January 2013 
 {Audiobook Review} 
 Frank Ocean once said, "When you're happy, you enjoy the music. But when you're sad, you understand the lyrics." For the better part of January, I was sad enough that I couldn't even handle lyrics, so instead, I listened to the audiobook of The Fault in Our Stars as I drove around town. Kate Rudd (no relation to Paul) read the story and she did a marvelous job. She gave Hazel's dialogue this lovely breathless quality that was dead-on, even though that may be an unfortunate choice of words. I fell in love with Augustus Waters all over again and I resolved to visit the Anne Frank house sometime this year, or maybe the next. Having this book in my life at this particular time helped me understand the faults in my own stars, which is something that I know Hazel Grace would appreciate. 
 January 2012 
 First, a review of the signing. 
 John and Hank Green are possibly the two most affable people on the planet. They're so good-natured about life, but they aren't ignorant about the issues that affect the world. It takes a special kind of person to command a room of nearly a thousand teenagers and the vlogbrothers have been bestowed with that particular gift. Have you lost faith in the future? If so, I highly recommend sitting in an auditorium filled with hormone-fueled youth, gleefully singing along to a song about quarks. It is something else. (Also weird was the real-life display of pretty much every single t-shirt I own. I'm not even joking. If I bought it online, someone in the audience was wearing it.) John did a book reading, Hank sang songs, and they answered questions until one of them got shocked. Really. We could have sat and listened to them for hours, but alas, John was a keynote speaker at the ALA conference up in Dallas the next morning at 8 AM. "Please," he implored, "think of the librarians." 
 We then had to wait for our turn to get our books personalized, which took forever, but who cares! I had a new book to start! I got up to the signing table and managed to avoid being an incoherent wreck. John said, "Thanks for coming!" and I responded with, "Thanks for having us!" which only sort of makes sense. I told him that my friend Phampants in Chicago said hi and he was like, "Oh yeah! I love that guy!" That was about it, and then I was shuffled down the line to Hank. I introduced myself, but there was a sudden loud noise and he apologized for not being able to hear me. I introduced myself once more and he gave me a high-five, which was probably the single greatest part of the night. And then I went home and finished reading The Fault in our Stars until I really did turn into an incoherent wreck. 
 And now, a review of the book. 
 This book is nothing like John Green's other books, but there's something so incredibly John Green about it that if you took the name off the front cover and handed it to me, odds are I could have placed the author within a few pages. That's only somewhat a humblebrag about me, although it speaks mostly to John's talents as a writer. Because DANG. That was an incredible book. We all know the premise--it's that one about the kids with cancer. The thing I love most about John's books is how the teenagers seem to live in a heightened reality, but they're STILL teenagers in every waking action and thought. (During the presentation, John made the point, more or less, of "19 Katherines? Really? That's not going to happen to anyone.") I think the highest compliment that I can give this book, tears and giggles and all, is that I wish I had been a teenager when I read it. Reading it now didn't diminish the experience at all, but I think 16-year-old me would have really loved The Fault in our Stars.