When I heard that a new Terry Fallis title was in the works, I moved heaven and earth to get my hands on a copy. Why you ask? Because Terry Fallis knows how to write great AND funny literature. His new book, Up and Down is guaranteed to make you laugh out loud, so be prepared for weird looks if you read this book in public.

First things first, as many of you know I’m a huge twitter user, my career is all about social media, so I always love reading novels that are able to weave the crazy world of social media into a story. It doesn’t surprise me in the least that Terry did just that brilliantly, as he has a huge online presence, especially when it comes to his podcasts and his activity on Twitter.

When David Stewart moves from Ottawa to Toronto to help care for his Mother, he lands a job at Turner King, a PR firm that is vying to land a marketing campaign to reposition the NASA brand. When David’s put on the hot spot to come up with a marketing plan, he suggests having two civilians (from Canada and the United States) travel with astronauts to space. He suggests having entrants apply to win using different ways to enter the contest, Facebook, Twitter, snail mail; thus, making sure that the NASA brand is spread all over the internet. It’s a brilliant and unique idea that  lands them the account.However with success, comes trials and tribulations, in this case, those trials and tribulations take the form of overpowering managers, media hiccups and a twist that causes everyone involved to do a little nail biting.

To give too much away would be an injustice to you as a reader, but I can tell you that this is one book that every Canadian literature fan should be reading. It’s funny, witty and it’s sure to become a permanent fixture on everyone’s bookshelf.

*When you do read it, send me an email or tweet me and we’ll have a good giggle over the homemade spinning device.*