An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

The aptly named Colin Singleton has just been dumped by the nineteenth Katherine. That's right - all the girls he has dated have been named Katherine, and all of them have dumped him. Colin is also a huge nerd/former child prodigy, who just finished high school. This doesn't add up, I thought -- how does a really nerdy guy have 19 girlfriends??? Well, it turns out that he employs the word "girlfriend" pretty loosely. Distraught over the most recent dumping, Colin is dragged out on a road trip with his chubby Muslim friend Hassan who, unlike Colin, passes his time watching "Judge Judy" -- not reading several books a day. Hassan and Colin's road trip comes to a bit of a standstill when a roadside attraction in Tennessee helps them meet a pretty girl who is not a "Katherine." Since An Abundance of Katherines is written by John Green -- whose first novel Looking for Alaska won the Printz award -- you know it's going to be witty and interesting and well-written. Unlike his weightier debut, Katherines doesn't play with your emotions; it plays with your head. In addition to his other nerdy pursuits like anagramming, Colin is also dead set on writing a math formula that predicts a relationship's demise. Yup, that's right, there is real math in this book. I don't know about you, but I don't need any math in my novels! (Don't worry, it's not that much math.) In spite of the math, I still found An Abundance of Katherines compelling and laugh-out-loud funny.