Carry On and Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell

I've been working on this review for a while, and I was finally going to polish it and publish it, but I ended up deleting it, so I'm going to quickly do a new one. I read Carry On back when it first came out (I would normally link to my review, but I never actually reviewed it). I loved it back then, so now that the sequel was being released, and with a bit of time to kill waiting for my fancy copy to arrive from England, I decided to do something I never do: reread the first book. *Gasp* *Scream* *Sirens* I enjoyed it just as much the second time, maybe even more! *Reader faints* And I'd read it again too!

Okay, now that all that silliness is out of the way, Simon Snow is a character from the Simon Snow series that Cath and Wren read in Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl. Carry On isn't those books, and it isn't Cath's fan fiction. It's basically Rowell's own fan fiction, but since it's her universe, it's canon.

Simon Snow is the Chosen One, the one the prophecy says will save magic. He was a skinny little orphan when he came to Watford School of the Magick Arts, and now he is the Mage's Heir. Over the years, he has gone on countless adventures and quests, defeated enemies, slain dragons. He has done all this with the help of his best friend, genius Penelope "Penny" Bunce, and with his loyal girlfriend Agatha waiting for him. These adventures were somewhat complicated by his roommate and nemesis Baz.

Now that their final year at Watford is started, Baz is nowhere to be found. Simon believes that he is off plotting against the Mage, or something equally dastardly. He was actually kidnapped so that his mother's ghost couldn't reach him. Instead, she reaches out to Simon and asks him to find Nicodemus, find the person responsible for letting the vampires into Watford, the person responsible for her death.

Once Baz is back at school, he teams up with Simon and Penelope to solve the mystery. It's during the Baz-narrated chapters that we learn that while Simon sees Baz as an enemy, Baz is in love with Simon. He's also a vampire, turned as a child during the attack that killed his mother. Can two enemies ever have a future, especially a vampire and the Chosen One? It might be more likely than you'd think.

I really liked the world Rowell created in Carry On, the spells created out of song lyrics, movie quotes, nursery rhymes, etc. Using famous magicians as curse words also made me laugh. I remember having trouble keeping track of the narrators when I first read the book, so it was easier the second time. It was a lot of fun hearing about all the adventures Penny and Simon have been on over the years, and I wish I could read those books too. The characters are all great, from brave Simon to pining Baz to awesome, feminist Penny to poor, confused Agatha.

Wayward Son takes place not too long after Carry On. Simon and Baz are dating, and they share a flat with Penny. Penny and Baz go to university, but Simon is a bit lost. He's no longer the Chosen One, and he's stuck with dragon wings and a long tail. He has plans to break it off with Baz before Baz breaks up with him, but it's put on hold when Penny decides they should all travel to America. She has been keeping in touch with Agatha, and she senses that something is wrong. They will fly to Chicago to visit her boyfriend, and then the three will drive out to California to check on Agatha.

Once they get to America, Penelope is devastated to learn that she no longer has a boyfriend. He thought he broke up with her, but she didn't listen. They set off in their fancy rental convertible for a much longer trip than anticipated. Along the way, they encounter some unfriendly vampires and are helped by a non-magical young man named Shepard. He offers his guidance for their trip, and the three witches accept his help, then proceed to wipe his memory and dump him. He comes back, because the memory wipe didn't take.

Shephard has travelled the United States seeking out all sorts of cryptids and magical creatures, and making friends with them. One of these friend points them towards Agatha, who has gotten involved with something called NowNext. On the surface, it seems like some New Age business seminar, but it's really a group of vampires with a goal: to learn how to wield magic. They travel to the city of vampires, Las Vegas, so that Baz can cozy up to some vampires and get some information.


Baz does cozy up to a vampire, much to Simon's displeasure. He also comes dangerously close to drinking human blood, a line he has never crossed before. America ends up surprising all of them. Spells are different there- the words come from non-magical people, and people talk differently in America. There are all sorts of dead spots they accidentally wander into, and threatening new enemies they encounter. What started as a fun vacation gets super intense! I'm very excited to read the third book to see what's next with Baz, Simon, Penny, Agatha, and Shepard.

Dear Evan Hansen by Val Emmich

"We start with stars in our eyes/We start believing that we belong/But every sun doesn't rise/And no one tells you where you went wrong..."

Fresh off my obsession with the musical Hamilton, I decided to check out the show Dear Evan Hansen. As I am a poor woman who doesn't live anywhere near Broadway, I did this by listening to the soundtrack. It's sad and amazing and so emotional. When I received the Dear Evan Hansen novelization from Pajiba Krampus Exchange, I was excited for more insight into a show that I've only heard in song form (And once I decided I wanted to know what the song "Words Fail" looked like on stage and looked it up on YouTube and it was a mistake, I cried, it was traumatizing).

Dear Evan Hansen is a story based upon a lie. Evan is a normal kid, a little overlooked and a lot anxious. His mom is a nurse and enrolled in night classes, so she doesn't have a lot of time to spend with him, but she tries. She tries a little too hard sometimes, but Evan can be hard on her. Evan's dad lives far away and is busy with his new wife and a new son on the way. Evan is starting his junior year of high school with zero expectations and a newly broken arm from his internship at the local park- he climbed a tree and fell out of the tree.

Evan's therapist gives him an assignment to write letters to himself as a way to get to know his mindset. They always start "Dear Evan Hansen." One day, Evan is printing out a letter at school to take to his appointment when Connor Murphy takes it from him. Connor is an angry young man, and a bit of a burnout. In the letter, Evan mentioned Connor's sister Zoe, Evan's crush, and thought Evan was trying to make fun of him. Connor runs off with the letter, and Evan panics. He doesn't know what Connor plans to do with the letter, but he knows it won't be good.

All that worry was for nothing, because the next day is normal. Connor isn't even at school, and neither is Zoe. They don't show up for several days, and then Evan gets called into the principal's office. Connor and Zoe's parents want to tell him in person that Connor killed himself. They found Evan's letter on him, a letter addressed "Dear Evan Hansen" that concludes with "Your best friend." Evan tries to tell them that Connor wasn't his friend, that he was the one who wrote the letter. They don't listen, especially when they see Connor's name on his cast.

Evan still wants to clear the whole thing up, but he eventually sees that by continuing he can give the Murphys some comfort. He asks his (family) friend Jared to help write some emails that establish Evan and Connor's secret friendship. He makes up a story where they were at an old apple orchard when Evan broke his arm, that Connor was the one who found him after he fell. Soon, overachiever Alana urges Evan to start the Connor Project, a website in Connor's memory. They plan a fundraiser to reopen the orchard as a memorial.

Evan's life ends up improving quite a bit because of the lie. He starts dating Zoe. He doesn't need his anxiety meds any more. The Murphys even offer to pay for his college tuition, though Evan's mom refuses. In fact, she is surprised to hear about Evan and Connor's friendship. Evan has been lying to so many people for so long that it just can't last, and won't end well, no matter how good his intentions were.


I really enjoyed the novelization of Dear Evan Hansen, though I thought it might be unnecessary. I've heard the songs, so I thought I knew basically the whole story, but there was more the songs don't tell you- more story, plus some insights from Connor's ghost. I very much hope to actually see the entire show live someday. This book was almost as good as seeing the show, and made me cry almost as much too.

Doom Patrol Vol. 1: Brick by Brick by Gerard Way, Nick Derington, and Tamra Bonvillain

"The world is hard and unforgiving, it can change you. Because we're made up of all the things that happen to us. The good things fill your heart. But the bad things, and what we choose to do with them, really make us who we are..."

Okay, so this was a weird one and I'm not sure I grasped everything that went down. I'm not at all familiar with Doom Patrol, so I don't have any prior knowledge coming into this. I liked My Chemical Romance, so the Gerard Way factor was a positive, and it did look intriguingly weird.

Casey is a semi-weird ambulance driver. She lives with her cat Lotion (Which is like both the best and worst name at the same time somehow). Then, one night, a strange new dispatcher sends Casey and her partner to help someone. The person isn't there, but they witness a robot man getting run over by a truck. Casey takes the robot parts back to her apartment. Soon after, her roommate gets exploded by a singing telegraph girl, who becomes Casey's new roommate. Then things get weirder...

The new dispatcher is actually not a dispatcher, but Danny. Who is Danny? Well, Danny is technically a where. Dannyland is this place where a bunch of people live who are also Danny and Danny is also technically in the back of Casey's ambulance. It's complicated. Also, Casey is a comic book character in Dannyland and Danny brought her to life and sent her into the real world. Now, it needs her help because these creepy dudes, the Vectra, want to use Danny to generate more people so they can turn them into meat for their alien/robot/whatever fast food restaurants. (I know, so cliche, right?) Danny needs Casey to gather the Doom Patrol!

The other members of Doom Patrol are the robot man, who is called...Robot Man, Pilot Larry Trainor, who is possessed by a negative spirit and turns into Negative Man, Flex Mentallo, a strongman who Casey meets in Dannyland, and Jane, who is busy forming a cult because one of her personalities has taken over. Oh, there are also these little asides featuring Niles Caulder, AKA the Chief, who originally founded the Doom Patrol. Thank you to the DC Wiki for filling in some of my blanks. Anyways, from what I understood, it was pretty good. 

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

"Both love and hate are mirror versions of the same game- and you have to win. Why? Your heart and your ego. Trust me, I should know..."

Romance isn't my first choice of book genres, but I saw how much my fellow Cannonballers liked this book and decided it was worth a try. I was pleasantly surprised to enjoy the book. There were a lot more adult sexy times than I usually encounter in my mostly YA reading, but I sort of enjoyed reading those as well.

The Hating Game is set in a publishing house that is the product of a merger between two companies. As a result, there are two CEOs who both have separate executive assistants. Lucy and Joshua share an office and a mutual loathing for each other. They face off in psychological warfare every day. Lucy calls them games, such as the HR Game, the Staring Game. We only see everything from her point of view, but Lucy truly believes that Joshua hates her.

Their feud comes to a climax when they are both in consideration for a promotion. It's very likely that one of them will get it, and whoever doesn't get the job will answer to the one who does. Lucy plans to quit rather than work under Joshua, and they make an agreement that whoever doesn't get the job will quit.

In the meantime, Lucy starts to date a coworker named Danny. Joshua is hostile about the relationship, even implying that she is making up dates. We all know that it's because Joshua has the hots for Lucy. She is clueless until he kisses her in the elevator at work. Lucy's feelings are all mixed up. Lucy and Joshua obviously have chemistry between them, but there is so much history with their games and their work relationship.

After the kiss, Lucy finds herself drawn to Joshua. She thinks it's just physical. They kiss and get really steamy, but he refuses to take it all the way. Joshua likes the anticipation. Soon, the former enemies start to relate to each other. Joshua takes care of her when she is sick. Lucy agrees to attend his brother's wedding. It's all actually really nice and made me sort of schmoopy and wistful.

Overall, I enjoyed The Hating Game a lot. Cannonballers know their books. My biggest, and pretty much only, issue was how Lucy tended to blow things out of proportion. I wish that she would talk things out instead of jumping to the worst conclusions (The Wedding Conflict springs to mind, not to be too spoilery). I might call out the "they hate each other but secretly love each other deep down" trope, but honestly I love that one anyways. It's a classic for a reason. I ended up liking this book so much that I'm actually excited to read Thorne's new book when it comes out in July. 

Revenge & the Wild by Michelle Modesto

When Westie was a child, her family traveled westward with a caravan. Her younger brother had been ill, so the family lagged behind the rest of the group. They stopped to rest at a cabin where a kind family offered hospitality. Appearances can be deceiving, and the family turned out to be cannibals. Only Westie escaped, leaving the rest of her family behind.

She was rescued and adopted by Nigel, an inventor. He created the machine that replaced the arm she lost to the cannibals. Together, they saved Alistair, who had also been attacked by cannibals. Nigel created the mask that allows him to speak again.

Rogue City is a strange place where magical creatures live alongside humans, though not always happily. The native people created a barrier around the city to protect the people from the creatures, including a stipulation that if they kill a human, they will die. The magic has been slowly fading away as the land is being stripped of resources. The barrier is getting weaker and the creatures are getting sick.

Nigel invented a machine that will produce magic from gold. It has the potential to save everyone. He only needs money to get the gold. The mayor gets Nigel in touch with a wealthy family to invest. Westie is dumbfounded when the Fairfields look exactly like the cannibals who ate her family.

Westie is an interesting character. She is rude and coarse and she used to have a drinking problem. It can sometimes be difficult to like her, but you get the feeling that she wouldn't care either way. Apparently she is pretty, pretty enough to attract Alistair, the Fairfields' cousin James, and vampire Costin, as well as other young men. Yet, she is always a mess, running around in messy clothes and focused on seeking vengeance for her family.

I liked Revenge & the Wild a lot. The wild west mixed with supernatural is unique. There was a twist that I guessed pretty early on, but I dismissed it as improbable. Wouldn't you know that I was right?

I received my copy of Revenge & the Wild from Edelweiss, courtesy of Balzer + Bray. It's available for purchase now.

Between the Spark and the Burn by April Genevieve Tucholke

My review of the first book in this series, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, is here.

In Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, River came to Violet's door to answer an advertisement seeking a boarder. He was handsome and rich, but also scary. River has the ability to make other people see things and do things, what they call his glow. While he seems like he has good intentions, some of the things that River does with his glow are pretty bad. Things like making a man cut his own throat. The man had been abusing his young son, but what River did isn't exactly good either. At the end of the book, we find out that River and his brother Neely have a half-brother in town named Brodie. A lot of the terrible things that they attributed to River were really Brodie. He ended up confronting River and cutting Violet's wrists. They stabbed him, but Brodie got away. River chases after him, but still hopes to return to Violet some day.

Now, it's been a long time since either Violet or Neely have heard from River. They have been listening to a late night radio show where people around the country call in with strange paranormal happenings. One night, they hear about a tiny mountain town where a red-haired boy has been visiting young girls in their bedrooms. It sounds like Brodie, so Violet, her brother Luke, Neely, and their neighbor Sunshine pack up to investigate. They find a town where the people are on edge, willing to lynch a young boy who has lived in the town for years. Violet and company rescue the boy and plan to take him back to the Citizen Kane. Then they decide to split up. Luke and Sunshine head home. Violet, Neely, and the boy head for a small island where they reported sightings of a mad sea king.

Once they get there, they find River, but he isn't the same River. He has gone mad from his powers, and the whole thing is very sad. Neely loves Violet and Violet loves Neely, but Violet also still loves River, but not what River does. The whole time, there is still the question of where Brodie is and what he is planning. It's complicated, you guys.

Between the Spark and the Burn was almost as good as Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea. The writing was just as dreamy, but I wanted more of Violet and River. The conclusion to the series bummed me out a little, but it was also sort of beautiful in its way.

I received my copy of Between the Spark and the Burn from Edelweiss, courtesy of Dial. It's available for purchase now.

Champion by Marie Lu

"Sometimes the sun sets earlier. Days don't last forever, you know."

If you like, you can read my reviews of Legend and Prodigy. There's going to be spoilers of the first two books, but no Champion spoilers.

June and Day met in Legend, one of those typical love stories where girl thinks boy killed her brother, so girl hunts boy down undercover in the streets. June was a super soldier, the best that the Republic ever saw. Day was a legend, a nondescript shadow who robs from the government and gives to the poor and downtrodden. He was actually a young man who was supposed to have been killed after failing his Trials, a test every child takes that determines their entire future. They eventually gain an understanding of each other, then it blossoms into love. Despite some, um...misunderstandings along the way. By misunderstandings, I mean that June leads Republic officials to Day's door, where they murder his mother. Then, they are going to kill Day, but his older brother takes his place. And, the Republic kidnaps his younger brother, Eden, to try to find a cure for the disease that is spreading throughout the Republic. June learns that the Republic is full of corruption, her brother's murder was an inside job, and everything is pretty much the worst.

Then in Prodigy, June and Day team up with the Patriots, a group working with people from the Colonies (Divided USA, Colonies vs. Republic) in hopes of rescuing Eden. After the elector primo dies, his son inherits the role. The Patriots plan to assassinate the young man for the good of the people. June is working inside the government, and she gets close to Anden. She learns that he will help the Republic, so she decides to stop the assassination. It turns out that members of the Patriots were members of the government, who were working with the Patriots to kill Anden. Also, the Republic is claiming that Day was executed. Nobody believes it. Because of this, Day turned into a political symbol, and he rallies the people around Anden. On a sad note, Day finds out that he is dying because of what they did to him after his Trials.

The third installment finds June and Day once again divided. Now Day has a comfortable apartment that he shares with his brother. Unfortunately, his headaches have been getting worse. The doctors think that Day will only live for about two more months. June has been training to be a top government official. Anden believes that she is qualified for the job, despite her being 16 and up against two much more qualified candidates.

The Republic is having more issues with the Colonies. The Colonies have been suffering from that terrible sickness and blame the Republic for spreading it across their borders. They also believe that the Republic has a cure and will attack and overthrow the Republic if it is not turned over. Anden has been trying to find a cure, but nothing has worked. His last resort is having June ask Day to give Eden back to the Republic, in hopes that his blood contains a cure. Day would obviously be against this plan, but if June asks...

There's all kinds of drama happening. Anden obviously likes June, but she's still all about Day. Day still likes June, but he's pushing her away because he's dying and doesn't want to hurt her. June doesn't even know that he's dying. I know that I complained about romantic triangles before, but this isn't really a triangle. Anden barely factors at all.

Overall, I felt that Champion was a fitting conclusion to the series. There was lots of action and drama, which was very satisfying. I'll admit that the ending had me sobbing like a baby, both the ending and the prologue (For both happy and sad reasons). The entire series has been fantastic, so I am happy to see it go off on a good note.

The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde

I've always meant to read Jasper Fforde's books. I actually own a couple of them. I just never got around to it, the daunting task of trying to start an established series (Nursery Crimes or Thursday Next) or in the case of Shades of Grey, distance myself from the other, similar sounding adult series. The Last Dragonslayer was an advanced copy sent to my bookstore, and I snatched it up right away.

It tells the story of a modern world where magic exists, but it has been on the decline. Once powerful practitioners are reduced to home repair and pest control. Jennifer Strange is a foundling who is the acting manager of Kazam, an employment agency for magicians. It turns out that she is also the last dragonslayer, charged with watching the last dragon, Maltcassion. If he breaks the Dragonpact negotiated between the dragons and the Mighty Shandar, then Jennifer will have to kill him. The problem is that if the dragon dies, magic may die along with him.

I'm glad that I can finally say I have read one of Fforde's books. This was a good one, reminiscent of Terry Pratchett. Jennifer Strange is a no-nonsense teenager, one who is sarcastic and tough. My favorite character was the Quarkbeast, the fierce-looking beast she keeps as a pet. He was awesome. Great start to what I hope will be a great series, and I'm definitely looking forward to book two, as it's titled The Song of the Quarkbeast.

I received my copy of The Last Dragonslayer courtesy of Harcourt Children's Books. Thank you for sending it to our bookstore, and I hope that you (and other publishers) keep them coming, as they are appreciated.

Everything You Need to Survive the Apocalypse by Lucas Klauss

Everything You Need to Survive the Apocalypse is not the type of book I would normally choose. It deals a lot with religion, and I tend to avoid those sort of books. I do believe in God, but I dislike overly simplistic Christian messages and what I see as the conservative leaning bias of many of the people who live in Ohio and the rest of the Midwest. So, no creepy Amish Christian novels for me. I'm not exactly sure why I decided to download and read the book. It has a fairly cool cover, and I was intrigued by the male narrator and coming of age story.

I'm used to male narrators such as those in Frank Portman's King Dork and John Green's books. They talk about girls and think about sex and make me a little uncomfortable. Phillip isn't nearly as, um, driven. He's a sophomore and when he finally gets a girlfriend, he stresses out about kissing her. Just kissing, no mention is ever made of sex. I'm a little torn on whether the books I read before are normal or this one is abnormal.

Phillip meets Rebekkah at track practice one day. He thinks she's unconventionally hot. She invites him to a youth group meeting. He's kind of weirded out, but when an unconventionally hot girl invites you somewhere, you HAVE to go. One major problem is that Phillip's dad is an extreme atheist. His mom used to try to take Phillip and his brother to church, but their dad stopped her. In the days before she died (We get little flashbacks in between the regular narrative), she had been hoarding supplies for the end of the world. Her obsession sparked an interest in the apocalypse in Phillip. He collected several books on the topic. Because of this interest, the first Bible book Phillip reads is Revelation.

As the book progresses, Phillip starts to go to actual church services and completes service hours to participate in the Summit, a big church conference. It's always one step forward, two steps back, though. For all the progress he makes, every new discovery brings a new opportunity for doubt. I really like that Phillip doesn't automatically have all the answers to everything. A good portion of faith is figuring out what you believe and why, and it definitely doesn't always make sense. I also like how it's not all about Christianity as the only good religion. Phillip's dad could have been vilified, and it was a little sad how he punished his son for going to church. In all fairness, he makes up for this later in the book. Rebekkah's father is a Christian who is always away from home on religious missions. Rebekkah still bases her decisions on what her father would want her to do. It's sad that neither of them gives their children the option to decide for themselves. Phillip's father may be an atheist, but at least he's there for his family.

Everything You Need to Survive the Apocalypse definitely gave me a lot to think about. That's definitely a good thing. I received a copy of Everything You Need to Survive the Apocalypse from the Simon & Schuster Galley Grab. It's available now.

Gossip Girl: I Will Always Love You by Cecily von Ziegesar

I know I wasn't going to read any more Gossip Girl books, but I saw this book on my library's epub offerings and I just couldn't help myself. So much happens in this book and I really loved every dirty second. I'll break the plots down for you:

We start out with Blair with her Yale boyfriend, Serena single, Dan and Vanessa together. Blair ditches Yale boyfriend because his family won't let her come on vacation with them ("No ring, no bring") and immediately hooks up with Nate. Nate has been sailing the high seas with his mentor Chips. Now that Nate has returned, all of the Upper East Side ladies are lining up. After all, nothing says hot like an unmotivated stoner. Serena becomes jealous because of the great connection between her and Nate. She has been filming the sequel to her dumb Breakfast at Tiffany's remake, but walks off the set to declare her love for Nate. He can't decide between the two girls. It's a full-on cat fight with the girls, and then Nate decides he just can't take it and leaves to go to farm college (More on that later).

Dan and Vanessa are together despite living on opposite coasts. Dan has had enough of college out West and transfers East without telling Vanessa. They are all set to be playing hipster house together in the Brooklyn Humphrey apartment when Dan catches Vanessa in bed with her former TA.

Now, random relationship generator!

Blair gets back together with Yale boyfriend. Serena stays single. Their relationship is still rocky. Nate returns from farm college after Chips dies of cancer. Farm college had been doing him good, but he becomes distraught at Chip's death and hits the booze and wacky tobacky some more. Then he becomes convinced that he is meant to be with Blair and totally ruins her relationship with Yale boyfriend.

Dan writes a dumb poem for a school assignment that's just a random collection of lines from poems he wrote in high school about Serena. S reads the poem after it's inevitably published in the New Yorker. They end up getting together.

In the meantime, Blair gets together with the one and only Chuck Bass. Let me just straight out say that I totally love Chuck Bass. This isn't the old nancy boy Chuck Bass, either. Chuck has spent time at farm college and it changed him for the better. Unfortunately, his monkey succumbed to a snake bite the first day. Now, Chuck is conscientious, sweet, and loving. Blair and Chuck together totally blew my mind and made me make little squeeing noises of excitement.

Then, of course, Nate comes back into the picture. Farm college is only two years, so he has to transfer soon. While touring Brown, he encounters one Jenny Humphrey. She gets Dan to drive him back to the city, but on the way they encounter a snowstorm. So Dan, Nate, Jenny, and Serena (Along for the ride) stop at the Waldorf's summer house for shelter. Unfortunately, the house isn't empty because Blair and Chuck are spending the holidays with her gay dads.

The kids have some intense moments. All three girls are lusting after Nate. There's a scene where they're all going to go up in the attic and "visit" Nate. Blair and Serena actually catch each other on the way, but Little J makes her way up. In the morning, B and S confront each other and cause a little strife in their actual relationships. Blair explains to Chuck how crazy Nate makes her. Chuck understands, and I breathe a sigh of relief because I love them. Dan is pretty much a pissy brat as usual. Nate runs away to his boat (In the words of the great Summer Roberts, girls, you don't cry over bitches on boats) and takes Jenny with him.

So, Jenny and Nate are together and all nauseating and stuff. Blair breaks up with Chuck because the relationship is moving too quickly. I feel as though someone killed my pet unicorn and butchered it in front of me. Serena breaks up with Dan because he is a complete waste of space, or because he is going to Iowa for poetry school and doesn't want her to go, one of those. Vanessa breaks up with her RA because he thinks she was cheating on him and also she wants Dan again. Jenny kicks Nate to the curb because their relationship bores her. In the end, it's Nate, Serena, and Blair at Chuck's New Year's party. It looks like more of the same, but Blair and Serena end up ditching Nate (Yay, finally!) for a trip to Europe together.

I know it seems as though the characters in the Gossip Girl series are shallow, horrible people. Really, they are, but that's actually part of the fun. Gossip Girl is the web stalker who watches over everyone like some sort of Big Brother-guardian angel hybrid. The people are horrible, but they have their redeeming qualities. Serena the vapid blonde who coasts by on her looks actually reads philosophy books for fun. Blair seems kind of fun when she isn't completely insane. My only complaint is that we never got to see who was Gossip Girl. Well, like she said on the show, Gossip Girl is everyone, XOXO.

Eating the Dinosaur by Chuck Klosterman

I love Chuck Klosterman. Two years ago I didn't even know who Chuck Klosterman is. While scanning the bargain books at my place of employment, I found Killing Yourself to Live, read the inside flap and bought the book. I then read the book, loved it, and read Chuck Klosterman IV and Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs. There is just a certain way that Klosterman writes that brings together ideas, concepts, and people in ways that I never considered before, but ways that actually make sense. Eating the Dinosaur is the usual fare, and I enjoyed it the whole way through.

The book is divided into chapters and the chapters are divided into smaller numbered and lettered sections. These sections can sometimes meander away from the topic at hand, but everything comes together in the end to make a point about why people answer interview questions or the truths about irony as expressed by Weezer and Ralph Nader.

I admit that when I saw the chapter entitled "Football," I wasn't looking forward to reading it, especially when I saw the diagram of a play on the first page. It's not as though I hate football. I don't really think about it much in my every day life. It seemed like an achievement to me that I actually read the whole chapter even with footnotes advising a football-illiterate like me to turn back. Still, I persevered and even learned some thing about football, spread offensive, and the liberal nature of the game. It's difficult not to show at least a little appreciation for the sport when it inspired my favorite quote of the book:

Football allows the intellectual part of my brain to evolve, but it allows the emotional part to remain unchanged. It has a liberal cerebellum and a reactionary heart. And this is all I want from everything, all the time, always.

Additionally, I enjoyed the chapter on Klosterman's hatred of laugh tracks. I regularly watch "How I Met Your Mother," but I am so used to shows without a track that I often forget about all that background noise. Tonight, however, I was hyper aware of every single laugh, chuckle, giggle, cheer, etc. It was disconcerting, to say the least.

So, if you're still around, I recommend Eating the Dinosaur. You know, the book, not eating an actual dinosaur (That would have worked better out loud).