Tues Paris Book Rec: ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE

Not as pure a Paris book as the others in my Tuesday Paris book recommendation series, but it's my blog, I love the book, and I once went hiking with the author, who is as good an egg as they come.

Given all the attention the book has gotten, though, it can be difficult to find something new to say -- but here's where it's handy to think of this as a Paris book, or at least to celebrate that section of the novel that is set in Paris. I don't know if you need to love Paris, have a daughter, or written a novel yourself about parenting in Paris, but possessing all those characteristics myself definitely affected how I read the book, particularly when the brave, beleagured father sets out to teach his blind daughter how to navigate the Left Bank. What's particularly glorious about this scene is how it captures how Paris is embedded in so many people's memories, even those who have only visited through the pages of a book. As much as I rely on Google Maps nowadays, there are times when I'm in Paris and I put my phone away, confident I can navigate by memory--even if those memories come from books like Doerr's.