Book excerpt: Sixteen-year-old Tyler's big dream of becoming a top immunologist could come crashing down if he doesn't manage all of the little things right now. But when this obsessive-compulsive science geek confronts a school election, a demeaning job, needy tutees, a first girlfriend, and the possible extinction of honeybees, there are suddenly too many things to manage. Tyler's catastrophically humorous run for high school student council convinces the principal that he's a troublemaker, while it wins him the admiration and desire of Rachel, a smart and iconoclastic reporter for the school paper. A new night job at a nursing home puts Tyler on a collision course with his new foster parents, a childless middle-aged couple with an agenda and a tragic past of their own. And the pain of his mother's death becomes too big to ignore. Set on the mean streets of suburban Las Vegas, The Genius of Little Things is about how you can't always get what you want. But sometimes, well, you know... The Genius of Little Things is journalist and screenwriter Larry Buhl's first novel.