Read This: Most Likely You Go Your Way & I'll Go Mine - Ben Tanzer

I read Ben Tanzer's novel, Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine ($11, Orange Alert Press), in two days. His ear for dialogue is sharp and conversations make up 90 percent of the novel. It has a Richard Linklater film quality, especially the ultra-talky Before Sunrise and Before Sunset. That's a good thing. You are inside the heads of the characters who are charting an uncertain course through love and life in Manhattan, circa 1993.

Geoff and Jen have had their series of lovers, one-night-stands and horrible break-ups. They have become cynical and nearly immobile when it comes to connecting with the opposite sex. They have also suddenly found themselves grown up, working dead-end jobs and feeling familial pressures that accompany adulthood. Geoff and Jen have instant chemistry when they meet at a party, while their best friends Paul and Rhonda have a disastrous one night stand. The book explores both couples, but the narrative mostly stays with Geoff and Jen as we get insight into their pasts. Geoff has a volatile, drug-addicted brother, while Jen feels under the gun to find a man when her younger sister becomes engaged.

Self-doubt and miscommunication are rife in this novel and Tanzer peppers it with pop culture references and music lyrics that are almost Tarantino-esque. At 172 pages, it's a brisk, hyper read. Definitely one to check out.