On Writing by Stephen King

Some books you read and read and read again. And by “you” I mean “I.” You probably have a more pragmatic attitude toward reading. Or at least some modicum of… oh… a life. Anyway, some books are meant for re-reading. King’s On Writing is one of them… but I didn’t know that until I re-read it. Now I feel like there may be others, secret favorites I’ve already read but have completely forgotten.

Yes, I realize I am a crazy person. I will have to learn to speed-read soon or else die without having read all the books I want to read, PLUS re-read all the books I want to re-read.

Also, I still wish Stephen King was my uncle.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

There are non-obsessive reasons to re-read a book. One such reason: you are pretty sure you never actually *read* the book you claimed to have read. I have sympathy for you English teachers out there, I do, but is there a more awful way to read a book than assigning two chapters a week? Like a chapter is a discrete thing, separate from the rest of the text? I fell behind in my 11th grade Gatsby reason because I didn’t like the book enough to read ahead of schedule, but I didn’t like the book because I had to read on a schedule. Vicious cycle. Anyway, I actually did enjoy this re-read and am glad I did it. More thoughts here.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

Oh, you are all sick of hearing me talk about this book. But I will never pass up a chance to mention it, so here you go. My official Frankie manifesto can be read here.

The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen

Speaking of books I talk about way too much… still reading Sarah Dessen! For some reason I decided that The Truth About Forever was my least favorite Dessen book, and I actually hadn’t read it since before it came out. I have no idea what crack I was smoking. This is a very good Sarah Dessen book with a very tight plot. I feel ashamed for my baseless judgments about a perfectly decent piece of fiction. Apologies to the universe.

Up next… THE TOP TEN! !! !!!!

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz

I first met Aristotle and Dante way back in February, but I still remember them very clearly. I feel like “stickiness” is something we could talk about when we talk about book awards. This is not exactly a measurable, definable, or professional term, but I might try to measure, define, or professionalize it in the future because I think it marks the difference between a book that slips through the cracks and one that ends up on a list or with a medal. Nina Lindsay talks about this on the inimitable Heavy Medal blog.  But oh, I really digress. What I meant to say is that Saenz does a top notch job of creating two characters who live their own lives on the page, who are memorable without schtick, who are endearing without melodrama. Beyond that, their friendship is rich and complex in a way that I feel is fairly unique to the genre, especially friendships between boys. A definite stand-out in YA contemporary realism of the last few years… even if this is yet another pick from last year’s 2012 picks.

Boxers and Saints by Gene Luen Yang

Is this one book? Or two? Do I care? No. I do like a gigantic, meaty graphic novel once in a while. In fact, my favorite book of 2012 was a gigantic, meaty graphic novel, if you recall. Boxers & Saints is not quite as epic as Habibi, but epic enough to require two books, that is for sure. In two opposing volumes, Yang illustrates the 1899 Boxer Rebellion in China. Little Bao comes of age in a small country village. He watches foreigners come into his village, pushing Christianity and justice and disrupting the social order. When a man comes to his village gathering forces for an uprising, Bao joins the rebellion. Oh, and he also channels some supernatural, mythological forces, because this is a Gene Luen Yang book. On the other side of the rebellion is Four, a girl the same age as Little Bao who is not favored in her family. To rebel against them – and punish herself for not being worthy enough for their love – she does the most evil thing she can think of: she converts to Christianity. And talks to Joan of Arc. Anyway a lot going on here. A lot of great art. A lot of overlapping, compelling, competing themes. Each volume stands alone, I think, but are really meant to be read together – if you’re going to read Boxers, I’d make sure you have Saints on hand! I had to wait three or four days between the two and it was not a pleasant experience.

Lily and Taylor by Elise Moser

Lily and Taylor is a novel about abusive relationships. You might call it a “problem novel,” but I wouldn’t. I could (and probably should) write something quite a bit longer about the kind of contemporary realism we consider problem novels, but I think the negative connotation has to do with how the central “problem” is treated. If the book seems to exist to showcase a particular dysfunction/disease/crime/anything else that might appear in a news story, it may be a problem novel. Many books about abusive relationships fall under this umbrella, but not Lily and Taylor. The book begins with Taylor watching her older sister Tannis’s autopsy; she was Taylor’s primary guardian, but after an extend period of abuse, Tannis’s boyfriend kills her. Taylor moves in with her grandmother, away from her own abusive boyfriend, but eventually, he finds her. This is intense and gritty and definitely has a cautionary message, but Moser approaches Taylor’s life and relationships with such respect – not a hint of condescension. I feel like this is a really strong book that flew under the radar.

The Kingdom of Little Wounds by Susann Cokal

Speaking of gritty… 2013 may have been the year for Jessica and the Disturbing Novel. Reading The Kingdom for the Little Wounds was equal parts awful and engrossing. The story spiraled in and around a castle, but what is a Castle Story really about? It’s about power. That’s what really stuck with me – how Cokal unravels and unpacks the sources of power, for her protagonists Midi and Ava. For the royal women in the castle and the royal men. Does power lie in muscle? In political influence? In lineage, in sex? Is all of that erased if the story ends up written in a different way, by a different person? You can read more rambling about The Kingdom of the Little Wounds here. It is challenging, violent, and complex, but so, so rich.

The Lucy Variations by Sara Zarr

Lucy Beck-Moreau is a piano prodigy raised by a family of arts benefactors. When her grandmother gets sick, she has a personal crisis and decides to quit piano. Of course, her family of arts benefactors does not approve. Family drama comes to a boil. This is all well and good – Zarr’s talent with prose is great enough to weave even this straightforward coming-of-age narrative into something worth reading. However, the stakes are raised significantly when Lucy’s younger brother – now assuming the role of Beck Family Piano Prodigy – gets a new, charismatic piano instructor. And Lucy falls for him. Lucy’s relationship is fraught (obviously! he is a grown man!) but Zarr writes it straight down the line between black and white – he’s an adult, but not that old. Lucy is too young, but she’s grown up in the realm of adults, performing internationally. He’s obviously in the wrong, but she knows what she’s doing. Maybe. The ending is satisfying but not pat. I like all of this. I should really just read all Sara Zarr books always.

Up next… Books I’ve Read More Than Once. Probably Dozens of Times. Otherwise known as Re-reads!

Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

This is probably not the first time you’ve seen Rainbow Rowell’s name on an end-of-year book list. And if you make it through the end of my personal BookBlogMadness this month, it won’t be the last. A warning. Not an apology. Reading Eleanor & Park was an intro, albeit a sort of heart-squeezing painful intro. Fangirl was just candy-coated, self-indulgent bliss reading. Attachments – Rowell’s 2011 debut – is adult fiction, light romantic fare. Not what I usually bother reading when I read adult fic. However, Rowell’s storytelling talent is even more evident here, without all of the This-Is-All-Of-Your-Unique-Anxieties-and-Pain-on-The-Page-Yes-Jessica-Yours stuff all over the place. Attachments is a romance with a male lead. Lincoln is an underachiever, working the IT night shift at a newspaper in 1999. His primary responsibility is administering the building’s new email surveillance software – including reading the flagged emails. Two of the female employees sent recklessly personal correspondences, many of which land in Lincoln’s lap, and he falls in love with one of them. Lincoln is about as endearing and swoon-worthy as any male romantic lead may be, but unlike most romantic heroes, Lincoln’s appeal is not based in broad masculine strokes, in macho posturing, confidence, swagger. (Or millions of dollars, or designer suits, or sexual bravado) Lincoln isn’t alluring because of he withholds his emotions, but because he is so vulnerable and adrift. Rowell flips almost every convention of the romance here… but somehow still ends up writing a satisfying romance. How does that even make sense. And this is why her name is plastered all over every End of Year list ever – the girl’s got chops.

How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran

If I was to make some sweeping statements about my life, my perspective, and my interests, I would have to say I am probably unusually interested in girlhood. I will skip the self-psychoanalysis as to why this is true, but it is where my interests lie. I picked up Caitlin Moran’s How to Be a Woman on the merits of Internet Book Buzz and because I consider myself to be a feminist. I was surprised to discover, as I read, that Moran frames her essay collection around her own girlhood; how she discovered what womanhood meant to her and the rest of the Western society, for good or for bad. From one angle, this is a memoir that begins with puberty and ends with babies. A reproductive years memoir. Moran then weaves feminist theory, history, and political discussion into each essay, letting the memoir and the feminist ideas play off of each other. It’s one thing to talk about girlhood and feminism in the abstract and another thing to live your life as a girl and a woman. Moran marries the two brilliantly.

Oh, and did I mention Moran is rip-roaringly hilarious? Yeah. Listened to this one on audio and definitely had some of those Laugh Out Loud Into The Abyss In Public moments. Are we all sufficiently iPodded and iPhoned now that I can stop being embarrassed when this happens?

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

So… I realize that my adult fic reading is not exactly thorough. Proportionally, I just haven’t read enough contemporary (or classic…) adult fic to be a truly useful critic. Instead, I read an occasional adult fic novel in between YA/children’s lit reads. Usually I choose those adult reads based on some kind of critical/popular/social thrust. What I’m trying to say is, sometimes my adult End of Year lists are retreads of the previous year’s End of Year Lists. Because that is where I get my reading suggestions. That’s just the way it is, I’m afraid. Don’t come here if you are looking for a Fresh New Adult Read. Or a Fresh New Anything, really. NOW THAT I HAVE THAT OUT OF THE WAY, let me tell you about Jess Walter’s lovely novel Beautiful Ruins. Claire is a cynical script-reading peon in Hollywood, trying to decide if she should quit her dead-end job or her dead-end boyfriend. Pasquale is a buoyant young man who spends his days transforming his family’s decrepit hotel into a tourist destination until a dying starlet checks in and he falls in love. Pasquale lives in a coastal Italian village in 1963. Claire lives in modern-day LA. Walter weaves these disparate stories together effortlessly, characters and events overlapping until the stories come together and become one. There really is a lot to enjoy here – lush settings, lots of humor, even Richard Burton. I personally enjoyed how Walter balances Pasquale’s dramatic, cinematic storyline with the more mundane lives of the younger modern-day characters – was life and love (and film) just more grandiose  in Pasquale’s day? Or are Claire and other characters in her generation just jaded? Such a very thoughtful book, wrapped up in a very pretty, very readable package.

Daring Greatly by Brené Brown

This is not a book that is easy to talk about, but one that is easy to think about. As in, when I am trying to think about other things, Ms. Brown’s simple wisdoms suddenly appear in my brain. Brown is a social worker who specializes in shame research. Now, she is somewhat of a pop-psychology figurehead – I think she does stuff with Oprah – but I’ve been reading her blog since back in the day. Her writing is very easy to read, very personal, and very smart. But what she writes about – shame, vulnerability, and fear – is not easy. It’s stuff that makes my skin crawl, to be honest. Buuuuut, I think Brown would agree with me – that’s why shame is so pervasive and awful and important to unpack. It’s not easy to read about or talk about or acknowledge, but it is probably part of why you are miserable. Whatever your breed of misery may be. Daring Greatly changed the way I look at myself and think about myself and treat myself. If this vague summary hasn’t given you a clear idea of what this book is about, you might forgive me and watch Brown’s TED Talk instead.

Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

And now for something completely different! And then, not different at all if you were reading 2012’s End of Year Books List. Ahem. However, if you are one of the two people on the planet who have not yet read Where’d You Go, Bernadette, I urge you to. I believe it was Janssen who posed the question awhile back of what exactly was so exceptional about this book. Why everyone went nuts about it. The answer I settled on was simple – in a literary world where books are constantly asking you to watch characters grow, to make moral assessments on characters’ choices, to feel hard feelings… a straight up comedy is a welcome respite. A sharp comedy with a plot that will keep you on your toes is another thing entirely. Bernadette – an angry mom living in a creepy mansion in Seattle – is the focus of the story, but for the most part, the story is told through the eyes of others. Her precocious daughter Bee writes some kind of diary. Emails fly between Bernadette’s software guru husband and his doting secretary. Bee’s school principal and the local PTA moms send missives to one another. Everyone paints a slightly different portrait of Bernadette – she’s a misanthrope who hates Seattle, a reclusive artist, a person in need of mental health care. And then Bernadette disappears, and the chase begins. Every perspective and every chapter shifts your perception of Bernadette and the other odd-balls who populate her world. Basically, it’s an epistolary novel that puts its epistolarity to best effect.

Up next… Books for the Young Adults

HAPPY END OF 2013!! You guys, this is my first full, calendar year without grad school since 2008. Holy goodness. One whole year without weekly require reading, without a syllabus.

I’ve done a lot of really fun reading this year. I read during storms and rain days and snow days. I read on airplanes and European high-speed rail and the T. I read books entirely on my phone and my Kindle. I reviewed a crap-ton, re-upped for the Cybils, had an audiobook renaissance. It’s been a good year.

Even if I never read that 5th romance.

Dammit.

Beginning tomorrow, allow me to share with you the best of what I’ve read. I consider all books I’ve read in 2013 and a few from the end of last December; not just books published in 2013.  “Best,” of course, is ridiculously subjective, based entirely on my own enjoyment while reading. I mean, I do enjoy good books, well-written, well-crafted books but I also enjoy some complete crap. But I don’t need to tell you this… this is Jessica 101 stuff. I just feel like I need to remind you, you know, in case you’ve started to take me seriously.

Behold, a schedule of events to come:

Tuesday, December 10th – Best Adult Reads

Wednesday,  December 11th – Best Young Adult Reads

Thursday, December 12th – Best Re-reads

Friday, December 13th through Saturday, December 21st – Top 10 Best Reads!

10. Ask the Passengers by A. S. King

9. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

8. Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A. S. King

7. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

6. The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg

5. Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed

4. Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

3. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

2. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

1. A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

Hold onto your horses, hang onto your hats, verb onto some other nouns and otherwise get excited.

See you tomorrow!

My name is Jessica, I’m twenty-eight-years-old, and I am a fantasy reader.

There, I said it.

This is not, however, a post about my Fall from Grace Realism. This is a post about what one should read when “discovering” fantasy as a full-fledged adult… albeit a full-fledged adult who considers YA and children’s literature fair game for inclusion in ANY sort of canon, fantastical or not. What are the classics, the “everyone who’s anyone has read this” books that I never read? What are the newer titles that I ignored? What kind of fantasy will I like? What kind should I avoid in the future?

If anyone has recommendations, please pass them along! There’s a wide, wide world (of other worlds) out there, and I don’t want to waste too much time slogging through crappy stuff just because I don’t know where to find the good!

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

Since moving to Boston, I have met a startling number of Cashore fangirls. No, I don’t think I’ve met any Cashore fanboys, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t out there, just that I don’t talk to boys, I guess. I mean, I studied library science and children’s literature in a historically all-girls college for three years, so give me a break. Anyway, I’ve also met a startling number of Cashore detractors, folks who are more than willing to tell me why they loathed Graceling and its companion novels. Any book that earns such strong reactions feels like a book I should be reading.

Also, one time I sat next to Cashore in a classroom in a weekend-conference-thing and we made comments on the same book and while this is probably the least exciting story ever, it was one of those “This is not my beautiful life” moments for me. So yeah, I want to read Graceling.

Also also, I own a paperback.

The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien

Alright, so if one is trying to get the Lay of the Fantasy Land, one must attend to “The Canon.” I’m not sure there’s a man or woman alive who would argue that Tolkien isn’t the place to start.

But maybe I just want to read it because I actually haven’t seen the movies yet, begging the excuse that I wanted to read the books first. Ahem.

Or maybeeeeee  I want to read it because I spent so much time watching my sisters play Lego Lord of the Rings this summer. I can’t really say.

Girl of Fire and Thorns by Rae Carson

I started reading this one last fall, back when I was just dipping my toes into fantasy, but I was reading an eBook version… and while that ticking clock of a countdown totally motivates me when listening to downloadable audio, it completely defeats me with regular eBooks. I don’t know why. I don’t have ebook stick-to-it-ive-ness or something. Anyway, this seems pretty up my alley – girl-centric high-ish fantasy/adventure.

I can’t actually handle that I just wrote that last sentence. How am I going to make it through the rest of this post??

Alanna by Tamora Pierce

Alright, we are entering a section called Books All My Fantasy-Loving Friends Read to Shreds that I didn’t read because I was a Alice McKinley/Judy Blume/Louis Sachar-reading little punk.

Friends, I have never read a shred of Tamora Pierce. Alanna is a notably badass teen girl heroine with her own series, and some of my dearest Reader-Friends call her a favorite. So she seems like a good place to start.

Queen of Attolia by Megan Whalen Turner

A Corner of White by Jaclyn Moriarty

I’ve had an ARC of this one stashed in my Drawer of Shame for a long time now. Moriarty has been at the YA game for some time now, so I really only grabbed it out of name recognition – I read the summary and said “urgh, fantasy… too much fantasy.”

But hey, I’m a freaking FANTASY READER NOW. I’m feeling ballsy. Bring it on. Also, the BG-HB award sticker helps. What can I say? I like a shiny medal sticker on my books.

The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov

Alright, now for some grown-up stuff. Have you ever been haunted by a book? Like, a book keeps following you around, showing up at various times in your life, random assortments of people recommending it? That’s The Master and Margarita for me. I first heard of the book at a library conference in Michigan, maybe 5 or 6 years ago, and ever since then it just keeps reappearing, keeps coming back up. And while I’m not sure this necessarily qualifies as fantasy, it definitely qualifies as Not Normal Enough for fantasy-hating Past Jessica to pay any mind.

But this is FANTASY READING PRESENT JESSICA! Also, there are cats. Fantasy-hating Past Jessica was not yet a cat person. Fantasy Reading Present Jessica definitely is.

Shadow and Claw by Gene Wolfe

A wild card. I hadn’t heard of this one until a few weeks ago it appeared on my Goodreads feed, a Readerly Friend of mine calling it her second favorite book in the world. Well, you guys know how I feel about Your Favorite Book.  Also, when you start reading a new genre, you start attending to some new… ah… reading authorities. This one had sparkling blurbs by Neil Gaiman and Ursula LeGuin. We should probably talk about blurbs at some point and even though they are probably all bullshit, I still tend to weight them higher than most other sources of book recommendations. We could talk about that. Once I read all eight of these books and become a fantasy expert and have some time on my hands, of course. You guys know I read EVERY book on these lists, right? I just check them all out from the library – on eBook – and read them all before they are due back in 14 days. It’s true. It’s remarkable. I am the very model of a modern major general.

Nominations do not open until October, but I already have Cybils on the brain. Last year, I did that thing that stupid newbies always do…. you know, the thing when you think you have plennnttttyyyy of time to complete A Really Ginormous Task so you’re just going to start by doing a little, you know, a few Xs and Ys a week, ease into it, blah blah blah. That’s bullshit. Worst idea ever. Come November, you’re little “ease into it” phase will warp into a blistering, blathering frenzy where you aren’t really sure how in the world you will finish your Really Ginormous Task, even if there wasn’t such a thing as Thanksgiving or Housekeeping or Other Various Tasks that Keep Food on Your Table.

So yeah, Cybils on the brain. But my brain might just have to run in circles for another week because it doesn’t seem that 2013 was the best year for YA nonfiction. Last year Bomb was on everyone’s minds, Titanic got a little buzz, and I read the Temple Grandin bio back in January. Russell Freedman had a new book, Dorreen Rappaport and Marc Aronson, too.

It doesn’t help that while last year we read middle grade AND YA titles and this year we will split. Once it comes time to select a short list this division will prove immensely helpful, I think; it is almost impossible to compare a book written for a 4th grade audience to a book written for a high school audience. Right now, though, as I mine through old School Library Journals and Booklists, I have no stinkin’ idea how this division will be made. So much juvenile nonfiction hits that 5th through 8th grade audience, or 6th through 9th, or 5th and up. This will make for an interesting reading period, definitely, but for now, I am flummoxed.

I did manage to find a handful of teen nonfiction to put on hold, in a desperate attempt to get even a week’s leg up on that Really Ginormous Task. I suspect that most of these will get nominations. If they don’t, I’m happy to have read even one extra book to help broaden my knowledge of this year’s nonfiction offerings.

That last line was a bald-faced lie. Oh, please just repeat that back to me at the end of November and watch me weep openly at the prospect of reading one more unmandated nonfiction book. Please.

Dear Teen Me: Authors Write Letters to their Teen Selves ed. by Miranda Keanneally and E. Kristin Anderson

The Nazi Hunters by Neal Bascomb

Imprisoned: The Betrayal of Japanese Americans during World War II by Martin W. Sandler

Code Name Pauline by Pearl Witherington Cornioley

Bad Girls: Sirens, Jezebels, Murderesses, Thieves & Other Female Villains by Heidi E. Stemple and Jane Yolen

Rapture Practice by Aaaron Hartzler

Women of the Frontier by Brandon Marie Miller

Staying ahead of the game in the YA world is a bit of a losing endeavor, for me anyway. There’s just so much of it, so much hype to sift through. Also, I don’t like reading galleys on my eReader as much as I should. Also, I’m picky. Also, I’m easily distracted by shiny adult books and re-reading my favorite old books and shiny objects. Like my kitchen. My shiny new kitchen. Who needs books when you’ve got a shiny new kitchen?

But I do digress. Here are some new YA books that have caught my eye – perhaps I will read one standing up in my shiny kitchen.  While stirring a risotto. Or something else not so pretentious and annoying.

The Impossible Knife of Memory by Laurie Halse Anderson

Let’s get the easy one out of the way. A new Laurie Halse Anderson is always worth noting. Especially her YA realism. I mean, her historical middle grade is good, too, but come on. Speak? Catalyst? Wintergirls? That’s where the goods are. I kind of want to re-read all three just after listing them here. See how easily distracted I am? This one doesn’t come out until January, though, so I have plenty of time.

Cherry Money Baby by John M. Cusick

Cusick’s first novel, Girl Parts, wasn’t too bad. But if I could choose between reading a book that features robot girls created to please teenaged boys and books that don’t feature robot girls, I will choose the latter. Cherry Money Baby sounds like a fun, robot-free romp with a fun Hollywood twist.

The Truth That’s In Me by Julie Berry

Creepy historical fiction about a mutilated girl and a semi-religious cult. Yes please. However, I am bothered by the cover. That girl just doesn’t look historical whatsoever. I don’t even know which era this book is supposed to be set, but unless the era is 2001 then I don’t buy it. Unless 2001 is considered historical fiction now, in which case heaven help us all.

Living with Jackie Chan by Jo Knowles

Four years ago, I read Knowles’s Jumping Off Swings, and I really did enjoy it. In fact, it made it to my top ten reads of 2009! This is a companion novel, a spin-off even, following one character from JoS – the teen dad, who was probably my favorite character of the bunch. Probably everybody’s – he was just so… misunderstood. Confused. Bereft. And now he gets his own book. I’m digging it.

Where the Stars Still Shine by Trish Dollock

More Than This by Patrick Ness

I spent a bit of time living with a Patrick Ness-aholic. As in she bought British editions from Amazon.uk before they were released in the US, and went into a very short-term depression when she found out he was gay. I tried to read The Knife of Never Letting Go, but at that point I was so over dystopias and couldn’t handle it. Maybe in five or six years my anti-dystopi-osity will fade and I can try again.

Nevertheless, there’s a new Patrick Ness coming out this fall. I’m sure it will be a little weirder than realism, but probably not a full-blown dystopia. I also had the good fortune to hear the first chapter read aloud a few months back and I was considerably hooked. AND, I have an ARC! A paper ARC! All signs point toward me reading this book while stirring risotto.

The Promise of Amazing by Robin Constantine

Obligatory cheesy romance. Still on a never-ending search for authors who do romance the way I like it. That sentence sounded pretty creepy.

Somebody Up There Hates You by Hollis Seamon

While in grad school, I spent a summer interning at an independent publishing house. Ever since then, I’ve had a bit of a soft spot for independent presses – they get a little more editorial freedom, get to take risks, and get to build a personal “brand” a little more readily than other houses. I was super excited to see that Algonquin was launching a YA imprint, and this was the title that caught my eye. It’s a really sad book about dying teenagers! Just like some other book I’ve heard of, can’t remember the title. Anyway, independent presses = cool. Dying teenagers = not cool. I don’t know. This list has gone off the rails. Goodnight and good luck, guys. Read a book.