Who: Novelist John Green

What: Discussing, by phone (we're working on Skype!), his new novel The Fault in Our Stars, with an audience of teen and adult readers.

When: Tuesday, 21 August 2012 at Noon.

How much: Free -- but give us a call to let us know you're coming. The number here is (925) 837-7337.

Where: Rakestraw Books.

Why you should care: Quite simply, John Green is among the very best novelists for teenagers writing today. Heck, he's among the best novelists working today. His books are smart, funny, and sophisticated. They aren't afraid to ask serious, powerful questions or to make their readers think. We think the world we be a better place if more people wrote, or read, books this good. Plus, John's super cool. We could go on, but we'd be gushing. You get the idea.

And, announced just this morning, NPR presented the results of its poll of the 100 Best Teen Books -- based on 75,220 votes -- and The Fault of Our Stars comes in at number four! John has three more entries in the top 25 and five overall. That's pretty darn awesome in our opinion. (I think we're gushing!)

The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books has this to say about The Fault in Our Stars: "The support group for young people with cancer isn't exactly Hazel's favorite place, but attending it fulfills her parents' desire to see her get out more. It's there that the sixteen-year-old meets Augustus, who is cancer-free after "a little touch of osteosarcoma" and is mainly there to support a friend. Augustus is verbose, intellectual, challenging, and, Hazel admits, hot, and he's also immediately smitten with Hazel, herself no slouch in the smarts department. Though deeply taken with Augustus in return, Hazel resists a serious relationship; she's already keenly aware of the torment her parents have gone through and the grief they'll suffer when her cancer eventually kills her, and she can't imagine willfully subjecting somebody else to that kind of loss. Augustus wins her over, though, eliciting a response from her favorite author and even arranging a trip to Holland to meet the reclusive man, but once there the couple realizes that cancer will cut short their time together even sooner than they'd thought. Green perfectly realizes the mannered yet emotional stylings of his young characters, allowing them to be poignantly human even as they're authentically overintellectual in a way that many well-read, idea-loving teens will recognize as their wishful goal if not their actuality. Existential questions take on a particular urgency for people looking death in the eye, and the book feelingly explores the desire for meaning in a life that's not going to last long enough for concrete achievement. Underneath it all, however, is a love story, a sometimes smartmouthed, sometimes tender tale of accumulating beauty and epic gesture, a story that comes down firmly on the side of "worth it all" no matter how soon it ends. Readers looking for a grand passion involving real people will rejoice even as they weep."

We're excited our old friend John Green back -- long distance! -- to Rakestraw Books. Please join us for what is sure to be a lively discussion.