Bookworm In Your Ear: The Fast And The Curious

These novels share two distinct qualities, they’re fast-paced and showcase wonderful curiosity. Savages is a political thriller/family saga set in present-day France, while Connect is set in the near-future and has to do with communication, thrown in with Genetic and Biological research.

Savages: The Wedding by Sabri Louatah

It’s the eve of Election Day in France and Louatah imagines a scenario where the very first of Arab descent candidate is running for the presidency, and is on the verge of victory. His daughter is in a relationship with a French Algerian TV star; and after meeting the candidate, we’re whisked to the wedding of said TV star’s younger brother. It’s an intense complicated family affair this wedding, as some of the members of the family are involved with the local crime syndicates or have even bigger links to parties that would do anything to keep a candidate of Arab descent from assuming the Presidency. Part Godfather, with shades of Kennedy and Obama Presidencies, and always paced briskly so we keep turning the page to discover what happens next, this is a great read!

Connect by Julian Gough

In the near future, Naomi Ching works in a Las Vegas bio research facility, while her son, Colt, lives at home. While Colt is 18 years of age and able to code like crazy but socially inept; a facet of Colt’s mother’s research has to do with organic neural brain implants that may help Colt cope better with the world. With the estranged father, Ryan, working in the military, it’s only a matter of time before the success of Naomi’s experiments reaches the ears of the military and said father suddenly seeks to reclaim Colt in order to ‘weaponize’ him. The pull of an absentee father, a mother protecting her son, the son himself ready to experiment on himself and discovering his own sexuality—these are just some of the themes which propel this fascinating novel, that’s equal measure SciFi/action and family drama.