Book Who's Talking: Dystopian Society Edition

Welcome to Book Who's Talking. If that phrase has you thinking about a certain 1989 Kirstie Alley flick, I must clarify that this portion of The Jill Dobson Show has absolutely no talking babies with the voice of Bruce Willis. Sorry if you feel misled.

Remember the time I auditioned for a reality show and I told the casting directors my hobbies included hair-raising adventures like playing Scrabble and reading? Yeah, I wasn't exactly the lightning rod for controversy they were looking for. And no, I did not become the Puck of my generation.
But, hey, what I said was true! And it still is. I've spent the entire summer reading like a mo-fo. I started with classics including George Orwell's 1984 and William Golding's Lord of the Flies. Those two led me to have a season-long obsession with dystopian societies. I jumped into Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake and then promptly devoured her The Year of the Flood. I also discovered the fascinating young adult series The Hunger Games. I strongly recommend all of the above, as well as the newest entrant in the genre: Glow. In Amy Kathleen Ryan's new novel, a group of pioneers are on a decades-long trip in outer space. Since Earth is nearly uninhabitable, they're on a mission toward a planet they'll colonize and call New Earth. But they aren't the only humans in deep space. The people aboard their so-call sister ship are planning a rendezvous, and their intentions appear to be anything but friendly.

The world isn't ending in Tom Perrotta's fictional The Leftovers, but it has changed profoundly in the wake of an event many believe was The Rapture. Early in the novel, Perrotta writes, "The biblical prophecy came true, or at least partly true. People disappeared, millions of them at the same time, all over the world." The rest of the book focuses on the people left behind. Some are confused and angry, including ultra-religious folks who expected they'd be first in line for The Rapture. Some are grief-stricken, like Nora, a woman whose husband and children all disappeared in an instant. Others call themselves the Guilty Remnant, and spend their days making sure no one ever forgets -- or moves on from -- that fateful day. 

Society isn't dystopian at all in Madeline Wickham's 40 Love. Perhaps dysfunctional is a better term. Under her pen name, Sophie Kinsella, Wickham wrote the beloved Shopaholic series. In this novel, her characters have just as many lovable foibles as Shopaholic's Becky Bloomwood, but the hijinks are packed into one unforgettable weekend of tennis, booze and one-upmanship. Four couples start the weekend as friends, but deceit, greed, jealousy and one too many Pimm's all threaten to strain relationships and stir up some seriously juicy drama.

Editor's note 1: 40 Love hits bookstores August 30th; The Leftovers comes out September 6th; pick up Glow September 13th.
Editor's note 2: If you think I'm neglecting my Scrabble-playing to do all this reading, get ready to stand corrected. I've not only been playing, I recently set what I'm sure is a new world record: I used all my letters three times in one game against Hollywood Super Agent Jim Ornstein. It was glorious. (But since then, I've been on a losing streak like you wouldn't believe. When Ornstein decides it's payback time, watch out!)