Wow! John Green, Wow!

I had a long day of meetings yesterday in which I was given many new assignments. I came home very late and very tired. Nonetheless, I decided to read the opening of Looking for Alaska even though it was already nearly midnight.... if you've read it yourself, you know that the light was burning on my bedside table until I finished the last page and closed the book.

And as I closed the book, I thought, "That was a complete book." It seemed like an odd assessment, and yet the longer I thought about it -- I felt that it was a true statement. I felt whole from the reading experience. I had no unfinished business or lingering quibbles. I felt a sense of deep satifaction and closure.

What a great book. What amazing characters. What a unique story. What intriguing and continually developing relationships. I felt that I had been on this journey, had experienced the feelings and frustrations, made the friendships, been laid low by loss and resurrected by the experience of being in the moment - truly alive. The Printz folks called this one perfectly.

Wow! John Green, Wow!