Helpful Score: 4
Colin Singleton is a recent high school graduate, washed-up child prodigy, anagram-lover, inexperienced storyteller, and has just been dumped by the 19th Katherine he has dated. With a broken heart, he and his quirky, fat best friend Hassan go on a road trip in order to get away from it.
However, they end up not going very far before they take up residence in middle-of-nowhere Gutshot, Tennessee with Lindsey Lee Wells and her mother, Hollis. Hollis assigns them all to interview Gutshot residents. Colin spends most of his time trying to perfect a mathematical formula that would be able to predict the outcome of relationships.
He doesn't realize, though, that his friends have their own problems too. Hassan can never take anything seriously because that's his way of dealing with life, holding it at a distance. Lindsey puts on a different personality for different people: her boyfriend (also named Colin), the "oldsters" at the nursery home, etc.
AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES is one of those rare books that is more than the sum of its parts combined. It's about acceptance, storytelling, self-confidence, finding someone you can show your private habits to. Oh, and it's also about footnotes. Lots of footnotes. With his characteristic wit and insight, John Green delivers another must-read winner.
However, they end up not going very far before they take up residence in middle-of-nowhere Gutshot, Tennessee with Lindsey Lee Wells and her mother, Hollis. Hollis assigns them all to interview Gutshot residents. Colin spends most of his time trying to perfect a mathematical formula that would be able to predict the outcome of relationships.
He doesn't realize, though, that his friends have their own problems too. Hassan can never take anything seriously because that's his way of dealing with life, holding it at a distance. Lindsey puts on a different personality for different people: her boyfriend (also named Colin), the "oldsters" at the nursery home, etc.
AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES is one of those rare books that is more than the sum of its parts combined. It's about acceptance, storytelling, self-confidence, finding someone you can show your private habits to. Oh, and it's also about footnotes. Lots of footnotes. With his characteristic wit and insight, John Green delivers another must-read winner.
Helpful Score: 3
This was a fun read and I laughed throughout the whole thing. It made me want to take a road trip and get lost in a tiny town with interesting folk.
Helpful Score: 1
My first John Green book and what an interesting ride it was. A book full of smart humor with a male, recent high school graduate, and his best friend on a road trip to a small town in TN. He heads on this road trip to overcome his recent break up and brings along his best friend with no destination in mind.
I am usually a reader of books where women are at the center, so I enjoyed this break from my normal reading. It was refreshing to get into the mind of a younger male and go with him on this adventure after a recent break up. I absolutely adored his flashbacks to the previous Katherines who broke up with him for various reasons.
I would recommend this book to those who read YA or those who may need a break from their usual reading habits. I thoroughly enjoyed the smart humor.
I am usually a reader of books where women are at the center, so I enjoyed this break from my normal reading. It was refreshing to get into the mind of a younger male and go with him on this adventure after a recent break up. I absolutely adored his flashbacks to the previous Katherines who broke up with him for various reasons.
I would recommend this book to those who read YA or those who may need a break from their usual reading habits. I thoroughly enjoyed the smart humor.
Helpful Score: 1
I read Paper Towns by Green and absolutely loved it. So, I decided to read his previous books as well. This was a great coming-of-age/road trip story that was quirky and entertaining. A highly recommended read. I did like Paper Towns a bit better than this book, but this book was still a great read.
Colin is a child prodigy; he learned to read at an incredibly early age, knows a magnitude of strange random facts, and is constantly anagramming in his head. He also has a quirky thing for Katherines; he has dated 19 of them and been dumped by them all. After being dumped by Katherine 19 he has fallen into a funk; his buddy Hassan decides what Colin needs is a road trip. So off they go on a road trip. Colin is determined to use the time on the road to develop a mathematical theorem that will predict how long a relationship will last.
This was a fun read. Full of interesting footnotes and quirky mathematical equations; as well as interesting characters. All of the characters are exceedingly well done. Green's writing is superb. He does a great job of putting a lot of interesting facts, a lot of quirkiness, great humor, and some coming of age lessons into this interesting read.
The book was very engaging; I never got bored. I liked all the funny facts that Colin knew, I also enjoyed Colin's struggle to work through the mathematics to predict the relationship equation.
There wasn't much that I didn't like about this book. But I did like Green's book Paper Towns better than this one, I think it is mainly the characters that make the difference. This book isn't quite as adventurous or mysterious as Paper Towns was. I never really liked Colin all that much, he was a bit self-centered...that made a difference in how I liked the book overall.
Overall this was a great read. I didn't like it as much as Paper Towns but it was close. I look forward to reading the only John Green book I haven't read yet "Looking for Alaska".
Colin is a child prodigy; he learned to read at an incredibly early age, knows a magnitude of strange random facts, and is constantly anagramming in his head. He also has a quirky thing for Katherines; he has dated 19 of them and been dumped by them all. After being dumped by Katherine 19 he has fallen into a funk; his buddy Hassan decides what Colin needs is a road trip. So off they go on a road trip. Colin is determined to use the time on the road to develop a mathematical theorem that will predict how long a relationship will last.
This was a fun read. Full of interesting footnotes and quirky mathematical equations; as well as interesting characters. All of the characters are exceedingly well done. Green's writing is superb. He does a great job of putting a lot of interesting facts, a lot of quirkiness, great humor, and some coming of age lessons into this interesting read.
The book was very engaging; I never got bored. I liked all the funny facts that Colin knew, I also enjoyed Colin's struggle to work through the mathematics to predict the relationship equation.
There wasn't much that I didn't like about this book. But I did like Green's book Paper Towns better than this one, I think it is mainly the characters that make the difference. This book isn't quite as adventurous or mysterious as Paper Towns was. I never really liked Colin all that much, he was a bit self-centered...that made a difference in how I liked the book overall.
Overall this was a great read. I didn't like it as much as Paper Towns but it was close. I look forward to reading the only John Green book I haven't read yet "Looking for Alaska".
Reviewed by Me for TeensReadToo.com
If you had the opportunity to devise a theorem that could correctly predict the outcome of a romantic relationship, would you do it? If it worked, would you use it? Can it even be done? This is the problem plaguing Colin Singleton, recent high school graduate, nearly-former child prodigy, hopeful genius. Colin, you see, has a significant problem. He falls in love quite easily, which in and of itself isn't such a bad thing. The fact that all of his loves, nineteen of them to be exact, have been named Katherine can even be explained away by some form of twisted scientific method. What can't be explained, though, is why Colin has been dumped by all nineteen of those Katherines.
When he's dumped by the love of his life, Katherine XIX, he finds himself in a bad place. He can no longer call himself a child prodigy, since he's graduated from high school. He's not a genius, because he's never come up with anything that will change the world. There's an empty place inside of him where his latest Katherine's love used to live, and he doesn't know what to do with himself. Until Hassan Harbish (Muslim, but not a terrorist) devises a way to get Colin out of his funk--a road trip. With no destination in mind, the two set off in The Hearse, Colin's car, and go where the road leads them.
Where it leads them is a small town called Gutshot, Tennessee, where Colin gets the urge to see the supposed grave of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. It's also where the two meet Lindsey Lee Wells and her mother, Hollis. Not to mention where they get to live in a giant Pepto Bismol-pink house on a hill, interview employees of a factory that makes tampon strings, and eat Monster Thickburgers at the local Hardees.
It's also the place where Colin decides to finish the Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability. Assign numerical value to different variables, plot it on a graph, and you'll be able to predict how long a relationship will last--and who will be the dumper, and who will be the dumpee. Except Colin forgot some pertinent information, like chance, and distorted memories, and the fact that love is never predictable. As Colin and Hassan learn a few things about life in the small town of Gutshot, we get to follow their journey of learning to grow up, to make a name for yourself, and how to matter as a person.
I loved AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES, even more than Mr. Green's previous book, LOOKING FOR ALASKA. That book won the prestigious Michael L. Printz award, and I won't be surprised if this book is nominated, as well. This story is funny, poignant, and informative. For example, if I hadn't read AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES I would never have known that:
1) Fetor hepaticus is a symptom of late-stage liver failure where your breath literally smells like a rotting corpse.
2) The junior senator from New Hampshire in 1873 was Bainbridge Wadleigh.
3) There is absolutely no scientific proof that drinking eight glasses of water a day will improve your health.
4) Dingleberries can be anagrammed into see inbred girl; lie breeds grin; leering debris; greed be nil, sir; be idle re. rings; ringside rebel; and residing rebel.
5) Nikola Tesla did a lot for electricity before Thomas Edison came along and stole some of his ideas, and he also loved pigeons.
6) I still suck at math.
Order this book today. It's great, you'll love it, and you'll actually learn stuff. Three for the price of one!
If you had the opportunity to devise a theorem that could correctly predict the outcome of a romantic relationship, would you do it? If it worked, would you use it? Can it even be done? This is the problem plaguing Colin Singleton, recent high school graduate, nearly-former child prodigy, hopeful genius. Colin, you see, has a significant problem. He falls in love quite easily, which in and of itself isn't such a bad thing. The fact that all of his loves, nineteen of them to be exact, have been named Katherine can even be explained away by some form of twisted scientific method. What can't be explained, though, is why Colin has been dumped by all nineteen of those Katherines.
When he's dumped by the love of his life, Katherine XIX, he finds himself in a bad place. He can no longer call himself a child prodigy, since he's graduated from high school. He's not a genius, because he's never come up with anything that will change the world. There's an empty place inside of him where his latest Katherine's love used to live, and he doesn't know what to do with himself. Until Hassan Harbish (Muslim, but not a terrorist) devises a way to get Colin out of his funk--a road trip. With no destination in mind, the two set off in The Hearse, Colin's car, and go where the road leads them.
Where it leads them is a small town called Gutshot, Tennessee, where Colin gets the urge to see the supposed grave of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. It's also where the two meet Lindsey Lee Wells and her mother, Hollis. Not to mention where they get to live in a giant Pepto Bismol-pink house on a hill, interview employees of a factory that makes tampon strings, and eat Monster Thickburgers at the local Hardees.
It's also the place where Colin decides to finish the Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability. Assign numerical value to different variables, plot it on a graph, and you'll be able to predict how long a relationship will last--and who will be the dumper, and who will be the dumpee. Except Colin forgot some pertinent information, like chance, and distorted memories, and the fact that love is never predictable. As Colin and Hassan learn a few things about life in the small town of Gutshot, we get to follow their journey of learning to grow up, to make a name for yourself, and how to matter as a person.
I loved AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES, even more than Mr. Green's previous book, LOOKING FOR ALASKA. That book won the prestigious Michael L. Printz award, and I won't be surprised if this book is nominated, as well. This story is funny, poignant, and informative. For example, if I hadn't read AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES I would never have known that:
1) Fetor hepaticus is a symptom of late-stage liver failure where your breath literally smells like a rotting corpse.
2) The junior senator from New Hampshire in 1873 was Bainbridge Wadleigh.
3) There is absolutely no scientific proof that drinking eight glasses of water a day will improve your health.
4) Dingleberries can be anagrammed into see inbred girl; lie breeds grin; leering debris; greed be nil, sir; be idle re. rings; ringside rebel; and residing rebel.
5) Nikola Tesla did a lot for electricity before Thomas Edison came along and stole some of his ideas, and he also loved pigeons.
6) I still suck at math.
Order this book today. It's great, you'll love it, and you'll actually learn stuff. Three for the price of one!
Contemporary teen fiction by John Green. Colin Singleton, former child prodigy, who has a weakness for girls named Katherine, had been dumped by Katherine XIX. This, and the fact that he is a Former Child Prodigy, with no prospects of affirming his genius, has Colin in crisis.
Colin's bff Hasan talks him into a road trip, to forget his troubles. They end up in Gutshot Tennessee, where they meet the locals, and learn a few life lessons. Along the way the boys figure out some of the things that matter in life.
Laugh out loud funny. Great characters.
Colin's bff Hasan talks him into a road trip, to forget his troubles. They end up in Gutshot Tennessee, where they meet the locals, and learn a few life lessons. Along the way the boys figure out some of the things that matter in life.
Laugh out loud funny. Great characters.
