Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan

Will Grayson, Will Grayson is a collaboration between John Green and David Levithan and tells the story of two teenagers both named Will Grayson. It is fairly obvious which author penned which Will as the story continually changes point of view between the two characters.

Green's Will (here after referred to as Will) is quite typical of his characters. He's somewhat nerdy, smart, has a biting sense of humor, and proceeds to fall for the first female character introduced. He lives by two rules: 1. Don't care too much and 2. Shut up. His best friend is a giant (equally wide as tall) ironically named Tiny, who is fabulously gay and trying to stage a musical based on his life. Tiny attempts to set Will up with their friend Jane, another typical character of Green's - the smart, quirky female. While Will initially balks at this idea, as it will violate his two rules, as the story goes on he begins to reconsider.

Levithan's Will (here after referred to as will, as in the book) is in many ways a stark contrast to Green's Will. He is a loner, moody, depressed, comes from a broken home, and is gay. will feels hope for his future for the first time in a long while after meeting a boy named Issac online. will travels to Chicago to meet Issac and ends up crossing paths with Will in the most unlikely of places - a porn shop. The night is quickly becoming one of the worst nights in will's life, but all that changes when Will introduces will to Tiny. One chance encounter will have lasting effects on all those involved.

I really liked this book, especially the juxtaposition of the two authors' styles. The weird lower-case style of will's story was initially jarring, but quickly overcome and I think it kind of added to the character. I got the impression prior to reading the book that it was the two Wills that were going to be the cause of inevitable change in the lives of the characters, but now having read the book I think it was really Tiny that changed the lives of Will and will. He is this amazing force that is really at the heart of a story that speaks to friendship and love. I found myself laughing out loud throughout the book and wishing that I could have been in the audience for the debut of Tiny's musical - easily my favorite scene in the whole book. A 4 star read for me.

Paper Towns by John Green

Quentin Jacobsen is nothing spectacular. He is not popular, but he has friends and he likes his life, his routine, and looks forward to the future. Margo Roth Spiegelman is a vivacious force who Quentin has loved from afar since they were kids. Quentin and Margo do not travel in the same social circle and have not really spoken since they were 9 years old. All that changes when one night Margo climbs through Quentin's bedroom window and convinces him to be her accomplice for a campaign of revenge against all who wronged them. Quentin quickly agrees and the two of them set off on an all-night adventure. The next day Quentin awakes to discover that Margo has run away again, leaving behind clues that appear to be for him. Quentin is determined to solve the mystery and find Margo, but as he uncovers the mystery questions arise - how well did he really know Margo? How well does he know himself? Does Margo really want to be found?

Another good one from John Green. The characters are great and there are parts that will have you laughing out loud. I often wonder where he comes up with some of the antics his characters get into, but it makes his characters endearing and likable  They are the misfits that we all cheer for. Like all of his books, there are questions that will make you think and lessons to be learned. In this case, the question of how well we can know another person. Is what we know about them truly who they are, or just our perception to who they really are? And what happens when our perception is different from the reality? Should we continue to force our perception onto them, or learn to like them for who they really are and not who we perceive them to be? Paper Towns is no where near as good as The Fault in Our Stars or Finding Alaska, but it is definitely worth the read for any John Green fan.

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

Colin Singleton is a child prodigy with a talent for anagramming, whose only claim to greatness so far is winning a game show called KranialKidz, and being dumped 19 times by 19 different Katherines. After Katherine XIX breaks his heart, Colin sets out on a road trip with his best friend Hassan, an overweight, Judge Judy loving Muslim, and ends up in Gutshot, TN. In Gutshot he meets Lindsey Lee Wells and he and Hassan are hired by her mother for the summer to record the oral histories of those who work or used to work in the factory owned by the family.

Colin believes that the world is made up of two types of people - Dumpers and Dumpees, with himself falling in the latter category. His new mission is proving The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, a theorem that will allow him to predict the future of any relationship. Colin hopes that by proving his theorem he can somehow win back the heart of Katherine and prove that he is more than just a washed up child prodigy. However, he will discover that try as he might, the future cannot be predicted.

John Green is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors and this book does not disappoint. It is laugh out loud funny, and I mean literally. I was reading this book in a waiting room while getting my oil changed and literally started laughing out loud. I'm sure the other people in the waiting room thought I was nuts, but this is another great one by John Green. Colin, with his anagramming ways, is completely endearing, and Hassan is hilarious. I was initially worried when I picked this book up and realized there was math involved, as math and I have never really been on friendly terms, but it really doesn't matter. You do not have to have any mathematical understanding to follow this book. It's a fun story about the realization that the future really isn't predictable, no matter how much math is involved.

Looking for Alaska by John Green

Miles Halter loves famous last words. He is on his way to Culver Creek Boarding School in pursuit of "the Great Perhaps" (the last words spoken by the poet Francois Rabelais). Miles is hoping that a change in scenery will lead him out of his safe and boring existence, and into something extraordinary. Upon arriving at Culver Creek he meets his new roommate Chip, a.k.a. Colonel, and receives a new nickname, "Pudge." But it is meeting the girl down the hall, Alaska Young, that will forever change his life. Alaska is beautiful, sexy, smart, self-destructive, and screwed up, and comes to personify the "Great Perhaps" for Pudge. But Alaska is a beautiful disaster and Pudge cannot save her from herself. Meeting Alaska has Pudge questioning everything he knows about friendship, love, loyalty, life, death, and what it means to live.

This book made me think about people and how I truly believe that everyone we meet comes into our lives for a reason. Some people seem inconsequential at the time, mere ripples, but they are important. Often these are the people who help to redirect you to where you are supposed to go - like in a game of pool when the ball you are aiming for bounces of another and into the side pocket. You might never had made that shot had it not been for the interceding ball, just as you never would have arrived at your destination had it not been for that person. Other people are waves and their impact on your life is profound and obvious. You are irrevocably different for having known this person - good or bad. But having meet this person means that you can never return to life as you have known it because the world is forever altered and will never look the same. Alaska was definitely a wave.

It also made me think about the purpose of life. Is it better to live a small, but happy existence or is "it worth it to leave behind a minor life for grander maybes?" I don't think there is anything wrong with a small life, but I imagine that one could come to regret the possibilities that could have been. On the other hand, a life full of grander maybes might be exciting, but moving from one adventure to the other might lack the security and calm of a small life. An endless adrenaline rush with no meaning. Maybe the "Great Perhaps" is finding the balance between the two. A life full of enough maybes to have been worth living, but small enough for those maybes to actually mean something.

I often found myself forgetting that these characters were in fact in high school. They seemed much more like college students to me. The story is well written and I really do enjoy John Green's style. The characters are smart, witty, and just dysfunctional enough to be believable. The story is thought provoking and well worth the read.

Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances by John Green, Maureen Johnson & Lauren Myracle

Let It Snow is a cleverly intertwined telling of three Christmas romances, all brought together by a blizzard, and told by three different authors.

In The Jubilee Express, Jubilee finds herself unexpectedly on a train to her grandparents' house after her parents get arrested on Christmas Eve while trying to procure the latest installment of the Flobie Santa Village. Her boyfriend Noah, whom she is supposed to be celebrating their first anniversary with, seems strangely nonplussed by the situation and Jubilee finds herself wondering what's going on and to making excuses for him. On the way to Florida, a massive snow storm hits and Jubilee finds herself stranded in the company of Jeb, who is trying to make it back to his girlfriend who cheated on him, and a gaggle of teenage cheerleaders. Rather than endure being trapped on a train with the cheerleaders, Jubilee sets off across the way to a Waffle House. There she meets Stuart who insists on her spending Christmas with him and his mother and sister. As they trek across the frozen wilderness between the Waffle House and Stuart's house, neither one expects to find love.

In A Cheertastic Christmas Miracle, Tobin and his two best friends, JP and Angie a.k.a. "the Duke," are just settling in for a James Bond movie marathon when they receive a phone call from their friend Keun informing them that they must hurry over to the Waffle House where he works because a group of cheerleaders has just arrived. The one stipulation - bring Twister. Tobin and JP trip over themselves trying to make themselves presentable to meet the cheerleaders, while Angie looks on with mild amusement. Promising her hash browns, Angie grudgingly agrees to accompany the boys out into the storm and to the Waffle House. Along the way, the trio run into all manners of trouble as they race to the Waffle House. Tobin begins to see Angie in a whole new way, realizing perhaps for the first time that she is in fact a girl, a girl who apparently likes him a lot. When they finally make it to the Waffle House they run into Jeb, who is stranded there because of the storm. Jeb asks Tobin to deliver a message to his ex-girlfriend, Addie, should he see her. The message - I'm coming. Tobin, still trying to work through his new feelings for Angie, tries to get her attention by flirting with one of the cheerleaders. When Angie sees this and hurries out the door, Tobin follows her and it changes their relationship forever.

In the Patron Saint of Pigs, Addie is miserable. She made out with another guy after fighting with Jeb and they have broken up. Addie knows she made a mistake and desperately wants Jeb back. She sends him an email asking her to meet her at Starbucks on Christmas Eve, the place they went for their first date exactly one year ago. Addie waits for Jeb, but he never shows. No call. No email. When her friends accuse Addie of being too self-absorbed, she wants nothing more than to prove them wrong. She is asked by her friend Tegan to pick up her Christmas present, a tea cup sized pig, and Addie seizes this opportunity to prove that she is able to think of someone other than herself. When she fails to get to the pet store on time, the pig is sold to another person and Addie sets off on a search to recover the pig, which she eventually does. On her way back to the Starbucks where she works with the pig in tow, she runs into Tobin and Angie who deliver the much belated message from Jeb, giving Addie new found hope that maybe Christmas angels do exist after all.

This is a sweet story filled with all the wonderful things that give us the warm and fuzzies around this time of year. It's like three Hallmark movies rolled into one, with plenty of Christmas miracles to go around. The stories are all unique and the voices of the authors come through in each of their individual stories, but the stories also blend beautifully together. A Cheertastic Christmas Miracle was my favorite of the three romances, but the other two were also perfectly sigh inducing and pulled at the heart strings. This is the perfect book to pick up if you are looking to while away a snowy (or rainy in my case) afternoon curled up under a blanket and sipping hot chocolate. 

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

Hazel was diagnosed with Sage IV thyroid cancer at the age of 13 and her prognoses wasn't good. At the age of 14, however, a new drug miraculously shrunk the tumors in her lungs and effectively held her cancer at bay. It was by no means a cure, but it prevented her cancer from being an immediate death sentence.

At the age of 16, Hazel lives a sort of half life. Her illness has kept her from living a normal life, as she is tethered to an oxygen tank. She is disconnected from her friends and the life of a normal teenager. She spends most of her time at home watching bad TV and re-reading her favorite book, An Imperial Affliction.

When her mother insists that she get out of the house, Hazel goes to a meeting of a support group for kids living with cancer. Enter Augustus Waters. Augustus is gorgeous and in remission, having "won" his battle with osteosarcoma, but having lost his leg in the process. Augustus and Hazel fall in love and together they examine life and death, sickness and health, and what is left behind in the end.

I loved, loved, loved this book. I couldn't put it down once I started reading it. I laughed, I cried, I fell in love with Hazel and Augustus. Such is the plight of a book lover - to love characters so much that when their story ends you feel an emotional and physical loss. I felt that after reading this book. Some have criticized the book because the characters don't sound like typical 17 year olds, but it didn't bother me at all. In fact, if they had sounded like typical teenagers, I might have been sorely disappointed. When people deal with pain, with illness, with things that are beyond their control, it changes them. Forces them to grow up and view the world through different eyes. Hazel and Augustus don't sound like typical teenagers because they are not typical teenagers. What they experienced was so far removed from the experiences of their peers. Others dismiss it as a typical "cancer book."

Maybe it is, but for me the ideas about life and death in this book were quite profound. My favorite quote from the book is "I thought of my dad telling me that the universe wants to be noticed. But what we want is to be noticed by the universe, to have the universe give a shit what happens to us - not the collective idea of sentient life but each of us, as individuals." I loved these lines because I feel like they sum up the human condition so beautifully. Yes, the universe not only wants to be noticed, it demands to be noticed. It interjects into our lives daily, often at inconvenient times. But don't we all want the universe to notice us too? We live our lives trying to leave a mark because we fear being lost to a void of oblivion. Deep down we desperately hope that the universe will acknowledge us, that our small existence in this world was not lived in vain. We want to know that we were important, that we mattered to something bigger than ourselves, hopefully beyond the small world of our everyday existence.

We are scared by the universe and we leave our own scars. Another favorite quote is: "You don't get to choose if you get hurt in this world, old man, but you do have some say in who hurts you." These words ring true for my life and it is a lesson that I am only now learning to fully understand. Sometimes pain is a gift, because it means that you have loved fully. You cannot love without experiencing pain, and if you shut yourself off to avoid feeling pain, you will also shut yourself off from love and all that is good in this world. In order to truly love, you must make yourself vulnerable to pain. The beauty is that the choice is yours. You can shut yourself off to avoid feeling pain, or you can wear your scars as evidence of your ability to open your heart to love, despite the pain. It's a beautiful idea - taking the bad with the good - because in the end, the good makes the bad worth it.

I will be forever grateful for having read this book and I'm sure that it will take a long time, and several more re-readings, before I am able to process all of my thoughts and feelings about it. I do know that I have been changed because I read this book. I have read many books in my life and will read many more in the future, but only a few have left a scar on my heart and soul like The Fault in Our Stars.