These are wholly incongruous, but: "The Walking Dead" and Anna and the French Kiss.

Let me begin with "The Walking Dead." Like others, I just needed something to fill the gaping wound that Mad Men left behind. And "gaping wounds" are exactly what I got.

How have I gone 31 years without giving zombies much thought? Sure, I saw Dawn of the Dead (the remake). I read The Forest of Hands and Teeth (a good book!). But never have zombies crawled their way into my subconscious the way they have now. And I hate being trendy, but seriously, this is a great show. I have now had half a dozen dreams in which I am part of the show -- not in any nightmarish way (I'm never scared in these dreams), but in a curious, oh-how-would-I-handle-this-situation kind of way. Because really -- what will I do in the event of a zombie apocalypse?

Of course, the zombies themselves are the least interesting thing about the show. I watch for the moral and political questions that keep popping up; the mourning of people and relationships; the need to see how a society could or would rebuild itself if it needed to; the role a government would take, etc. And, okay, fine, some of the gore. I'm only human, after all. (For now.)

Meanwhile, I just finished a delightful arc of a YA romance called Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. Y'all, I capital-L-Loved this book. I don't tend to read straight up romances (YA or otherwise), but I needed a new book and this one fell into my hands. It's set in Paris at an American boarding school, and as a francophile, how could I not give it a shot? Well, I devoured it (zombie-like!) in a couple of days and promptly passed it on to K. It's Perkins' debut and it was fresh, romantic (obvs), and yet a nice combination of mature, snarky, and utterly YA.