The Summer I Learned to Fly

As regular readers of this space know, I am a bitter, sarcastic little man, and, as such, whenever I'm sincere, people generally wait for the punch line.  So just to clarify: WARNING! SINCERITY AHEAD! 

I ask my readers and friends to shout from the rooftops whenever they like one of my books, so it's only fair that I do the same.  I'm just going to go onto my porch roof, though, because the actual roof is quite slanted. 

Ahem: The Summer I Learned to Fly by Dana Reinhardt is a really wonderful book!  It's out today, and I strongly urge you to go buy it or get it from the library as quickly as possible.

It's difficult to explain what makes this book so special.  It's a small, quiet, and pretty simple story about a girl named Drew who works in her mom's cheese shop, has a pet rat, and meets someone extraordinary who opens up her world a little.  

So why did I love this book so much? It's nearly impossible to explain because love by definition defies rational explanations.  There's just something wonderfully warm and inviting about this character and her world. I was reminded of the way I felt reading the early Harry Potter books: like the world of this book was so cozy that I just kind of wanted to curl up inside it and never leave.

Full disclosue: Dana and I have been friends for years. I'm writing this, though, not out of loyalty to my friend, but out of love for the really tremendous book she wrote.  It doesn't have a high-concept hook, and as you can see, it's challenging to explain what makes it so special, but I'm sure I'm only one of many readers who will be eagerly pressing this book into people's hands, saying, "you have to read this. It's wonderful."