Summer nights.

Every once in awhile I get a little worried that all the navel-gazing quasi-autobiographies I read are turning me into more of a hermit. Reading the vividly illustrated, embarrassingly candid memoirs of other people, I get to thinking a little too much about myself. Then I turn around and remember that books don't turn people into hermits, the idiots surrounding them do. I'd leave my apartment more if it were less awesome. (Seriously, guys! I have an Adirondack chair on my porch now! It provides the perfect vantage point for police chase action!) Also, I might go out if I truly believed that people could entertain me more than books and episodes of Veronica Mars. But since the jury's still out on that, here's a summer reading list of confessionals and comics that are helping me through the long unnecessary cocoon of summer.

I Was Told There'd Be Cake by Sloane Crosley.

I think the book flap called her something stupid and reductive like David Sedaris for women. Don't let that dissuade you, whether you love Sedaris or not. Crosley recounts episodes from her past with hilarious insight and clarity and can shift from baking the perfect pear torte to finding a friend's feces on her living room floor with astonishing subtlety. Her writing is what Sex and the City would have been if it had had any subtext. And the cover is priceless--everyone has sat on that ugly couch cushion. I think the one in my gramma's living room was covered in protective plastic.

Stuck in the Middle with You, edited by Ariel Schrag.

You already know about my penchant for the horrors of adolescence, and also my love of comics. This anthology combines the best of these. You will laugh and cry and wish you knew how to draw. You will also get Stealer's Wheel earworming its way through your head every time you read the title, and let's face it, there are worse songs to sing over and over again.



Today's useless transgression: I never realized till just now that Gerry Rafferty was the lead singer of this band. And here I've spent years loving this song and Baker Street in exclusive but equal ways!



Doves are crying over here, friends.


Girl by Blake Nelson.

A long, long time ago, I read an excerpt from this book in the first incarnation of Sassy magazine and it pretty much changed my life. I'm not exaggerating, not even a little bit. Reading the short story version of Nelson's first novel marked the first time I'd ever really seen my own frustrations and longings written down, from the complete and utter confusion about the opposite sex to the nervous, anticlimactic feeling of going to an all ages show that was kind of lame and not wanting your friends to know you were unimpressed. Not to mention the incredible significance of thrift store shopping. In that pre-Amazon world it took me about six years to locate a copy of the actual book. When I finally read it cover to cover, my whole body heaved in a sigh of relief and recognition. Blake Nelson has written a bunch of truly great teen novels since this one, but none will ever top Girl for me. Anyone, boy or girl, who was a teenager in the early 90s really needs to read this book.


The Wonder Spot by Melissa Bank.

Yes, I always praise this book. No, I don't have anything new to add. I just really urge you to read it. Seriously.