Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

From the wonder twin power team of David Levithan and Rachel Cohn comes another hip New York novel about teenagers who are intelligent, witty, and interesting while searching for love and finding themselves. For the audacity to believe that teens can not only can be this but might want to read about this, I commend the authors heartily.

Our two main characters are ostensibly polar opposites. Dash is a pessimistic young man damaged by his parents' nasty break up and lack of  familial connection. He's snarky and bookish and proud of it: "I was a Decemberist, a Bolshevik, a career criminal, a philatelist trapped by unknowable anguish--whatever everyone else was not, I was willing to be."

Lily is naive and starry-eyed and loveable--the much-adored and overprotected baby of her extended, close-knit family. Lily loves Christmas with all the trimmings--she's the kind of person who organizes caroling societies and bakes six kinds of spritz cookies at four in the morning. With her parents out of town this Christmas on a silver anniversary vacation, Lily is bored and lonely until her older brother Langston creates "the notebook"--a beautiful red notebook full of clues that will lead a prospective boyfriend to Lily. Langston leaves the notebook at the famous bookstore The Strand where Dash discovers it and thus, the adventure begins.

The romance unfolds like a giddy summer camp scavenger hunt in famous locations around New York City with a cast of quirky secondary characters that add to the merriment. For me it was the best kind of romantic comedy where the chemistry is palpable, the dialogue is crisp and smart, and the ending is not a foregone conclusion. Like Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (also by Levithan and Cohn), it looks like Dash and Lily may get made into a movie as it currently has a screenwriter and producer attached to the project. Here's hoping they do these likeable characters justice.

Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd

I'm back from a loooong break and rarin' to go. For my first review of the year, I snagged Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd, a collection of short stories edited by well-known authors (and good friends) Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci. If you haven't noticed, we're currently in the middle of a Geek-Chic Phenomenon wherein, geekiness, nerdiness, dorkdome, etc. have come in to their own and suddenly, being an outsider is a very fashionable brand indeed. I happen to agree with Wikipedia's astute analysis of the geek chic trend, which points out that the Geek-Chic label is largely superficial. However, as a rather dorky person (I heart reading, Star Trek NG, Star Wars, LOTR; I was in band and 4-H in high school, as well as the forestry team), I couldn't resist the premise of this book.

The editors have gathered an all-star team of YA authors to write stories in which the protagonists are all geeks of one ilk or another. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I was surprised by the variety of tone and theme offered in these stories, which ran the gamut from dark, social commentary to silly, entertaining romps. I have to say, I expected better from some of the authors whose work I know and love, but was not let down by John Green and David Levithan. I thought Libba Bray's "It's Just a Jump to the Left" was an interesting commentary on growing up which channeled Judy Blume's ability to nail the fears of a teenage girl while covering more mature concerns. I also enjoyed Sara Zarr's "This is My Audition Monologue," whose intriguing narrarator surprises with her blunt honesty (and, I might add, this story would make for an interesting audition monologue, even if it is long). The majority of stories contain some mature content, mostly language (a lot of which I felt was unnecessary and self-conscious) and some themes. Admittedly, I didn't enjoy every story in the collection, but, found the collection entertaining on the whole. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone with a little geek in them, whether they let it show or not. To read an excerpt or play the game "The Great Geek Escape," check out the publisher website: http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/features/geektastic/index.html.