Just a few short weeks ago, in the last full  throes of summer, I spent a week at the beach and found that all along the curving shoreline, people were hunched over books, lost in stories.  As a debut novelist (who had toted along my own supply of delicious reads), I was thrilled.   Everywhere I looked, beachgoers were reading.  Maybe it was the shark scare but there seemed more people diving into books than the sparkling ocean.   And I saw further proof at bookstore nearest the beach – crowds of buyers and long, polite lines at the register.  A new wave, no pun intended, of readers was sweeping this summer colony.

And it’s not just the beach where books seem to be making a comeback.   At the shopping mall, I spied an elderly gent sitting quietly on a bench, turning the pages on a well-worn paperback.  And he wasn’t alone.  All over the mall, benches were filled with readers, some with magazines or newspapers but readers nonetheless.  It struck me as especially interesting since the last bookstore at the mall was recently closed.  

On trains and buses and in waiting rooms everywhere, people are pulling out books, drawn in I assume by the sheer pleasure of a great read.   And these days, with the long shadows and cool nights of autumn upon us, it’s time to hunker down with some good books.  I hope you’ll pick up some of the wonderful books written by friends of mine.   You could start with Carol Cronin’s Cape Cod Surprise, and then move onto Randy Susan Meyers’ Murderer’s Daughters, Holly LeCraw’s The Swimming Pool, Iris Gomez’ Try To Remember, Jenna Blum’s The Stormchasers, and finish up with Michelle Hoover’s The Quickening.  Each is a family saga, some shorter and lighter, but all brilliant reads.  And I trust you’ll save room on your bookshelf for my first novel, Lipstick in Afghanistan, which is set for release on November 9^th. 

Happy reading.