Will Grayson, Will Grayson

I came across an ad in Facebook for an audio of David Levithan and John Green talking about Will Grayson, Will Grayson on Symphony Space. It may be the most interesting and relevant ad Facebook has ever shown me.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson

I finally got a copy of Will Grayson, Will Grayson and stayed up until about 3:30 this morning reading it. This should tell you how much I loved this book. It was hilarious with amazing voice and characterizations.

But it won't be for everyone. As I was reading it, I was thinking how I'm going to have to tell my assistants that whenever they check it out to someone that they're going to have to give them some kind of warning. The students must be completely okay with cussing and homosexuality and reading about boys involved in physical homosexual relationships. There's no actual sex described in the book (I think all the main characters are virgins, except possibly Jane), but they definitely discuss sex. I loaned my ARC of this to a student who is a huge Boy Meets Boy fan, so I know there are some readers for whom this is an acceptable and even fantastic book. But it's not for everyone. Just as well that the cover is kind of bleh and nondescript.

David Levithan Love

I haven't gotten my library copies of Will Grayson, Will Grayson yet, but fortunately I got an ARC at TLA last week. I cannot wait to read it! EW has an interview with John Green and David Levithan here. I've read pretty much all of this before in other places, but what I didn't know is that David Levithan and Rachel Cohn have another book coming out in October! It's called Dash and Lily's Book of Dares. Since I've LOVED both of their other books and requested that all their future books be written together, this is just fabulous. But how did I not know of this until now??? Apparently, they were trying to throw me off with this.

Will Grayson

So I already want to read Will Grayson, Will Grayson. Who doesn't? But after reading this article in Publisher's Weekly "("Double Identity"), I'm really dying here. I love how David Levithan wanted John Green to write this book even before Looking for Alaska was actually published. And a best friend named Tiny Cooper who is writing a musical about his life called "Tiny Dancer"? I'm laughing just at the description! I need this book.

Things that make me go 'hmmm'

I was just looking at my dad's Amazon wish list for some Christmas gift ideas, and his three most recent additions are Looking for Alaska, Paper Towns, and An Abundance of Katherines. This is not his usual type of reading, so I'm really dying to ask him how and why he found out about these books and decided he wants them. Even though I'm always pestering my dad to use the library more instead of buying all his books, I think I know some books he'll be getting this year. Too bad I don't have a chance to get them autographed.

Prom: Pro & Con

John Green wrote an article for the Washington Post called "Why We Should Get Rid of the Prom." Okay, before I get to discussing it, can I just say that I would be fascinated to know how the Washington Post, John Green, and "the prom" came together for an article. Kind of like, why is John Green giving dating advice on Seventeen.com?

Anyway, I agree with some of JG's points about the ridiculousness of prom. It's unnecessarily expensive. It brings all kinds of unnecessary drama with it (which I'm seeing lots of in the library right now). It puts pressure on teens to get dates and/or spend lots of money. Supposedly there is an expectation of having sex/losing your virginity on prom night, but I never personally experienced that as a teen or as a teacher observer/mentor. I also don't know that I know anyone who had a really good prom. Myself, I went with a friend from another school who wasn't allowed to leave his county to go to the after-prom party with me because while he was getting my corsage at the florist, two guys came over to buy pot from him and when he wasn't there, they let themselves in and set off his house alarm. The police came and found drug paraphernalia. Then he was smoking pot on the way to the prom and we didn't dance a single dance together.* All my girlfriends I went with ditched or were ditched by their dates by the time we got to the after-prom party at school. One of my college friends came home from prom to find her dog had ripped out all the stitches from her surgery and was dripping blood all over the house. She had to take her to the emergency vet clinic in her prom dress.

However, I think there is something to be said for prom. It's fun to get dressed up. Sure, you could do this for some other event of your own making, but parents are less likely to foot the (usually very expensive!) bill for it. Plus, there just aren't as many opportunities or places to go. (And in this economy, do you really want to be responsible for telling people to spend less? Think about the hotel workers, DJs, dress shops, hair salons, etc. that depend on prom revenue!) Prom also has a mythical quality to it. Whether good or bad, you always have your prom stories. I mean, that is one of my best high school stories now. The number of books related to prom can attest to this: Prom, Prom Nights From Hell, etc.

Seems to me you can always just not go to prom if you agree with John Green, or if your agreement with him outweighs the pros of prom.

* Postscript: Now we're friends on Facebook!

John Green & Seventeen

John Green made videos for Seventeen magazine's website. One of them, featured below, offers relationship advice to the "dumpers" and the "dumpees." This whole concept amuses me. First, let me say that I think it's great that Seventeen is including things related to teen lit. But having said that, how many teen girls will come across these videos on Seventeen? I can see Green's already loyal fans watching them if they're directed there, but I'm not sure that it would find new audiences (but I hope it does!). Second, for whatever reason it just amuses me that John Green is giving "relationship advice" to teen girls on Seventeen. I'm sure he never pictured that for his life.

ALAN

I attended the ALAN workshop at NCTE this week. I took notes on all the speakers and was going to recap each speech, but since there were more than 30, I decided I'm too lazy.   Here are a few of my personal highlights:

1. Teri Lesesne had so many great things to say, but one that struck a cord with one of my current issues is that we have to defend YA as having equal quality as "the classics." I am dealing with this fairly often because I have one teacher who requires their students to only read "adult" books for SSR. I think this is a poor distinction since "adult" doesn't make it "good," and many YA books are much better "quality" than most of the adult books they're choosing. Plus, I am definitely of the opinion that we should just be encouraging students to read what will give them enjoyment. I think there's a good debate to be had about introducing them to books they might not pick up on their own or choose for themselves that they'd like or get a lot from, but that isn't really the point of SSR (in my personal opinion). The other thing I keep coming back to is that many "classics" would likely be published as YA if they were published today, so why not consider that today's YA could have as much literary merit as those "classics?"
2. M.T. Anderson gave a speech about how all children's lit is necessarily political to some extent, whether it's intentional or not. There are encoded messages about how one has to act to be successful in this world, and that's political, even if it's not overt. I liked his points about how to act as if books are politically neutral diminishes the power of literature. Also, often authors, librarians, teachers, etc. will claim that reading "bad" things in literature won't cause kids to go out and do bad things, but on the other hand, they'll laud how transformative the "good" literature can be.
3. Read John Green's entire speech. It was excellent! He saved me from having to highlight by posting it all online. (Can I repeat what I've said before about how awesome JG is about writing speeches directed at his audience? He's talking to a bunch of English teachers, and he makes his speech related to that. The former speech teacher in me loves this.) One of his points was that, yes, he does intentionally put "English stuff" like figurative language in his writing. I appreciate that he says this because I remember as a student thinking that authors probably didn't intend all this crap we're assigning to it in English class, but then I read a Toni Morrison interview where she was talking about one paragraph she wrote. For about two pages, she described how and why she wrote that paragraph the way she did. There's no way I would EVER have gotten even half of what she was saying from my own reading, but it was (1) very illuminating and verified that authors do put this much intentionality into their work, and (2) I appreciate the work so much more when I can see beyond the initial surface. I know a lot of students think analyzing literature "ruins" the experience for them, and I'm not going to refute that if it's true for them, but I'll say that for me, analyzing literature can make me enjoy it a lot more. Hemingway, for example, I don't think I'll ever like, but analyzing it can make me at least appreciate it.

My favorite quotes from the conference:

"And another thing, you bastards, I fucking love the harpsichord." -M.T. Anderson

"If they are reading books you think are crap, get over yourself." -Walter Mayes

"I've always wanted to be twittered by Walter Mayes." -David Levithan

Also, my new author loves are Lauren Myracle and Matt de la Pena.  Loved them.  Can't wait to hear them speak again.

Paper Towns

I mentioned the other day that I got an ARC of John Green's Paper Towns at TLA and was very excited to start reading it. Ever since I got back from TLA, my coworker asked me every day if I finished it because she was so eager to talk about it with me, especially the ending. And every day when I said I hadn't finished it yet, she'd tell me some new aspect of the book that she loved. Well, I finally finished it last week and could talk about it with her (and now you!).

First, let me describe the basic plot. Quentin is a high school senior who is about to graduate. He's an average guy with a few average close guy friends who do average high school guy things like play video games and IM each other at night. He has a neighbor named Margo Roth Spiegelman whom he has known since he was a child. Like many childhood friends, they grew apart as they got older, even though they had a very intense childhood experience of finding a man dead in a park at the very beginning of the novel. Now, however, while Quentin is quite your average high schooler, Margo Roth Spiegelman is decidedly un-average and hangs out with the beautiful and popular people. She has a popular boyfriend. Then one night a couple weeks before graduation, she slips into Quentin's bedroom and convinces him to take his mom's minivan and drive her around creating mayhem, mostly related to retaliating against her friends for a recent wrong that was done to her, but also including some other adventures just for Quentin and/or Margo Roth Spiegelman's sake(s), such as breaking into Sea World. The following day, Quentin has the natural reaction of wondering how/if this night will change his relationship with Margo Roth Spiegelman. But . . . she disappears! This isn't all that unusual, though, since we find out from her parents that she has done this before. And when she has done this before, she has left obscure clues as to where she was going and expected her parents to figure them out and find her. They are tired of these games and don't even attempt to try to look for her. Quentin, on the other hand, is not only attracted to and worried about her (she has shown some serious signs of suicide/depression recently), but he finds a glaring clue on her window shade that leads him to another series of clues as to her whereabouts. He isn't sure if he's on the right track, let alone whether MRS is even alive or intended for him to follow the clues, but he pursues the potential clues anyway in the hopes of finding her alive.

So that is the plot. The novel reminded me of a quotation that I wrote down in college because it seemed so viscerally true to me (sorry I don't remember the source anymore). It's by Jane Mansbridge and Susan Moller Okin: "We construct ourselves in part through the narratives we create about our lives." I don't feel like I can really explain it in relation to Paper Towns too much without giving away the ending, but if I were (for some reason) writing a paper about it, I think that would be the basis of my thesis. If/when you read the novel, think of this quotation particularly when you read the metaphor discussion. The metaphors you choose are really important.

My favorite scene in the novel is when Quentin cleans out his locker at the end of the school year. I felt really moved by how true-to-life it seemed and how ambivalent that time of your life can be, as well as how something so mundane can be the kind of event that, while you may not expect it, ends up really affecting you in a significant way.

And while this doesn't really have anything to do with the poignancy I felt in that scene, can I tell you how fascinating lockers are at the end of the school year? I never thought about this as a student (one who dutifully cleaned out her locker each year when they told you to), but as a teacher, my eyes were opened to a whole fascinating world of post-school-year locker sociology. At the end of the school year, the custodians go around and open up all the lockers so they can come by and easily clean them out. This is fascinating. Students leave so much stuff in there! On the one hand, it is kind of sad because students will leave things like tons of perfectly good school supplies, some that may have never even been used or opened. I have often thought it is a huge waste and something that would be great for charity. On another hand, you have really interesting items like empty alcohol bottles. I'm sure I am/was just naive, but who brings the actual alcohol bottle to school and just leaves it in their locker?

(I also thought more than once as I read this book: John Green seems to like writing about average high school boys who have a thing for unconventional, independent high school girls who intrigue them.)

Oh, thank God!

As loyal, long-time readers (ie. Holly & Cody) know, John Green has been dead to me for several months because I discovered that he is a pornographer. I was so distressed. But now he has cleared everything up and said that he is NOT a pornographer. This is so freeing, especially since he is Holly's boyfriend and geeky cute. Oh, and also a good author.



Cody is probably rolling his eyes, but I know Holly will be happy to hear this.

My "boyfriends"

Ever since I met John Green at TLA, I have referred to him as my boyfriend. I have even referred to him as my boyfriend on A True Reality. It is silly and juvenile, so it is hardly surprising that I felt a little embarrassed when John Green himself visited our blog on one of the days I referred to him as my boyfriend. But, I do not have to feel foolish about it anymore because the Queen of YA Literature, Meg Cabot, also has boyfriends. And she's married, too! So it is perfectly normal. My other boyfriends are Colin Firth and John Cusack. Who are your boyfriends?


p.s. I feel as though I used the term "boyfriend" a ridiculous number of times in this post. Very unseeming for a married woman.

John Green is dead to me.

Or maybe the ALA. Or both. I'm not sure. All I know is that, apparently, John Green is writing "hard core pornography" and the ALA is promoting it. Why wasn't I aware of this? Why didn't anyone tell me?


Okay, there are so many things wrong with this organization's "arguments" that it's hard to know where to begin. I will just say this. John Green is at once both "clearly quite talented" and a writer of "hardcore pornography." So he is a "clearly quite talented" author of hardcore pornography? One to whom Safe Libraries wishes "further success in the future?" It would seem that if JG actually does write hardcore pornography, I'm not sure why they think he's talented or why they wish him all the best. Would you say the same thing of Ron Jeremy (I realize he's an actor not a producer, but I don't know enough about the porn film industry to make a correct parallel)?

Author Interview: John Green

A few weeks ago, I did a (now embarrassing) post about authors that I would love to interview. I went on at length about John Green and how I would love to interview him, but listed several reasons why it would not happen. Well, imagine my surprise when Mr. I Technorati Myself Daily posted a comment saying he would totally answer any interview questions we sent him. We spent one very fun day at the library trying to come up with interview questions. Thank you, John Green, for answering them!

Have you thought about what your "last words" might be? If so, what are they?
I've always felt that "I love you" are the worst possible last words, because A. they are so trite, and B. they aren't memorable, and C. they aren't funny. Ideally, if you are looking to be remembered by history, you have to aim for funny last words. But trite and unmemorable and unfunny as it is, I think I'd like to tell my wife I love her.

How does blogging and/or the Internet affect your writing and your relationship to your readers? What is the coolest/best thing that has happened to you because of the Internet?
"An Abundance of Katherines" would not have been possible without the Internet. In some ways, the web has turned us all into child prodigies--suddenly, I can translate (albeit very poorly) from English into a dozen languages using Babel fish. It isn't difficult for me to determine who the Prime Minister of Canada was in 1913. I can use a web-based program to help me anagram long strings of text. So it has affected my writing in the sense that I think a lot about the Internet, and also in the sense that I use it almost constantly.

And it certainly allows me to have a relationship with my readers that was not previously possible. Readers can see me as a (hopefully) halfway normal person who has a halfway normal job. That's always been important to me, because when I was younger, I felt like books were created by people who were different from me in some fundamental way. I felt that I could never be a writer myself, because I did not have this magical gene that they had. So I do think the Internet allows us to demythologize the whole concept of an "author" a little, which is nice.

The best thing that ever happened to me because of the Internet is Brotherhood 2.0. It has been so cool to do this with Hank.

Other books similar to yours have been published as adult books. In your opinion, what makes a book "adult" rather than YA, and why did you choose to publish YA? Do you write differently (either creatively or in the editorial/publishing process) because you're writing for a teen audience?
"An Abundance of Katherines" was published in two editions, one for adults and one for kids, in the Netherlands. I like that model of publishing a lot, and I'd like to see it in the U.S. But until that happens, I'm quite happy publishing for teenagers, because I really want them to be my core audience. I like teenagers. I think they are interesting people as readers, and I also think they are interesting people to write about. That's why I publish YA--I believe in the importance of good YA novels in an annoyingly evangelical way.

I don't think I write differently because I'm writing for a teen audience, but I have no way of knowing for sure, because I've never written a novel for an adult audience. I am not interested in condescending to teens in any way, though. There is no idea too difficult for them, no narrative structure too inherently complicated. Look at "Octavian Nothing." Most adults think that book is hard as hell to read. But teens love it. I mean, I read "Absalom, Absalom" in high school, and I wasn't that great of a student, and I loved it. So I never worried about writing TO teens.

Guilty books question: What book(s) that you "should" have read have you not, and what book(s) that you "shouldn't" have read did you read and really like?
There are loads of classics I haven't read; I have a lot of embarrassing holes in my reading, so I don't even know where to begin. I've never read "Remembrance of Things Past." Or "War and Peace." "For Whom the Bell Tolls." I could go on, but I'll stop.

As for guilty pleasures: I don't like bad books. I really don't. I believe that books should be smart and should have ambitions. But some people dismiss genre books out of hand, and I love good crime novels. So I like a lot of crime writers, from Hammett and Patricia Highsmith to Michael Connelly and Henning Mankell.

You have a minor, druggie-type character named Hank in Looking For Alaska . Any relationship to your brother?
None whatsoever. The only two things we know about the Hank in "Alaska" is that he plays basketball and smokes pot. So far as I know, my brother Hank has never done drugs, nor has he ever used a basketball.

What interview question do you most wish you'd be asked but never have? And what's your answer?
Oh gosh, I don't know. I'm not a very good interviewer, so I can never come up with good questions.

Although I [Sheryl] don't like either of these men, one of my favorite interview question and answers ever was when Tom Cruise asked James Lipton what turns him on and he said, "Words." What turns you on (in a completely Tom Cruise/James Lipton way, not in a "Letters to Penthouse" way)?
Tom Cruise turns me on. Just kidding. I think the true answer is people's voices.

Is there anything you would like to ask us?
What classics haven't y'all read? I feel like the humiliation should be shared here!
Answer:
Sheryl - My guiltiest unread book and the one I most want to read but haven't is Animal Farm.
Holly - I don't really feel guilty about any of the great "classics" that I haven't read. However, I keep meaning to read Watership Down and Catch-22 (but I am having too much fun reading YA novels).
Cody - The Bible

By the way, if you haven't checked it out yet, John and his brother Hank have an awesomely hilarious video blog going at Brotherhood 2.o!

Author Interviews

I would like to see more author interviews on A True Reality. So far, we have only had one. I would love, love, love to interview John Green, but I do not ever see that coming to fruition for the following reasons:
a. He is much too famous now.
b. We have gushed over him way too much on this blog. It would be embarrassing if he ever read it. And my constant references to him as my boyfriend don't help.
c. Cody has written two very unflattering entries about him which I would also not want John to see. I feel that Cody is a bit jealous of John Green because John Green rivals Cody in geeky hotness.

I know that everyone (all three of us) here at A True Reality would love to interview Stephenie Meyer. Interviewing her would be like someone from my high school newspaper interviewing (insert famous movie star name here).

Maybe there won't be interviews with Stephenie Meyer or John Green on this blog. BUT, we will be doing some more author interviews (via email, of course). And we promise not to ask lame questions like "Who is your favorite character and why?".

My Life Is So Unfair

John Green is going to be speaking on a panel at ALA on audiobooks! Freakin' audiobooks. I love audiobooks. With Judy Blume! *Sigh*

An Abundance of Katherines

Title: An Abundance of Katherines

Author: John Green

Rating: C-

Now, I know most of you probably think I'm completely illiterate since I haven't posted near the number of reviews as my fellow blog-mates, but you have to realize that I've been slowly suffering through Mr. John Green's new novel, An Abundance of Katherines.

The novel begins with the main character, Colin, being dumped by his latest Katherine...the 19th Katherine in a long list of ex-girlfriends all baring the same name. Crushed over this and the fear that his past as a child prodigy won't translate into adulthood genius, Colin and his best friend solve all their problems in the only way possible...a road trip to Tennessee!

Although I'll praise Mr. Green for a few humorous scenes and some nice turn-of-phrase, overall this work lacked anything worth discussing. I found the novel to be dull and highly predictable (even by YA standards). It almost seemed as though Mr. Green wrote this novel while watching late, late movies and incorporating trite movie plots into his work. My recommendation is to just read the interesting footnotes and forget the rest!

Looking for Alaska

Book: Looking for Alaska
Author: John Green
Narrator: Jeff Woodman
Book Rating: A-
Audio Rating: A-/B+

The Book:
I didn't really care for the what-I-learned-about-life-written-in-my-final-exam device that Green used to end the book. It is a bit over-used and rather expected. The moment Miles started describing his world religion class, I feared this is how the book would end. I also like to be shown what he learned rather than told, although I realize this was a coming-of-age novel with a first-person narrator, so some personal reflection on life lessons is to be expected. I did really love the final prank (wish the book would have ended with that). (No one from Culver Creek looked up the speaker's credentials on the Internet?)

I did think the book was pretty witty and I really liked when Miles threw up on Lara's jeans and he said they were the kind that girls wear to look really good without looking like they're trying to look really good. Very insightful! Like Vegan Virgin Valentine, this is a book I would have liked a lot as a teen because it is about smart, intellectual students who are interesting and interested in the humanities, especially English. This speaks to my teen self. Green did a really great job of portraying Pudge's ambivalence towards Alaska and the very realistic push-pull of her character. The dialogue was also extremely realistic.

The Colonel was my favorite character. When he said of the labyrinth, "I choose it," I got chills. That was a critical moment in the story for me. It reminded me of this article I read by Catharine MacKinnon about how women use that as a coping mechanism to deal with the inescapable oppression of patriarchy: "Faced with no alternatives, the strategy to acquire self-respect and pride is: I chose it." Alaska might appreciate MacKinnon's feminist interpretation of the labyrinth. Is choice possible? Is it only a coping mechanism? What if you choose this as your coping mechanism, then is it a choice?

The audio . . .

The Good:
Again, I'm more into having teen-sounding narrators for first-person teen books, but since it's all past-tense, Woodman's voice is appropriate for a young adult version of Miles. The narration matched the tone of the book and its actions, and Woodman had good distinct voices for all of the characters. The Colonel's voice was just outstanding! There was the helpful music at the end of each CD to cue me to change the CD before the end, too.

The Bad:
It didn't seem like Woodman had really decided how Takumi should sound and so his voice was inconsistent and a little off from the character. However, the absolute worst thing was Alaska's voice. I loathed it. It sounded like a character from A Tuna Christmas or something, certainly not anywhere near a hot teenage girl (even giving leniency and understanding for the fact that Woodman's a guy). It was just awful. And since she's the title character, it had a pretty significant effect on the listening experience for me.

John Green is dealing crack...or maybe meth!

Ok, I'd like to bring a sad fact to everyone's attention. I used to work with these two nice normal librarians...we would have lunch every Friday, gossip about coworkers, laughed at patrons - everything a good librarian should do. However, a few weeks ago, these two former coworkers went to TLA and met the mysterious John Green. Ok, now I don't know if you've seen pictures of this man, but he's not really much in the looks department...definitely not someone you'd drool over. Well, ever since these two lovely ladies returned from their conference, they've acted as though the sun rises and sets on John Green's ass (and according to them, it's apparently the sexiest ass in the whole world!)

Now, recently I began reading Mr. Green's newest book, An Abundance of Katherines. While I'll admit that I'm only in the first chapters, I see little in Green's work that makes him worthy of my friend's idolization (a full review will follow once I've actually suffered through it!) Anyway, at this point, I see nothing in either John Green's appearance or literary talent that deserves such devotion. Therefore, I began pondering...what could cause such idolization? The only possible answer seems to be drugs! It's obvious that Mr. Green slipped my friends something while they naively waited in line to see Stephanie Meyer. Shame on you Mr. Green!!!

The greatness that is the brotherhood

Brotherhood 2.0. It must be discussed. Because 2/3 of this blog’s authors are in love with 1/2 of the Brotherhood. The brothers, John and Hank Green, have decided that they are not going to communicate for a whole year except through video blogs (also known as vlogs). The result? Comedy gold.

Sheryl and I met John Green at TLA. This momentous occurrence is something we are sure to mention whenever we discuss TLA. In fact, just this morning, at our All-Staff meeting, I showed a PowerPoint presentation that Sheryl and I (mostly Sheryl) put together that highlights our TLA experience. We were sure to include our pictures with John Green in the PowerPoint. I pointed out how John Green’s arm was around me in the pictures. I think everyone was duly impressed.

Ok, back to the point…Brotherhood 2.0 is great! Funny! Witty! Intelligent! And not just because John Green is geeky hot (um, how many times did I write “John Green” in this one entry?).