The reason that I own a kindle [besides the obvious: I travel light; books are heavy.] is to reread books like Anna and the French Kiss all the time, whenever I want. Anna, and her sequel, Lola and the Boy Next Door are constantly ‘in progress’, and sometimes, when life asks for it, I read a few pages to refuel.

The premise:

Anna, aspiring film critic with a purple streak in her hair, has just been sent to an American high school in Paris. Anna meets cute English boy.

Anna is contagiously compelling. Author Stephanie Perkins knows how to write a kick-ass first person heroine. Anna is so mature, so driven, and yet also so relate-ably human, that I want her to be my best friend.

Oh wait, except if I had to choose I would pick Lola [in fact, I already did, if you recall]. Book 2: Lola is fashion-forward costume-creating queen. She’s dating a rocker, but her childhood love has just moved back in next door… She also works at the local movie theatre with her friend Anna [as in, and the French Kiss]. Clever.

Besides smart lady protagonists, Stephanie Perkins’s books take place in dreamy settings. Paris and San Francisco, painted through the eyes of mindful, adventuresome locals. When I went to Paris for the first time, a priority was to hit up some of the special places in Anna:

Above: my first trip to Paris. Jardin du Luxembourg. Pablo Neruda poetry from Shakespeare & Co.