We live in a society that celebrates familial connection above any other kind of relationship. We are shown photos of our great-grandparents and encouraged to marvel over facial similarities. We are told to take pride in our bloodlines, celebrate our ancestry.

Dating, like almost every other male-female interaction in present-day society, is based on outmoded and unequal social roles and expectations.

Share our similarities, celebrate our differences.

The novel, as a genre, was once considered a diversion every bit as frivolous as Facebook, but over the years, we've managed to convince ourselves that reading fiction is as important to our mental digestion as fresh fruits and vegetables are to the processes that take place a little further down.

It's doubtful that any fiction worth reading has been produced on a computer running Windows Vista.

We are all somebody's children, and when we're in pain, we regress, instinctively looking to our parents to make everything better.