Jealousy and Envy

First things first:

My fortune cookie of the day:

Ideas not coupled with action never become bigger than the brain cells they occupied.

I made that big and red. That fortune hangs on my bulletin board and comes from a cookie my coworker brought me last week after going out for Chinese (she, for some odd reason, doesn't like fortune cookies. My gain.)

It's pretty cheesy, but is also really speaking to me right now.

Also, Rachel won my Vibes contest and so the book will be in the mail to her shortly. And for those who didn't win, it'll be in stores (and hopefully your library) next month.

And, to taunt you further, today I review

Paper Towns John Green

First things first--this is John Green's best book.

If you've read a John Green book before, you know that you can never really describe the book by describing the plot--it's hard to get too into the plot without giving much away, but also, the books are about so much more than just what's going on.

If you haven't read a John Green book before, WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?

Quentin has always loved Margo Roth Spigelman, the girl next door. One glorious night before graduation, she takes him out all night to exact revenge on her cheating boyfriend and a few others. The next day, she's gone. Margo often disappears, but this time she doesn't come back. Quentin thinks she's left clues and is off on a hunt to find her.

As in his other works, Green's real strength is in his characters, especially the secondary ones. But this time, Green takes it a step further as his characters realize that you can never fully know another person. How Quentin sees Margo is not how Lacey sees Margo and it's not how Margo sees Margo. We all present different facets of our selves to the world--we very rarely let one person see all of us, but, at the same time, when viewing people, we view them through our own lenses and project our own ideals or hatreds on to them. And, when you idolize someone from afar, as Quentin does Margo, the difference between what you think and what he or she actually is, is much greater.

Smart, funny, heartbreaking, thought-provoking... John Green has done it again.

The man has 3 books out, one with a Printz, one with a Printz honor, and this one will be hot in contention for this year's top prizes. He's my age. I'm horribly jealous, especially because his work deserves all of it.

Look for it on October 16.

In the mean time, listen to A LOT of Mermaid Avenue and brush up on your Leaves of Grass

And, I leave you with this:

Last night or the night before that,
I won´t say which night
A seaman friend of mine,
I´ll not say which seaman,
Walked up to a big old building,
I won´t say which building,
And would not have walked up the stairs,
not to say which stairs,
If there had not been two girls,
leaving out the names of those two girls.