Sheriff Makes Pot Brownies
This is ironic, eh? A sheriff decides to steal confiscated marijuana and bake it in brownies, only to get so high he thinks he's dying and calls 911. Really, really, really, really funny. More hilarious YouTube videos >
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Poor child prodigy Colin Singleton has just been dumped by a girl named Katherine for the nineteenth time. His hilarious best friend Hassan decides it’s time for a road trip, and they end up in Gutshot, Tennessee, where they meet Lindsay and her mother Hollis (who owns a tampon-string factory) and decide to settle in for a little while. Colin works for Hollis during the day and at any spare moment he has, he is working to perfect a Theorem that can predict the outcome of a relationship between two people. It’s a really amazing and well-written book, and you should check it out.
I’m usually not a huge fan of historical fiction, but holy crap I love this book. Two teenagers—one a hooker and the other a pickpocket—in the Lower East Side trying to survive day by day until the Brooklyn Bridge is built and they can move to Brooklyn and start over? So good! The details are so amazing, and it really puts you there. It’s heartbreaking and exciting, and just such a great book. Check it out.
Okay, shoplifting is apparently scary. There were moments in this book where my palms were actually a little sweaty, because I was constantly like, Is she gonna get caught this time?! So, yes—this is a great book. Set in New York in the glorious eighties—a little different from Bowery Girl, but just as fun.
M or F?
by Lisa Papademetriou and Christopher Tebbetts
“Brain twins” Marcus and Frannie are best friends and do everything together—even chat it up online with Frannie’s crush Jeffrey. But Marcus might’ve crossed the line when he started talking to Jeffrey online by himself . . . and falling for him. This book is probably, along with Brian Sloan’s A Really Nice Prom Mess, the most fun gay YA novel I’ve read. Hardly an ounce of angst, which is how I like my gay-YA-tinis.
This is a really fun, fast, suspenseful book in which the main character—a cute sixteen-year-old skater boy in Portland, Oregon—accidentally kills a night watchman at a train yard near the totally sketchy but hardcore skatepark Paranoid Park, and there are no witnesses. He has to figure out what to do, and for a while he tries to hide it, but then things get tough when a cop shows up at his school and starts interviewing skaters. You should read it not only because it’s cool but because it’s also being made into a movie by Gus Van Sant, which is supercool.
This is a fabulously scandalous book that anyone who loves secret-affairs galore, the glamour of Hollywood, and reading books that make you scream “Oh my God!” will appreciate. When Jasmine Green writes all about her family’s dirty little secrets in screenplay format in her diary, the screenplay gets discovered and bought . . . by her big-shot movie-producer father!
This collection of comics about middle school is perfect. Many of the pieces really capture the sheer horror and hell that life is at that time, and they run the gamut in terms of style and storyline. Plus, my roommate Nick is one of the contributors—and his piece (“The Adventures of Batboy and Starling”) is so cute and funny.
Tyrell is one of the most rewarding and powerful YA books I’ve ever read in my life. When fifteen-year-old Tyrell’s dad is put back in jail for the third time, Tyrell, his little brother, and his mom are put into the New York City shelter system, and Tyrell has to come up with a plan to get his family out of the system and back into an apartment. Tyrell’s voice is real and honest and gritty, and puts you right there in the Bronx with him. But it’s not all sad and serious—there are moments in this book where I laughed out loud, because it covers literally every moment of Tyrell’s daily life, and there are some funny ones in there. Oh, and an added bonus to this book: Tyrell has to try to throw this ginormous party and not get caught. So great. Check this one out. You will not be disappointed.
Hollywood's hottest new starlet, Sabrina Snow, is in New York City for the summer, and when Lily gets a job as her intern, Lily thinks she's got it made. And it sounds okay to me, too—hanging out in the super-swank Mercer Hotel penthouse, going to fabulous premiere parties, getting swag . . . But surprise! Working for Sabrina—who parties a little hard and who happens to have a really hot boyfriend who seems to have a thing for Lily—can be a bitch. This book is so much fun, and you'll totally feel for Lily, even though you just might want to be her sometimes. It was really cool reading all about Sabrina's celebrity world—and Lizabeth Zindel knows what she's talking about. She did work at a Hollywood Talent Agency for a long time before becoming a ful-time writer. I loved it, and highly recommend it.
This is just a really sweet love-story book—one of the best and most real teen romances I've read—and the dialogue is fun and very realistic. Told in alternating voices that actually sound quite different, this is a great read. And you’ll totally fall in love with Toby. Sara’s cool, too, though—but she’s no Toby. Ha! You'll see what I mean.
A really great collection of personal nonfiction essays, poems, and artwork from a huge range of young people, dealing with love, homophobia, religiosity, friendship, and so much more.
This is a tale of one insane night in the Lower East Side of modern-day New York. Nick (written by David Levithan) is a honest-to-god cute straight boy in a queercore band The Fuck Offs who’re playing at this punk club, and when Nick spots his ex-girlfriend Tris after his set, he turns to this girl Norah (written by . . . oh, come on, you know!) and asks her to “be his girlfriend for five minutes.” Read on to see how Nick and Norah fall for each other on this nonstop New York night involving burlesque shows and yummy Ukrainian food.
Haha. This book is soooo fun and funny. It chronicles the crazy prom night of poor Cameron, who when he tells his prom-date-slash-scary-friend Virginia that he’s gay (on the night of the prom), she goes off on this crazy drunken rampage (puking in a fish tank is involved) that sets of a chain of events that take Cameron on one hell of a ride—gay strip clubs, Russian drug dealers, and high-speed chases through Washington, D.C., is just the beginning! Highly amazing and enjoyable.
Um, WOW! This is the story of Billy Bloom, who's a pretty-much-gay teen drag queen who's just moved from the Liberal Wonderland of his home up North to the conservative hellhole of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Academy in South Florida. Well, calling him a drag queen doesn't really begin to describe it well enough. Even "Glitteroid" and "Gender Obscurist" don't quite do him justice. So I'll stop trying to define him. Billy hates dealing with the abuse the "Bible Belles" and "Aberzombies" are only so happy to dole out. But then there's Flip Kelly, the devastatingly beautiful, drool-inducing Football Star, who Billy's not quite sure about. This book is simply amazing! I was completely blown away by Billy's voice, which is unlike anything I've ever read. Not to mention the masterpiece outfits he creates. Like I said, unlike anything I've ever read or imagined. A total must-read.
In this beautiful set of poems (and I’m not the biggest poetry guy, I’ll have to admit), Billy tells the story of his childhood growing up in Jacksonville, chronicling his parents’ divorce, his coming of age and coming out, and having love and losing it and finding it again. It’s really touching and well written, and I think you’ll love it. Plus, he’s my boyfriend, and, um . . . I’m in the book. ’Nuff said! Check it out.
An Abundance of Katherines
