“Touch” by Courtney Maum

To say I am a romantic person is an understatement. I want everyone to have a partner, and I especially don’t want anyone to grow old alone.  When I first mentioned my dream of getting married for the second time, my dad said, “Lori, that’s just not very modern.” And he was right. In 2018 most people probably spend more time cuddling their iPhones and laptops than other human beings. Will true romantic candle-light-and-champagne love soon become just an app, or will we find our way back to traditional face-to-face interaction? “Touch” by Courtney Maum tackles this subject through the eyes of the uber chic Sloan Jacobsen, a successful trend forecaster.  Revered for predicting the touch-screen “swipe,” Sloane is hired by the tech company Mammoth to use her expertise to raise the company’s profitability. She even gets assigned a self-driving company car that talks to her. Initially, Sloane and the company love her concept of celebrating the “voluntary childless” – described as people who choose not to have children in an overpopulated world. However, the more Sloane works on the campaign for this trend, the less convinced she is of this forecast. Her career and her love life take a turn when Mammoth goes rogue and hires her long-time boyfriend Roman Bellard, a pompous writer/sex researcher who predicts the death of sex altogether. As Roman becomes Mammoth’s “cause célèbre,” Sloane starts to show signs of wanting a normal life for herself, thanks to a new relationship with a down-to-earth co-worker. The New York Times called this book an “exuberant satire of the wired rich set in the near future.” I call it an old-fashioned love story set in a crazy high tech world. No matter what you call “Touch,” it is a terrific read.  To purchase this book on Amazon click here.