will grayson, will grayson

By John Green & David Levithan

310 pages

Paperback

YA Fiction (LGBTQIA+)

I've been intending to read this book for years. A student suggested it to me a long time ago (I think there was a time when everyone was obsessed with John Green?) but I only just managed to pick it up. I saw a really inexpensive copy at our amazing local used book store, so I figured what better time to read it than now?

The book has 2 authors:

I've always found the 2 author thing fascinating. When I started my PhD I realized that I was never taught how to write collaboratively. It's still not a thing I'm comfortable with, but I'm getting better at it. 

This book is about 2 high school kids, gay, that both have the same name. One is kind of "goes with the flow" and the other is angry at the world and living with depression. In the author Q&A, they mention that many of the YA books that deal with depression deal with the onset, discovery moment, not the maintenance, day to day living with it. I thought that was interesting and important. Anyway, 2 Will Graysons, 2 authors. They alternate chapters. 

The lack of capitalization is a deliberate choice that, although off-putting at first, worked well. 

A weird thing to just notice at this point is that it's written in the first person, which I normally dislike. It didn't bother me here. 

It was a good read - I'm glad I finally got to it - but I dont think it's a re-read for me. If I ever get back into my classroom I'll probably put it in my classroom library. 

Banana Bread (post #2)

A long while back I posted about baking banana bread, but I didn't include a lot of details and I didn't have all of the ingredients I normally use. So, post #2!

For baking today, because I always make a giant mess and I need to leave my house this afternoon (and I'd rather do that without flour all over my new black pants!) I donned my great grandma's very long apron. It goes almost all of the way down my legs. 

That's kind of a terrible picture, but see how long it is?!

This is the recipe I use. Followed pretty exactly this time - only changes were type of milk, no nuts, and way more chocolate - an entire bag of dark chocolate chips. 

Early stages! I didn't let the butter soften as much as it should have, so it looks more crumbly than creamy...

Isn't this the most adorable measuring cup ever? Used Vanilla Almond Milk instead of dairy. I don't even notice a difference in something like this. We typically have skim, almond, and coconut milks in the house these days! The almond goes the most slowly, so I so tend to use it for baking. 

We were out of normal table salt, so I used sea salt for this loaf. 

I always think the batter looks a bit like puke. Not as chunky this time, because my bananas were super ripe and also pretty bruised up (apparently my family thinks that if they mistreat the bananas, I will bake bread sooner) so they mashed up pretty smoothly. I also put in a whole bag of dark chocolate chips, because we love chocolate. I like the flavor of the dark chips in the banana bread best out of what I've tried. 

58 minutes in the oven and it's nicely browned. I put it in for 55, but the toothpick test said it wasn't done yet. 3 more minutes and it looks perfect!

Okay. It was actually a little overdone around the bottom edges. 

But it was chocolatey and delicious anyway.