What Shamu Taught Me About Life, Love, and Marriage; Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist; Odd Thomas

I actually listened to Amy Sutherland's book "What Shamu Taught Me About Life, Love, and Marriage" on audio book, but I figured it counted, because if anyone wanted to know about the book, I know what it's about. Besides, my blog, my rules :-) Anyway, it was actually a little redundant; she kept repeating the same things over and over again about behaviors and why both animals and people do things that annoy others. While the advice she offers seems very "duh", I bet a lot of us don't do it. I know I don't always, even though I know better. While it had some cute animal stories, I probably won't read (or listen) to it again.
I read "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist" by Rachel Cohen and David Levithan because I saw trailers for the upcoming movie based on the book and wanted to see the movie, so I figured I should read the book first. If it had been published 15 years ago when I was still in my teenage angst "no one understands me" period, I would have loved this book. I still liked it; it seemed authentic and real and made me wish I could go back and do 16 all over again (yikes!) but as an adult with a job and responsibilities, it mostly just made me feel sad and old. It's about a guy named Nick who recently got dumped by his girlfriend, Tris. When he sees her at a club that his band is performing at, he asks Norah (who he doesn't know) if she'll pretend to be his girlfriend for five minutes so he won't feel like a total loser in front of Tris and her new guy. Norah agrees, and they spend the rest of the night running around Manhattan together, getting to know each other, falling in and out of love, all while talking about music that is way over my head. I probably won't ever read it again, but it was worth it just the once.
"Odd Thomas" by Dean Koontz is the first Odd book, so now I finally know what happened to Odd's beloved Stormy. Even though I knew she died in the end, because I have read books 2 and 4, when she did die I still cried, which is the mark of a good writer in my book. Odd's hometown of Pico Mundo is turned upside down when Satanists bent on destruction arrive. They target the town's mall for their ultimate heinous act of evil, wounding many and killing 19. Thanks to Odd's unusual gifts, he is able to save hundreds, but not his beloved Stormy. I'll probably read it again someday, Koontz's books are usually good for a reread.