Just what I needed

Yesterday I finished the book The Summer I Learned to Fly by Dana Reinhardt. I'd started it the day before. It was 216 pages long and set a small town in California in 1986. The book had no vampires, zombies, faeries, or werewolves. No end-of-Earth-as-we-know-it catastrophes occurred. The plot had no horrific crimes or accidents or extensive drawings that you had to look at closely because they worked in conjunction with the words to tell the tale. And the fact that the book was missing all these things came as a big relief to me.

Sometimes it's fun to read a short book that's not too tense. Really fat books require a big time investment, even if they're awesome. Not surprisingly, books that are about something really stressful, like a dying parent or a contest to the death, can be very stressful to read.

So, I say THANKS to Dana Reinhardt for writing a book that I truly enjoyed without having to put forth much effort. I liked the main character and the writing and the setting and the plot. I especially liked the fact that I could unwind with this book after a long day, that I could enter the world of the novel and relax.