I didn't plan it this way. It started innocently enough when I picked up We Only Know So Much by Elizabeth Crane. This novel, narrated by "we", follows the Copeland family. This family seems pretty happy on the outside, but we know better than that. We have Gordon who prides himself on knowing everything but now thinks he's losing his mind. His wife, Jean, is more concerned about the death of the man with whom she had an affair, rather than anything the family is doing. They have a narcissistic daughter, Priscilla, and a socially awkard son, Otis. Plus, they live with Gordon's father and grandmother. To say things are not perfect in this family is an understatement.
Somehow I moved on to A Working Theory of Love by Scott Hutchins. Neill Bassett is a part of a small team attempting to create the first intelligent computer. But the system needs a huge example of natural language in which to base its own conversations. Neill's father's extensive journals are fed into the computer and, before you know it, Neill is "talking" to the computer, which uses Neill Senior's language, more than he had spoken to his father in real life. To the point where he is asking the computer for advice on his love life.
Next up was In Between Days by Andrew Porter. Here we have Chloe Harding being suspended from college in Boston and coming home to Houston after her and her boyfriend get into some legal trouble. But coming home may not be the best option with her parents, Elson and Cadence, being recently divorced and her brother, Richard, trying to figure out his own life. I was especially impressed with this book because the characters were developed well and I could feel what each one was going through. Highly recommended.
And I'm sure you're humming the old Schoolhouse Rock tune, Conjunction Junction, after reading the title to this post, right?
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