Not your Father's Brady Bunch

The amount of time I've spent reading has been abysmal. I did finish a new one by Brendan Halpin and Trish Cook.



Notes from the Blender is a book for the young adult audience, but that does not mean people of a certain age will not get something out of it.

Declan is your typical high school who likes Scandinavian death metal and violent video games. Neilly is the girl of his dreams who has just been dumped by her boyfriend and best friend. Unknowing to both of them, their parents have been dating and are about to get married. They're all moving into a home together.

Halpin and Cook write this quickly paced book with great wit and throw in some surprisingly touching moments. Their characters avoid acting cliched and one, a vegan punk rocker named Ulf Lovhammer, is quite memorable. For the life of me I cannot understand how Halpin's work does not get put to screen, large or small. I'm not familiar with Cook's work, but Halpin's assembled a small number of well crafted books, including my favorite, Forever Changes.