Book Club Pick: March 2017
Book Details:
Title: Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist
Author: Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
Series: Stand alone novel
Country: United States of America
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
First Published: 2006
Pages: 183
Publisher’s Description:
Nick’s just seen the girl who dumped him walk in with a new guy. What else can he do but ask the strange girl next to him to be his new girlfriend for the next five minute?
Norah would do anything to avoid conversation with the not not-friend girl who dumped Nick . . . and to get over the Evil Ex whom Norah never really dumped. What else can she do but answer Nick’s question by making out with him?
With one electric, unexpected kiss, the five-minute couple of Nick and Norah set off on an unchartered adventure called the “first date” that will turn into an infinite night of falling in and out (and in and out, and maybe in and out) of love. Theirs is a first date of music, laughter, heartache, confusion, passion, taxi driver wisdom, and a jacket named Salvatore. And of course a killer soundtrack.
As Nick and Norah wander through the middle-of-the-night mystic maze of Manhattan, they share the kind of night you want to never end, where every minute counts and every moment flickers between love and disaster.
Review:
Nick O’Leary, the straight bass player in queercore punk band, is playing at a club in downtown Manhattan when he spots his ex-girlfriend Tris with a new guy. So he asks a random girl dressed in an oversize flannel sitting nearby to be his five minute girlfriend. The random girl, Norah Silverberg, surprises him by kissing him.
Little does Nick know that Norah and Tris attend the same school, and they are not on friendly terms.
This five minute date turns into an late night adventure around New York City, which includes a Subway ride, visits to a Russian eatery, a Korean grocery store and an encounter with a Playboy Bunny bouncer.

It is the first collaboration novel from Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. Cohn writes the chapters from Noah’s perspective and Levithan writes the chapters from Nick’s point of view.
Cohn and Levithan went on to co-write Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List (2007), Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares (2010), The Twelve Days of Dash and Lily (2016). Further collaborations are in the works.
A word of warning this book does feature quite a lot of coarse language and sexual references.
A feature film was released it 2008 directed by Peter Sollett and starring Michael Cera and Kat Dennings as Nick and Norah.
Click here to read my review of David Levithan’s solo novel Boy Meets Boy.
Links:
David Levithan Official Website
Source: I borrowed this book from my public library.