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I played the flute when I was a kid. It was an illustrious career. We held concerts for our parents, and gathered at the local train station to serenade commuters during the Christmas holidays.

My entire musical education was garnered through my public school. The music teacher taught me how to read notes, tap my foot, follow the conductor, and it was all free. And while my career might have been short-lived, for many kids, it’s life saving. This is why Music in Our Schools Month is so important. And to celebrate the holiday this March, why not enjoy some YA novels that demonstrate just how important music is for teenagers (and everyone else).

It’s difficult for me to think about Spring when I just had to sit through yet another snow storm on the weekend (thanks, Canadian weather). But the topic for this week’s Top 10 Tuesday with Broke & the Bookish is our Spring TBR list, so I’m going to close the curtains in my home office and try really hard to think about warmer weather and the perfect books to welcome in the new season.

It’s almost time to say goodbye (forever—I’m not ready) to Glee, the show we all love (or, as is probably more appropriate, love to hate). I’ve spent too much time thinking about the literary preferences of our favorite Glee characters, and below I’m sharing what books I think rest on the nightstands of the singing misfits. 

It’s another busy week for literary events in New York City! There are a ton of amazing poetry events to get you excited about spring, including a Cave Canem reading at The New School, and three fabulous poets at McNally Jackson. Share your own stories at The Moth, or head to The Strand to hear Sarah Manguso and Leslie Jamison tell theirs. If you act really quickly, you might even be able to grab one of the few remaining seats for Welcome to Night Vale at Symphony Space. We’d love to hear which events you attended, so tweet at us and let us know!

Leslie Knope is perfect. She’s smart, passionate, intensely loyal, a binder-making aficionado, caring, resourceful, honest, a gift-giving master, and driven to make Pawnee the best place to live for its residents. If Amy Poehler is even a tenth of her character—minus the Jerry/Terry/Larry/Garry bullying—I want to be her friend so we can eat waffles while discussing her favorite books.

While Parks & Recreation may have wrapped up its final season, I'm busy re-watching the older episodes. And as any fan of the show will tell you, Leslie Knope and her colleagues love their books, no matter how fake (well, except for one, kinda) they might be. Let's take a look at some of the titles that have appeared over the course of the show's run. 

Thanks largely to the recently uploaded video What if Wes Anderson Directed X-Men?, and my own obsession with Wes Anderson films, I’ve decided to focus on Wes Anderson fans for this week’s Top 10 Tuesday.

Anderson is known for combining comedy with melancholic topics. He loves topics like grief, the loss of innocence, sibling rivalry, and unlikely friendships. Aesthetically, his films typically adhere to a color palette, make use of flat space camera moves, and involve hand-made miniatures or stop motion animation. If you’re a fan of his films, try out the following books the next time you’re looking for something to read.

BORN WEIRD by Andrew Kauffman: This book is focused on a group of siblings (family name: Weird), and the characters and setting are just as visual as any Wes Anderson film. Anderson would certainly approve of the relationships explored between the family and the very strange “curse” that plagues them.

THE POST OFFICE GIRL by Stefan Zweig: Wes Anderson has spoken at great lengths about Zweig’s work and how this novel in particular helped shape the inspiration for The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014): “Many of the ideas expressed and/or explored in Grand Budapest we stole directly from Zweig’s own life and work.” So there you go.