We are reducing the size and scope of our newsletter for the months of July and August—combining the two months into one.  We have lots to talk about with “Summer Reads,” “Great Family Read-Alouds,” and a one-month Summer Book Club that features Chekhov, Jhumpa Lahiri and Henry James.  We always anticipate that summer is a time when we will “catch up” on our reading—our books that are stacked on the nightstand!  I hope to do so, or at least to be able to ease up on my busy schedule. 

To recommend two great books that I just finished: the first is Netherland by Joseph O’Neill, about New York and one’s displacement from another country, love, and the game of  cricket!  I also read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and her niece Annie Barrows.   As you can tell by the title, the story is whimsical and charming.  It takes place in 1946 in London, with a writer, Juliet Ashton, who starts up a correspondence with a man from the British island of Guernsey, an island once occupied by the Nazis.  The story evolves with warmth and humor between the two—through the written word and then finally, with a visit to Guernsey!  Now, I am going back to re-read Coal Black Horse by Robert Olmsted.  I first read it over a year ago, and I felt the pain and the anguish of the Civil War and the young 14-year-old who is sent out into the southern landscape to find his father.  We had Robert Olmsted in the store in early June—and after hearing him read from his book, I want to re-read his exquisitely written and haunting scenes of the Civil War, of youth, of man’s inhumanity to man.  

I have already spent a few weekends in June up in Michigan with my children and grandchildren, and reading is always a big part of our time together.  We picked up some Shel Silverstein—Light in the Attic and Where The Sidewalk Ends!  What wonderful rhyme and rhythm to read out loud.  They actually sound somewhat old-fashioned, such as the title poem: 

                                                          There is a place where the sidewalk ends

      And before the street begins,

                                                          And there the grass grows soft and white,            

                                                          And there the sun burns crimson bright,  

                                                          And there the moon-bird rests from his flight

                                                          To cool in the peppermint wind…. 

Here’s to a good summer for you and all your family 

Roberta