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Bellwether
- Narrated by: Kate Reading
- Length: 6 hrs and 30 mins
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Publisher's summary
Audie Award, Science Fiction and Fantasy, 2010
Pop culture, chaos theory, and matters of the heart collide in this unique novella from the Hugo and Nebula Award - winning author of Doomsday Book.
Sandra Foster studies fads and their meanings for the HiTek corporation. Bennett O'Reilly works with monkey group behavior and chaos theory for the same company. When the two are thrust together due to a misdelivered package and a run of seemingly bad luck, they find a joint project in a flock of sheep. But a series of setbacks and disappointments arise before they are able to find answers to their questions - with the unintended help of the errant, forgetful, and careless office assistant Flip.
Critic reviews
"Willis's story builds slowly but is realistic and engrossing." ( Midwest Book Review)
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Film fanatic Adam is 17 and being asked out on his first date—and the guy is cute. Heart racing, Adam accepts, quickly falling in love with Callum like the movies always promised. Fashion-obsessed Ben is 18 and has just left his home upstate after his mother discovers his hidden stash of gay magazines. When he comes to New York City, Ben’s sexuality begins to feel less like a secret and more like a badge of honor. Then Callum disappears, leaving Adam heartbroken, and Ben finds out his new world is more closed-minded than he thought.
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Such a great book
- By Jose Laguna on 11-30-22
By: Tucker Shaw
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Orphan Train Girl
- The Young Readers' Edition of Orphan Train
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- Narrated by: Jessica Almasy
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Molly Ayer has been in foster care since she was eight years old. Most of the time, Molly knows it's her attitude that's the problem, but after being shipped from one family to another, she's had her fair share of adults treating her like an inconvenience. So when Molly's forced to help an elderly woman clean out her attic for community service, Molly is wary. Just another adult to treat her like a troublemaker.
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Awesome book!
- By DebDeb on 08-06-18
By: Sarah Thompson, and others
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The Everything Box
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- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
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A beautiful, ambitious angel stands on a mountaintop, surveying the world and its little inhabitants below. He smiles because soon, the last of humanity who survived the great flood will meet its end, too. And he should know. He's going to play a big part in it. Our angel usually doesn't get to do fieldwork, and if he does well, he's certain he'll get a big promotion.
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Everything not for Everyone
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By: Richard Kadrey
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Curiosity Thrilled the Cat
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- By: Sofie Kelly
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When librarian Kathleen Paulson moved to Mayville Heights, Minnesota, she had no idea that two strays would nuzzle their way into her life. Owen is a tabby with a catnip addiction and Hercules is a stocky tuxedo cat who shares Kathleen's fondness for Barry Manilow. But beyond all the fur and purrs, there's something more to these felines. When murder interrupts Mayville's Music Festival, Kathleen finds herself the prime suspect.
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Promising "Cozy" Series
- By Chalis on 07-11-14
By: Sofie Kelly
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A is for Alibi
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This is the first in the popular series featuring California investigator Kinsey Millhone. She's 32, twice divorced, no kids, an ex-cop who likes her work...and who works strictly alone!
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No More for Me
- By Robin on 07-12-08
By: Sue Grafton
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Short Squeeze
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- Narrated by: Deanna Hurst
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Meet smart-aleck Southampton attorney Jackie Swaitkowski. Her business relies on constant movement of Hamptons' real estate market. After making an odd request to evict his sister-in-law from his home, one of her clients turns up dead. Jackie would have expected that to be the end of it, but an envelope found on the corpse contains an item so unusual that she finds herself working on something bigger, and more dangerous, than real estate.
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Great Listen - Good Series
- By Patricia on 02-15-10
By: Chris Knopf
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The Green Glass Sea
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This first novel from Nebula Award-winning short story writer Ellen Klages was picked as a Junior Library Guild selection and named a Book Sense Number-One Children's Pick. It follows a young girl named Dewey, whose father is part of a super-secret project in 1943 Los Alamos. Dewey, a gifted scientist herself, slowly realizes the implications of "the gadget" her father is working on. She and Suze, another Los Alamos child, find comfort in each other's friendship.
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Wonderful!
- By Rita on 12-08-08
By: Ellen Klages
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Terrific, but too short
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Good story, unfortunate narration
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Hugo award winner
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What listeners say about Bellwether
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Pam
- 07-04-12
Pattern Recognition" Meets "Office Space
Fans of William Gibson's "Pattern Recognition" will see a lot of similarity here, in that our heroine is working to understand the evolution of trends in human society. And fans of "Office Space" will see a lot of similarity between that movie's Initech company and our heroine's Hi-Tek laboratory. The blend is sometimes laugh-out-loud funny.
Some Hi-Tek employees' names are allegories -- one incompetent assistant is named "Desiderata" and another "Flip" (for the frequent flip of her hair, or, as we learn later, maybe something else). The clueless laboratory director -- who falls for every new management fad that comes along -- is simply named "Management."
Chapters begin with just a little background on the research topic at hand, and these entries make the book's science content accessible to a general audience. I gave it four stars because I thought that these introductory segments were at times a little too long or detailed. But all in all a good book, and I couldn't put it down -- had to listen to it in one sitting.
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45 people found this helpful
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- Nana
- 04-04-14
Initially funny but then got stuck
Its like the knock knock joke about the banana, until they finally say orange. The story is great at first and the characters seem like they will be interesting but it becomes a broken record, the characters are very one dimensional and what was funny in the beginning is becoming tedious as I continue to listen. Two thirds of the way in I realized there seem to be no story, or climax are anything interesting beyond the beginning fascination with learning about new characters. I had high hopes after having numerous disappointments. But alas it was another let down.
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24 people found this helpful
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Overall
- MM
- 10-27-10
Felt like 60 hours
I have really enjoyed several of Connie Willis' books, but this one was just painful. Interesting tidbits on scientific discoveries and societal trends, but the story was very slow and pretty weak. I do have to congratulate Ms Willis for her imagination and detailed research, although I recommend Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog. Stay away from this one.
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21 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Gentle Reader Jill
- 04-10-09
Clarity and Chaos
In this funny, ain't-it-the-truth story, Connie Willis immerses the reader in the frustrations and chaos encountered by a likeable pair of researchers. Kate Reading's fine performance keeps events clear to the reader even when the characters are bewildered.
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20 people found this helpful
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- Robin
- 05-22-12
Laugh out loud moments
Any additional comments?
I was stopped in the grocery store and asked what I was listening to that had me grinning like a maniac. "Bellwether" takes a little while to get rolling, but the narrative voice is beautifully captured, and the ideosyncracies of the workplace, fads, and scientific discoveries enlivens a fairly straightforward storyline. Once the sheep were introduced, I found myself unable to unplug. As a sheep owner, I was similtaneously laughing and nodding over Sandy's and Ben's exploits with the ovine crowd. Brilliant fun and thought-provoking as well. Why do we embrace fads? How do they get started? Why is it that so many important scientific discoveries seem to happen by accident? What is the origin of the hoola hoop?
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18 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Thomas J. Hart
- 04-25-09
Willis Does it Again
Bellwether is a highly amusing riff on the same theme as William Gibson's "Pattern Recognition." Very witty. Willis is one of the very few science fiction writers with any sense of humor, yet alone a highly developed one.
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18 people found this helpful
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- Paula
- 07-20-12
Utterly delightful!
I'm a huge Connie Willis fan so, of course, I'm biased about all her books. And Bellwether, a slightly older title, did not disappoint. It was well-researched, entertaining, and kept me wanting more -- all with that special Connie Willis lightness of touch.
The characters are delightful, I learned more about fads than I would have believed possible - and the ending was totally satisfying.
I heartily recommend Bellwether!
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16 people found this helpful
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- Dubi
- 09-10-14
A Little Bang Theory
Fascinating and droll, Connie Willis's short novel Bellwether hooked me from the start with its overarching metaphor about fads. And then it kept me hooked (and chuckling almost incessantly) with its wry observations about working in a corporate office environment and living in a world of self-policed social conformity.
That sounds like quite a mouthful, but it's not all that complicated: this is pretty much the same idea as The Big Bang Theory -- the real (and really funny) lives of scientific researchers -- with the notable difference that the main character is perplexed by fads rather than, like the Big Bang guys, devoted to (certain types of) them.
Two things I take away from this book, other than the straightforward fact of enjoying it immensely for its observations and humor: its setting and its metaphor. So many books, movies, TV shows are about people most of us can never be -- policemen, lawyers, doctors, secret agents, etc. Not really a surprise -- those are the occupations that offer up a broad range of dramatic life or death plot lines, especially for serial versions of their respective media.
But we don't usually relate to them directly. By contrast, a smaller number of works are about real people working everyday jobs in the most common setting -- the office. And yet so many of those become popular because we can relate to the setting, not least of which is The Office. The Big Bang Theory is so good not because of the rare profession of its characters, but because it shows their day to day lives at the office and at home (of course, for the purposes of sit-com).
Bellwether is likewise about Ph.D. scientists, and their research provides a metaphorical background, but there is immense appeal in their office environment and politics and relationships, and in what they have to do just to get a cup of coffee or iced tea, let alone get their projects funded. Great stuff.
The other irresistible aspect of Bellwether is its metaphor -- fads. It is, in my opinion, a rare feat of literary prowess to come up with a metaphor so powerful that we are as much interested in it as in what it symbolizes. Every section of Bellwether features an exploration of at least one fad (hula hoops, Rubik's cubes, coffee houses, hair styles, etc.). The details are simply fascinating in and of themselves, but they also come full circle in their respective sections in symbolizing that part of the proceedings. Again, great stuff.
One other aspect of Bellwether is worth mentioning. It doesn't quite rise to the level of fads as metaphor, but it comes close -- the examples of scientific breakthroughs that came as the result of accident or luck or serendipity or some unexpected sequence of events. This metaphor is not quite as pervasive as fads, even though it starts off the story and plays a large role in its conclusion. Still quite interesting, but not as completely captivating.
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15 people found this helpful
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- Michael Allen
- 08-16-09
Timely Office Satire
Even though this book is 12 years old, the story is still completely relevant - and hilarious - satire on office life. Even the issue of "second-secondhand smoke" is currently in the news (as "thirdhand smoke"). The idea that when Management returns from a seminar, it means "a new acronym, sensitivity training & more paperwork," certainly still holds true.
I loved everything about this book, from the references to past fads, to the unfortunately-chosen acronyms, to the 42-page "simplified" forms. The narrator - Kate Reading - captures all the characters perfectly.
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13 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Ruthann
- 07-07-09
Takes a bit, but turns out being great!
This was a delightfully quirky novel, that starts slow but makes up for it in the second half. The humor and unique characters made this book. Flip (the office clerk) and other crazy characters in the office made this book more tangible too. The description of past fads spread throughout the book were interesting and added to the story. The geeky love story wraps this book up for a little bit of everything from science to fiction to fashion. It is very enjoyable.
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11 people found this helpful