Eleanor and Park is one of those books whose humor and sadness are so intertwined it's almost impossible to keep them apart. Set in 1986, the year that the Watchmen comics were first released, it tells the story of two misfit teens who have nothing (but also everything) in common. It's a love story, one of the best I've read in quite a while, for Eleanor and Park themselves know that first loves rarely last. This book is definitely on my favorites of 2013 list.

EDIT added in 2019: It's been 6 years since I read this book, and the world has changed, and I have changed. I'm much more thoughtful and aware of the portrayal of characters of color by white writers than I was prior to grad school (the first place I had a class specifically about race, which in itself is telling). I'm leery now of some of the descriptors used of Park, who is half Korean, and has a Korean last name as his first name. As a white writer who has already and definitely will continue to make mistakes out of ignorance, I am inclined to be forgiving to a writer I love who I think meant no harm. But I also want to listen to the critiques I have heard from Asian American readers of this book, who tell me they found parts of it racist. I heard recently that there is a film adaptation in the works, and I sincerely hope that they have at least one Korean American writer working on the script, and are also accurate with the casting.