Bringing Up Mike by Mark Duncan

                Bringing Up Mike is a somewhat coming of age story about Joe, a young genius, who never attended high school and works in a secret facility as the tech who keeps computer viruses from destroying the system. At least that is what I think he does since I never really figured much out about that part of the story. His assistant is Mike, an artificial intelligence that Joe made and now he wants to teach Mike to be an “adult”, or at least act like one, as opposed to the four year old emotional intelligence he currently has. Joe decides he needs a break and heads to live with an older couple and attend high school while living in Tennessee. Mike is still in his life via the beauty of the computer network and becomes a part of everyone’s lives in Joe’s new world. Joe also acquires a frightened race horse to nurse back to health with the help of his “foster mother”, Martha, who herself needs some nursing as she recovers from the loss of her son. The book is as much educational as it is a story and for the most part I enjoyed that aspect although there were times I found it to be a bit too preachy. I did enjoy the information about looking after a horse as well as all of the tidbits about Civil War reenactments and BBQ competitions in the South. The formatting and editing worked very well on my ereader. The cover art does not do the book justice because it really doesn’t give a clear idea of what the story is about and does nothing to draw the reader in. All in all it is a good book to read.