"Imaginary Friends" by Alison Lurie

Imaginary Friends is one of those books that has been on my "To Read" list for a long time. It's not a genre novel, although since the book concerns a couple of sociologists studying a  UFO cult it would probably be of interest to genre-readers. It also features on Jo Walton's blog entry for "Where do I start with 'L'".

Anyway, I enjoyed this book. I can't think of a great deal to say about it at this point. It was funny and gently mocked academia (and especially sociologists). The "cult" at the centre of the book are rather tame (no mass suicides for instance) but the main character in the group (Verena) is nicely done. There are some great scenes in which we see the cult members doing some fairly silly stuff because "Ro of Varna" tells them to, via his mouthpiece Verena.

Anyway, I would reccommend it.

Next up for me is Bel Canto by Ann Patchett. I am 120 pages in and loving it.