48 Shades of Brown -- Nick Earls

It took me a while, but I ended up really enjoying this book.  I can totally see how some people (okay, many people) might get bogged down by the slowness of the beginning and not make it to the really good bits in the middle.  It even took me a couple of tries to really get into it.  But once I got going, I didn't want to put it down.  Not because it was action-packed or anything.  Nick Earls' writing just exerted some sort of gravitational pull on my eyeballs.  I got sucked in.

The premise:  Rather than go to Geneva with his parents or board at school, the previously extremely sheltered 17-year old Nick opts to live with his 22-year old aunt, Jacq, for his last year of high school.

Senior year.  (Well, the equivalent.  Isn't it called something different in Australia?  I forget.)  Learning how to get the ladies.  Drinking.  Pesto.  Calculus.  Unrequited love.

And my girlfriend, the one who's so relaxed and at ease here, has managed to stay so relaxed that she hasn't found me yet.  It's not as though I've given her much opportunity.  Not as though I can realistically expect her to turn up at the door of my maths class and whisk me off to some special two-minute bouncy place.  Perhaps she should try to meet me on the train.  An afternoon would be preferable.  Her best chance would be catching me on the nine-minute ride between Roma Street and home, so she'll have to be a fast worker.

Nick Earls is compared to Nick Hornby for good reason.  Well, assuming that the London Times was referring to the comfort-read aspect of Nick Hornby -- his novels that I read over and over again -- High Fidelity and About a Boy.  Light, but with a backbone.  Characters learning lessons, but not in a super-harsh way.  Fun stuff.