"Where did you mean to put it? Her sock?"

Apparantly, blogspot's formatting has a personality and temparament all its own. Well, it's the content that counts. *tosses head imperiously*

Angry Management
(by Chris Crutcher)
★★★
Here is another genre of fiction with its own characteristic stench: the generic high school novel. These novels have:

• jocks
• drugs
• dating problems
• one friend of the same gender as the protagonist
• one friend of the opposite gender to the protagonist, who will probably end up with either the aforementioned same gender friend or the protagonist herself
• an accessory character
  
• a "strange" character, such as a goth, a nerd, or an artist (probably also falls into one of the aforementioned categories)
  

They are the cousins of the educational-historical-novels, but they spring from Health class rather than Social Studies. They are a little bit like chick flicks, in my opinion- not much substance, but still fun if you don't particularly want to question the meaning of life while, say, having tea.
You will smell the smell of these books on Angry Management. Therefore, I will point out two ways in which Angry Management transcends the subliminal Health class teachings label.
The first is that the characters are very strong. They refuse to fade into archetypes, and they are not all perfect and just misunderstood. You would be able to pick them out of a lineup, and not because you would remember their overly elaborated eye color.
The second is that the book could probably be carried just by the awesome contained within its pages. When I read the description, which said it was about a conseling group, I already had half the plot constructed in my head, and in it, the counselor character was a little shy but very understanding and wore collared shirts with grid-shaped patterns and tan slacks. Boy, was I wrong. The counselor is a Japanese cowboy. And one of the characters is, to quote directly form the book, a "gay black kid in the inland Northwest who's still standing" (this is, in the counselor's opinion, his most significant characteristic). There are parts of this book that made me literally laugh out loud. It actually made me let out a wicked cackle when a particularly awesome grandma gave a speech about legalizing marihuana. I am sure the people standing around me at the time took a few nervous steps back.
Two things irked me, and one of them is PG-13. If you read this and discuss it with me in person, I will rant about it at length. The other thing is a spoiler, so... same deal. Someone please read this, I am dying to rant about it. There is pure indignation spewing out of my ears.
Well, okay, I need to get some of the rant out, at least, to explain the title. Point one: How the heck does that sort of thing happen accidentally??? Point two: Why is it practically assumed that, ahem, "that sort of thing" will go on if you are staying at the house of someone who you met a few days ago? I'm not even kidding, it's an assumption. Is there a fundamental principle to this world that I am completely ignorant of? Are things just different in the inland Northwest? What is wrong here???
So, yeah. If you're not into books about high school and high schoolers, I guess this isn't really for you, but I though it was worth a read just for the awesome factor.

Currently reading: Well, I'm going on vacation tomorrow, and most of the other books I have from the library come in series, and I don't want to have a two-week gap between books! The other one is a bit old, and even though it sounds really good, I find older books to be a bit daunting, for no particular reason... I did read all but four chapters of Gentlemen's Alliance Cross, though. Using a computer. My eyes can still feel it.