On my Nightstand: Glaciers by Alexis M. Smith

The Rocker gave Bigbad and me a Kindle Fire for Christmas.  I had some reservations about the device because (1) I love books-- physical books.  Their smell, their weight, their presence.  (2) Do I need another device or thing?  (3) all of this crazy nonsense of the media suggesting books are going away leads to conversation about whether there is or isn't a necessity for libraries and I don't want that to happen.  I also don't want to be one of the last holdouts on e-readers, hunkered down next to some off-the-grid fellow who refuses to get a cell phone because it causes cancer.

I played around with the Kindle though, doing some web browsing, downloading free apps (hey-- I looked for educational ones.  Aside: Oregon Trail is not what it used to be and I'm very disappointed about that).

I was poking around and getting acquainted with the whole aspect of buying the ebooks through the Kindle store and discovered Glaciers on the list of fiction under $4.  I saw Glaciers listed on Great Summer Reads from NPR and then again as a 2013 World Book Night book (still some time to apply if you're interested in handing out books to promote literacy).  In fact, I found the synopsis so fitting to my own interests, that I went ahead and made Glaciers my number 1 pick for WBN.  I'm glad I did.

I think Alexis M. Smith was smart.  Her novel has so much sweetness in it: lovely vintage frocks and charming tchotchkes at thrift stores and postcards sent from Amsterdam and vegetarian Chinese restaurants and awkward flirting and short vignettes of storytelling and dreams and the most amazing job of working in a library restoring books.

It is so sweet and endearing and wonderful that it could have been saccharine and trivial and vapid.  It could have been fluffy feminine drivel.  But the slender plot line that exists is of a girl liking a boy is kept very real and down to earth.  There is no dreamy hipster lens for lovers who cannot be together.  There is no perfect Hollywood ending.  There is life.

A review for the book cannot be long because the book is rather short.  The action (if one can even call the series of these events action) takes place in a single day.  Smith spends so much time sketching marvelous characters with such detail and care that readers would be able to spot Isabel in a crowd, going to work or meeting up with her friend Leo.  She is written so fully alive that at times I was disappointed to be reading her story and not observing her out in the real world.

All of this characterization delights me, but I read from some reviewers they were disappointed by a rather abrupt ending.  I liked the ending.  I personally don't want all of the novels I read to be wrapped up with a bow or to be poised for a sequel.  The book had a conclusive nature to me even if it wasn't wholly satisfying and fulfilling for my characters (see, that appropriation of the character is what makes this such a fantastically sincere and sweet book).

As soon as I finished, I immediately searched back through the pages looking for those little lines and quotes that had me smiling when I first read them.  Somehow I wanted to hold them again. I suspect I'll be purchasing this one in physical book form.  I just want to hug it.  Thus, the complicated relationship with the Kindle continues.


I link up to these parties.

I blog about books, crafts, educational ideas, food, and my life. You can subscribe to my RSS feed or by email.