books on airplane

On the long flights to and from the Netherlands, I read two pretty good books. They both read quickly, and had some very good moments. They didn't blow me away but I enjoyed them, and wanted to record them briefly. I've found that even though I can recall the impression a book gave me long after I read it, I often forget what actually happens.

The Storied Life of AJ Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin This book is very popular, and was written to be a crowd pleaser. It's about a grumpy man who owns a bookstore, whose life changes when a baby girl is left in his shop. Everything is neatly tied together like a puzzle; there's a love story and each character is shown to be part of a bigger plot; but it's not meant to be realistic. It's meant to be a story, and I liked how much of the book was about the power of stories. Each chapter began with a reference to a story, book, or poem and the book was sprinkled with literary references. As common a gimmick as that is, I like it when it works well (love Gilmore Girls!) and I thought it was done well here. The book was also very funny, which I always appreciate because I can't write anything funny.

All the Light That We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr This is also very popular and is also a National Book Award finalist--and now that I'm looking it up, see that it just won the Pulitzer Prize. It alternates chapters between a blind girl growing up in Paris who flees after its occupation by Nazi Germany and a an orphan boy who grows up in Germany and ends up working for the Nazis by finding and hunting down radio signals of Resistance movements. I liked it, but I didn't love it and thought that another Holocaust novel it reminded me of was much better (Julie Orringer's Invisible Bridge). My brother recommended it as beautifully written but the writing didn't strike me as such. I did like how it explored a number of different characters during this time period and their nuances and circumstances. It made World War II and the Holocaust about very personal, individual stories, and I was invested in each of them, finishing the book in mostly one go on the flight back home. But I found myself thinking too often how the writer was going to develop the characters and connect them; it didn't feel organic to me.

I don't regularly read anymore, another habit that residency has changed, but am always reminded of how much I love it when I get back to it.