Friday, August 17, 2012

What is Laurie Frankel reading?

The current featured contributor at Writers Read: Laurie Frankel, author of Goodbye for Now.

Her entry begins:
Right now, I’m just finishing Maria Semple’s new novel, Where’d You Go, Bernadette. It’s awesome -- funny and smart with really great characters (which is always my favorite part of books), and really, really weird (which I mean as the absolute highest of compliments). I’m doing a couple readings with her later in the month, and I can’t wait.

I’m also reading Rob...[read on]
About Goodbye for Now, from the publisher:
In the spirit of ONE DAY, comes a fresh and warmhearted love story for the 21st century. Sometimes the end is just the beginning...

Sam Elling works for an internet dating company, but he still can't get a date. So he creates an algorithm that will match you with your soul mate. Sam meets the love of his life, a coworker named Meredith, but he also gets fired when the company starts losing all their customers to Mr. and Ms. Right.

When Meredith's grandmother, Livvie, dies suddenly, Sam uses his ample free time to create a computer program that will allow Meredith to have one last conversation with her grandmother. Mining from all her correspondence—email, Facebook, Skype, texts—Sam constructs a computer simulation of Livvie who can respond to email or video chat just as if she were still alive. It's not supernatural, it's computer science.

Meredith loves it, and the couple begins to wonder if this is something that could help more people through their grief. And thus, the company RePose is born. The business takes off, but for every person who just wants to say good-bye, there is someone who can't let go.

In the meantime, Sam and Meredith's affection for one another deepens into the kind of love that once tasted, you can't live without. But what if one of them suddenly had to? This entertaining novel, delivers a charming and bittersweet romance as well as a lump in the throat exploration of the nature of love, loss, and life (both real and computer simulated). Maybe nothing was meant to last forever, but then again, sometimes love takes on a life of its own.
Learn more about the book and author at Laurie Frankel's website and blog.

Frankel was recently named one of ten women to watch in 2012. She is a proud core member of the Seattle7Writers. Her first novel, The Atlas of Love, came out in August 2010.

The Page 69 Test: The Atlas of Love.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Laurie Frankel and Calli.

My Book, The Movie: Goodbye for Now.

The Page 69 Test: Goodbye for Now.

Writers Read: Laurie Frankel.

--Marshal Zeringue