An Abundance of Katherines by John Green, 228 pagesDewey's Books; Young Adult Challenge
I love math, and I love word puzzles. Colin Singleton, former child prodigy and possibly not a future genius, is adept at both. He tries to come up with a Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability after being dumped by his 19th Katherine-named girlfriend.
After the nineteenth Katherine dumping, his best pal Hassan takes him on a road trip to distract him. Hassan is the kind of friend who points out that using the phrase 'pupilliary sphincter' is not the way to make friends or amuse people in high school, since Colin, child prodigy, is not aware of that fact. Hassan is the funniest side kick, who keeps Colin understanding the way of the world and maintains a very humorous bantering while trying to avoid much of anything himself.
The boys meet some girls, do some introspective thinking, grow a bit, make some jokes. Two quite likable nerds on the verge of growing up and getting beyond themselves. Very cute all around. Here's a quote I've seen before and think will become a well known quote: Books are the ultimate Dumpee: put them down and they'll wait for you forever; pay attention to them and they always love you back.
I love the math in the book, including an appendix to further explain the theorem. More math! This version of the cover is so cool with the math symbols that I had to show it. I also wish I could anagram as well as Colin. I'd rock at Scrabble instead of being so horrific.I've been hearing a lot about John Green and his books so I was pleased to finally read one and I was not disappointed at all. I like footnotes in a book and they were scattered throughout here. The next one I have here to read is Looking for Alaska.
I love this book to bits! I'm glad you enjoyed it so much. And I think his others are even better.
ReplyDeleteI just checked Looking For Alaska out from the library. I'm really looking forward to it as I've been hearing about this author all over the blogsphere. Great review!
ReplyDeleteThis is the next book for our book club. I'll be reading this one this week. I'm looking forward to it.
ReplyDeleteThis book was my introduction to John Green and I have loved Alaska and Paper Towns too!! I want to be friends with Colin and Hassan they my kind of nerds!!!
ReplyDeleteGreat review!
nymeth - that's great that his others are better! Something to look forward to.
ReplyDeletesam - this was a really easy read, I hope you enjoy Looking for Alaska. I'll read that pretty soon.
thatsthebook - it'll be interesting to hear what your group thought of the book
staci - I really liked Hassan too, how he tried to help Colin. thanks
I just this morning finished Looking for Alaska!! I'm hoping to have a review up this afternoon. Utterly fantastic!
ReplyDeleteCan't stand math but I've heard SO many good things about this book.
ReplyDeletehaha, how interesting to see different opinions on books... I for one am not a huge fan of math. I still liked this book, but I didn't read all the extra math stuff at the end... The book had enough math for me!
ReplyDeleteI liked the math aspect, too. The quote is terrific. Looking for Alaska has that same wonderful quirky kind of characterization, although it's slightly rougher on the emotions. I laughed, I cried, I love John Green.
ReplyDeleteI love math in books too, can't wait to read this one!
ReplyDeleteSounds great! I'm definitely putting this one on my tbr list.
ReplyDeleteI read this one for Dewey's Book Challenge too and finally got my review posted today. I also loved it!
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