A surprisingly small group. (Or maybe not so surprising, considering that there something else, like the State of the Union, competing.) Kim actually showed up, for the first time, but had accidentally read the wrong book - that is, the one for two weeks from now. But she made up for that by doing research into the controversies about this book - and of its removals from some schools. Because what would a 15-year-old boy know about masturbation? Or alcoholism? (Well, hopefully less. But some doubtless know quite a bit.)

It was most assuredly a young-adult novel. But Kim told how there's a run on YA books of late, and that they're flying off the shelves, into largely adult hands. The illustrations proved to be either endearing and a complement to the text or overly cute and feeling tacked on, depending.

We didn't really have a whole lot to say about the book. Alexie will be in town for a talk, but unfortunately exactly four weeks from tonight, which will conflict with this group. We devolved into talking about the interesting books that we'd read recently, and looking through the calendar to see what was coming up.