A memoir by best selling author and social agitator Barbara Ehrenreich. The author tries to make sense of a mystical experience she had when she was a teenager given that she is also an atheist. This one came off a long library waitlist. Loved her stories and her life; some of the philosophy and existential angst was not proper summer fare, more of a winter book. Its been returned if you are also on that looonnnnnggg list.
Never read any Richard Russo but the introduction about his home town of Gloversville, New York swept me away while standing in a bookstore one sunny Saturday. The bookstore was magical and probably imparted some imperative to support it upon me. We have to keep our independent bookstores alive--especially the ones tucked away in small neighborhoods underneath bridges in Kentucky. They gave me a free cup of coffee to thank me for my purchase. Need I say more?
I am going to be 50 next year. I hope by reading this book and acting upon it, I will never be more than 50. So far they are telling me that I need to exercise a whole lot. a whole lot. 
I found this at a bookstore at Heathrow Airport terminal 4. I needed some plane reading and I am always a sucker for travel memoirs especially women's travel memoirs. So far it doesn't disappoint but surprise surprise--it is not yet available in the US. Makes it seem that much more special.
This is the second book I bought at the Roebling Bridge Bookstore when I was so captivated one Saturday. And there was light was written in 1961 by a Frenchman who was part of the WWII resistance and one of only 30 people who survived the concentration camp. Lusseyran was blind from a childhood accident. The memoir drew me into his lucid observations of life without site as a child. I look forward to what it is like organizing the resistance with no sight.
I've got a few more on the list,but these will probably take me a few sittings at the pool to get through. Be sure to post your best summer reads in the comments. Recommendations appreciated!
~Amy for the PGM
Just got Phil Klay's Redeployment from the MCPL waitlist, looking forward to reading it just as Iraq is heating back up. The WWFaC daytime book group just read Tove Jansson's The Summer Book, a beautiful depiction of summer on a remote Finnish island. The girls and I read John Green's The Fault in our Stars (and all his other novels) well before they became so popular, and feel fairly possessive of it; we were just relieved to find that the movie adaptation does no major damage, and I think I'll reread it again. Summer is just beginning, hoping to get lots of reading in, since no significant vacation will be happening. I'm going to try one or two of these marvelously varied suggestions. MKP
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