Today in depressing housing-market news, YA author Francesca Lia Block could lose her home because the bank won't return her calls. The author of the Weetzie Bat books is underwater on her mortgage due to the recession. To make things more complicated, the mortgage is in her mom's name, and her mom is now dead. To…

You may scoff at the mere idea of a dating guidebook. You may almost certainly scoff at one that matches people by their mythological creature -type. I did too at first, and I have a professional astrologer on speed-dial.

There's no other way to say it: Francesca is a hot name.

A few days ago, writer Francesca Lia Block found out that her book, Baby Be-Bop, might get burned. Today, she speaks with Salon, saying:

Katie Roiphe has an astute piece in the Wall Street Journal about why so many of today's young adult bestsellers focus on dark themes like suicide, eating disorders, and car crashes — and why we shouldn't be worried about it.

Welcome to 'Fine Lines', the Friday feature in which we give a sentimental, sometimes-critical, far more wrinkled look at the children's and YA books we loved in our youth. Today, YA author, former Gawker editor and 'Fine Lines' guest-writer Emily Gould rereads 'Weetzie Bat', Francesca Lia Block's 1989 novel about a…