Rating: 
Summary: Bellwether is great reading fun
Review: I like Connie Willis, I read all her books but this one is my way-out-in-front favorite so far. I could not put it down and hoped it would never end. Her humor in this story is imaginative, subtle, ironic and hilarious, never trite, but very tongue in cheek. A real knee slapping, laugh-out-loud kind of book. I had no idea she could be so brilliant. It is a fine commentary on the absurdity of our times. The characters are so real; they reminded me of lots of kinky folks I know. I really loved it.
Rating: 
Summary: One of the few books that made me laugh out loud.
Review: What a lovely book, read it in 3 sittings, which is pretty good for me. Annoyed the hell out of my wife for my outbursts of laughter (she's now halfway through it). I specially identified with Bennet, as I'm not known for my sartorial elegance or fad-following, and recognised Flip as a collage of several of our Admin staff. Well-turned characterisations and a not-too-predictable plot, as well as loads of fad trivia, make this a joy to read. Not quite the gem that Doomsday Book is, so 4 stars, but well worth a read.
Rating:
Summary: Characterisation: Perfect.
Review: Although the plot lacks major twists, I couldn't keep it down. Brilliant characters. You know them immediately, you never ask "Who's this Elaine again?". Except for the main one, the characters are offbeat or completely over the edge, which makes this a brilliant social satire. After 200 pages, I no longer believed the plot would come to a satisfactory ending - I was wrong. In the end it all comes together. Little things scattered throughout the book suddenly made enormous sense. Absolutely worth the read. If your company is obsessed with paperwork, the humour will kill you. Beware: This is no sci-fi.
Rating:
Summary: Light, witty, and readable
Review: This is an excellent book. I believe it is my favorite Connie Willis novel, and that's saying a good deal.There are already plenty of reviews which go into detail, so I won't. I just wanted to add my five stars, and to recommend this book to anyone who enjoys humor or who has an interest in social trends.
Rating: 
Summary: A promising satire goes awry
Review: Connie Willis is a talented writer, and some of the individual pieces and passages in this novel are very clever. In *Bellwether*, she includes a lot of fun little historical facts relating to the history of fads, but she then ruins the lighthearted satirical mood (for me) by harping again and again in quasi-curmudgeonly fashion on "anti-smoking" as nothing more than "another aversion fad" apparently perpetrated by airheads and idiots. This makes me suspect that she's a smoker who feels herself persecuted, so she's used this book as a bully pulpit to brand those who want to eliminate smoke from public places as mere fad followers who don't "think for themselves." Phooey. In taking this tack, I think she blew it (so to speak). Basically, I think that when writing satire, the author/protagonist either has to be extremely self-deprecating (like Dave Barry), or else must be prepared to have one's sympathetic audience limited to those who share his or her own personal likes/dislikes/prejudices (as overtly political satirists do). I found that Willis ultimately comes across as elitist in a sneering rather than clever way, and the sometimes interesting plot line and intermittent splashes or humor simply are not enough to transcend this overall negativity.
Rating: 
Summary: One fad too many: chaos, corproate work and humour
Review: I started reading "Bellwether" a chapter a day, and that didn't help it. I was able to enjoy it only after I had a whole day to spend with it, and it made me laugh joyously. Its humour needs your attention to enjoy it. Though wholesomely entertaining, I found "Bellwether" a little too light-hearted for its own good. The easy laughs and predictable outcomes made it too similar to most entertainment out there. The literary structure was also too obvious, constantly going on about how scientific breaktroughs are made by accident, all kinds of trends and fads we are drowining on, and how the source of rivers don't seem like too much of a thing. All in all, this is light fare, but intelligent. If you're looking for something smart to get you laughing, this a read you won't regret.
Rating:
Summary: sheep, chaos, and management collide
Review: As a scientist for a large corporation I found this to be an absolutely hilarious read. If you have ever found yourself confronted with idiot behavior on a scale that leaves you compltely dumbfounded this is the book for you.
Rating:
Summary: One of my all time favorite books
Review: This book centers on a sociologist studyings fads, but it is really about humanity, insanity (of the everyday kind), and political correctness. It is well researched, well plotted, and well written. I have read it 3 times, and I have only had the book 6 monthes. Willis's is among the funniest and sharpest writers of our day, and her humor is at it's peak in this novel. Buy this book, and read it whenever you have a particularly "Dilbert" day at work, or whenever you need to laugh at the foibles of living in modern day America.
Rating:
Summary: Cute as all heck
Review: Light as a feather, entirely nonsense, and completely irresistable. Viva Flip, double lattes, and the small madnesses of our culture that make us want want to scream but somehow suggest a benign universe.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant novel from a brilliant author
Review: This is a carefully researched novel which had my wife and I rolling with laughter. While, strictly speaking, not science fiction, it is certainly speculative fiction. Nice analysis of fads, and a glimpse of chaos theory which could have been better explained. However, such an explanation would have made this book heavy and dull.
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