Touch
Written by Courtney Maum
Narrated by Kristen Sieh
3.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this audiobook
Sloane Jacobsen is one of the world's most powerful trend forecasters (she was the foreseer of "the swipe"), and global fashion, lifestyle, and tech companies pay to hear her opinions about the future. Her recent forecasts on the family are unwavering: the world is over-populated, and with unemployment, college costs, and food prices all on the rise, having children is an extravagant indulgence.
So it's no surprise when the tech giant Mammoth hires Sloane to lead their groundbreaking annual conference, celebrating the voluntarily childless. But not far into her contract, Sloane begins to sense the undeniable signs of a movement against electronics that will see people embracing compassion, empathy, and "in-personism" again. She's struggling with the fact that her predictions are hopelessly out of sync with her employer's mission and that her closest personal relationship is with her self-driving car when her partner, the French "neo-sensualist" Roman Bellard, reveals that he is about to publish an op-ed on the death of penetrative sex-a post-sexual treatise that instantly goes viral. Despite the risks to her professional reputation, Sloane is nevertheless convinced that her instincts are the right ones, and goes on a quest to defend real life human interaction, while finally allowing in the love and connectedness she's long been denying herself.
A poignant and amusing call to arms that showcases her signature biting wit and keen eye, celebrated novelist Courtney Maum's new book is a moving investigation into what it means to be an individual in a globalized world.
Courtney Maum
Courtney Maum is the author of Touch (a New York Time editor's choice and NPR's Best of 2017), as well as the acclaimed I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You. Her book reviews, essays and articles about the writing life have been widely published in outlets such as The New York Times, O the Oprah Magazine, BuzzFeed, Interview Magazine and Electric Literature.
More audiobooks from Courtney Maum
Costalegre Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Related to Touch
Related audiobooks
Howls From the Wreckage: An Anthology of Disaster Horror Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Secret Life: Three True Stories of the Digital Age Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Love, and Other Things to Live For Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Melodramatists Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Ones That Got Away Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Designer Babies Still Get Scabies: A Small Book of Mostly Silly Poetry Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHer Indecent Proposal Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Fake It Till You Make It Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Afternoon of a Faun: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5True Crime Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Improbability Principle: Why Coincidences, Miracles, and Rare Events Happen Every Day Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Middletown, America: One Town's Passage from Trauma to Hope Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Blurred Lines: Rethinking Sex, Power, and Consent on Campus Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Final Problem Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Made-Up: A True Story of Beauty Culture under Late Capitalism Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Self-Portrait with Boy: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Can't Just Stop: An Investigation of Compulsion Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Farther Away: Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Long Shadow of Small Ghosts: Murder and Memory in an American City Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blood Victory: A Burning Girl Thriller Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Millionaire Makeover Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bond: Connecting Through the Space Between Us Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pandemic Life: A New Normal Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Spy Thy Neighbor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5And We Came Outside and Saw the Stars Again: Writers from Around the World on the COVID-19 Pandemic Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIt Ended Badly: Thirteen of the Worst Breakups in History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chasing Utopia: The Future of the Kibbutz in a Divided Israel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhen Werewolves Attack: A Field Guid to Dispatching Ravenous Flesh-Ripping Beasts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBehold the Monster: Confronting America's Most Prolific Serial Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ascendancies: The Best of Bruce Sterling Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Humor & Satire For You
A Man Called Ove: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Killing the Guys Who Killed the Guy Who Killed Lincoln: A Nutty Story About Edwin Booth and Boston Corbett Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Y'all Doing?: Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Stay Married Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Soulmate Equation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Harold Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Humans: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come: One Introvert's Year of Saying Yes Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Librarianist: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Anxious People: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nothing to See Here Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Scrappy Little Nobody Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Britt-Marie Was Here: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Yes Please Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tidy the F*ck Up: The American Art of Organizing Your Sh*t Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Spoiler Alert: You're Gonna Die: Unveiling Death One Question at a Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Love and Other Words Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5You Can't Joke About That: Why Everything Is Funny, Nothing Is Sacred, and We’re All in This Together Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Office BFFs: Tales of The Office from Two Best Friends Who Were There Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Big Swiss: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sh*t My Dad Says Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mary Jane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Is this Anything? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Happy People Are Annoying Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Last Black Unicorn Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Touch
19 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5When I first heard about this book (through the Belletrist social media book club), I wasn't so sure I would like it. However, I found the story of Sloane, a trend forecaster who predicts the rise of touch and togetherness as opposed to a further reliance and interest in technology, to be really touching while at the same time retaining a biting satirical wit. Courtney Maum writes about trends, objects, feelings, etc. in a very compelling and lyrical way. And it got me thinking about how I use technology and social media and why. A very intriguing read!
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Not terrific. Too much telling, not enough showing; it’s meant to be a novel of ideas, but it doesn’t effectively use the story or characters to make the philosophical points about modern life that seem to be desired. Wouldn’t recommend.