I think I spend a bit too much time in the world of PK-5 literature. Lots of YA lit always seems to be so angst-y, so self-important, so self-consciously and humorlessly meaningful. But after I browsed through the recently published "Top 100 Teen Books" list on NPR, I realized that John Green turned up again and again and again. I said, sort of dispiritedly, "Maybe I should read one." One of my daughters looked at me in that way teenagers do, when they can't believe they are related to such Neanderthals, and handed me her Kindle. I started reading...

...and came up for air four hours later. I actually laughed out loud at a couple of places during the long road trip in the second half of the book. And the banter--holy cow (ha--that's actually a book reference too!): the wiseass conversation of really witty people. In a bizarre way, it reminds me of 1) the wildly clever drivel that Lord Peter Wimsey spouts in the Sayers novels 2) various episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and 3) Firefly. And since I love all those things, I loved Paper Towns, too.