness between what you want and what yo...more
Many of Willis's favourite themes are here: the bewildering disconnectedness between what you want and what yo...more
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Read in January, 2002
8-08: Connie Willis was the guest of honor at this year's Comic Con, and she said this was her favorite book to write because she got to spend time complaining about all the things she hates. Not entirely surprising (I bet she put a lot of herself into Miracle, as well), but I think she might be a little too pessimistic and bitchy for my tastes, then. Oh, well - I still love her books and even this one. *g*
This time around, Management really cracked me up because I recognized shades of co-wo...more
This time around, Management really cracked me up because I recognized shades of co-wo...more
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Read in November, 2005
This is a formulaic love story set in what is supposed to be a research institution. The author has clearly done a lot of reading and found a lot of trivia about fads, and drops short infobites about fads in history into the text throughout. Unfortunately the plot moves slowly, the writing is competent in a breezey way and the researchers don't appear to do any real research. As a researcher myself I was disappointed in the shallow portrayal of science. Apart from the rather unlikely ways in whi...more
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Read in June, 2008
recommended to Rebecca by:
Steve Fisher
What do thirty sheep, a disheveled chaos theorist, and a statistician have in common? Everything, according to this very eccentric love story from Connie Willis.
I found myself waiting for "something" to happen, yet being interested enough in the characters not to put the book down. While a bit repetitive in driving home its chaos theory-related/serendipity-is-the-mother-of-invention points, the book is unique it is appr...more
I found myself waiting for "something" to happen, yet being interested enough in the characters not to put the book down. While a bit repetitive in driving home its chaos theory-related/serendipity-is-the-mother-of-invention points, the book is unique it is appr...more
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Read in July, 2005
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
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Read in August, 2008
This was a fun book all-round, about a scientist studying how fads are created, at the same time as experiencing a whole host of the variables she talks about in her own life.
If that makes it sound a bit heavy, its really not. Its a comedy set in a modern-day office/laboratory complex and the characters are very down-to-earth.
The one flaw that I think it has is that the strings of facts about fads and chaos theory that the author introduces in relation to the events of the plot do not re...more
If that makes it sound a bit heavy, its really not. Its a comedy set in a modern-day office/laboratory complex and the characters are very down-to-earth.
The one flaw that I think it has is that the strings of facts about fads and chaos theory that the author introduces in relation to the events of the plot do not re...more
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1 comments
Read in March, 2006
this is my most favorite book by connie willis. if you only read one of her books, choose this one.
this book is funny and a mystery and a love story, which is what i just wrote about to say nothing about the dog, my second favorite book of hers. this one has sheep instead of time travel. i love that her characters are a little odd and if they made this into a movie all the charm would be lost because they simply don't cast these people in movies. (if you read the right edition the author phot...more
this book is funny and a mystery and a love story, which is what i just wrote about to say nothing about the dog, my second favorite book of hers. this one has sheep instead of time travel. i love that her characters are a little odd and if they made this into a movie all the charm would be lost because they simply don't cast these people in movies. (if you read the right edition the author phot...more
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Read in January, 2000
One of those magical books that makes you wonder if the author has in fact stumbled across a significant insight into the world whilst disguising her discovery as a comic novel...
I would say, however, that it is slightly unrepresentative of Connie Willis' work, which is typically much harder edged science fiction (although, having said that, To Say Nothing of the Dog retains some of the humorous edge that this has.)
Be...more
I would say, however, that it is slightly unrepresentative of Connie Willis' work, which is typically much harder edged science fiction (although, having said that, To Say Nothing of the Dog retains some of the humorous edge that this has.)
Be...more
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I think I was drawn to this novel because is was about trendsetters... and I found in it Sci-fi! It has been a while since I read this one, so perhaps there WAS a sci-fi element, but mostly I remember there being a vaguely science bent and it being a fiction story. You know, I repeatedly find Orson Scott Card's religious fiction in Sci-fi too. Believe you me, you would never see a bookstore putting The Red Tent in sci-fi. Has anyone else noticed that if you are are a reader (or writer) of sc...more
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Read in July, 2008
Just as excellent the third time around! Words cannot express how much I love Connie Willis... she's probably the most accessible, and certainly the funniest, science fiction writer out there. I don't think I'd even categorize Bellwether as science fiction. Sandra Foster is a sociologist studying the origin of fads, and finds herself collaborating with an adorably geeky chaos theorist. I'd recommend this to anyone for a quick, entertaining read. (See also To Say Nothing of the Dog and Doomsd...more
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recommended to Pamr by:
A freind
recommends it for: Anyone with a soul, managers :-)
recommends it for: Anyone with a soul, managers :-)
A whole new take on counting sheep - In a reaearch company where everyone is dysfunctional.
To say too much about this gives the lot away. The experiment is going wrong, the admin Flip is a nightmare, the management are management types and all that comes with it - trendy buzz words like results oreintated. But some how the main character Sandra finds out something important about herself...
This book should be required reading before anyone is promoted to management - forget the seven...more
To say too much about this gives the lot away. The experiment is going wrong, the admin Flip is a nightmare, the management are management types and all that comes with it - trendy buzz words like results oreintated. But some how the main character Sandra finds out something important about herself...
This book should be required reading before anyone is promoted to management - forget the seven...more
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Read in January, 2002
This is a fun, light book that, to me, is a little too much with the romance and a little too light on the plot. The characters are absolutely awesome, though - Flip alone makes the book worth reading - and Willis's deft hand with humor (why, why oh why does she spend so much time writing things that aren't funny when she does funny this well?) makes it well worth not just reading but owning.
Plus, there are recalcitrant sheep. Who doesn't want to read a book with recalcitrant sheep?
Plus, there are recalcitrant sheep. Who doesn't want to read a book with recalcitrant sheep?
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Here's what I love about this book. It plays on a number of levels with the notion that the world is not necessarily ordered as we suppose it to be, and that we generally don't notice because we are predisposed to seek patterns that make sense to us. But maybe what we see in the world is more about what we want and expect to see than it is about what is actually there. If that isn't science fiction I have no idea what would count as science fiction. Oh also its very funny.
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Read in June, 2008
recommends it for:
people unafraid of light romance who want to dip their toes into sci-fi
There wasn't much plot, and there wasn't much research happening for the main character to have been working in Research and Development... but I really enjoyed this book! It was fun and light and full of random information and read a bit like a Harlequin (sans the bodice-ripping and purple prose) for a geekier, more intellectually-minded crowd.
The plot itself isn't exactly sci-fi, but there is discussion of theory and principles, which was fun. I think all books should include r...more
The plot itself isn't exactly sci-fi, but there is discussion of theory and principles, which was fun. I think all books should include r...more
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Read in May, 2007
This seems to be classified as a sci-fi/fantasy book, though it's really just a fiction book about scientists. It's about a woman who's trying to discover what starts fads, and a man studying chaos theory, and the bureaucratic absurdities of the corporation they work for. It's funny and light, but intelligent, and full of weird trivia about fads through the ages. The book culminates in an interesting & entertaining theory that uses chaos theory to explain fads. The book isn't anything amazin...more
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Connie Willis must have had fun writing this entertaining book. Not only does she get to ruminate about the causes of scientific discovery and the source of fads, she is able to propose a reasonable cause. She uses literary allusion cleverly and well throughout the plot.
I've enjoyed her short stories, particularly "Inside Job," about H.L. Mencken and contemporary con artists. Now I'm going to look for more of her novels.
"Bellwether" is an intelligently entertaining st...more
I've enjoyed her short stories, particularly "Inside Job," about H.L. Mencken and contemporary con artists. Now I'm going to look for more of her novels.
"Bellwether" is an intelligently entertaining st...more
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Read in May, 2007
I LOVED this book! Really, really, really funny! I'm so glad I got to read it. The characters are well thought out and totally believable. I know people like Flip, and while I've never worked with a Management like the one described, I know enough of corporations to believe that they exist. Once I started I couldn't put the book down. I especially enjoyed the information on various fads written at the beginning of each chapter... I never knew how OLD some fads are. Highly recommendable!
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Read in August, 2008
I picked this one up to re-read and I forgot how much I like this book! And now after having worked in the scientific realm and the state government, I find it spot on and hysterical. To quote a little from the book:
"Scientific discoveries are the same way. People like to think of science as rational and reasonable, following step by step from hypothesis to experiment to conclusion. ... Nothing can be further from the truth."
"Scientific discoveries are the same way. People like to think of science as rational and reasonable, following step by step from hypothesis to experiment to conclusion. ... Nothing can be further from the truth."
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Read in August, 2008
A science fiction book that is actually about scientific research! There are no giant robots, laser guns, aliens, or strange planets to be found. Just a faceless corporation, a chaos theorist with no fashion sense, an office assistant from hell, some sheep, and a heroine more interested in science than romance. I loved it.
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