Thank you once again to all who made the Fourth of July so successful for the libraries: Priscilla Poulin and Lee Wells masterminded the Book Sale; Lee, Alita Phelps, Mark Cowdrey and others and Priscilla pulled off another wonderful float; Caroline Moulton and Susan Chase helped on Sale days and stayed to pack up on the Fourth with Mark and Janet. Thanks go to the Boy Scouts who moved mountains of books, and to Rachel MacDuffie at Proctor for providing a clean, well-lighted and unlocked space for us in the Stone Chapel.

It’s time for beach reads, although some that are provocative and thoughtful, especially on these 90 degree days! J. Ryan Stradal’s “The Lager Queen of Minnesota” provides a glimpse into a family where the beer business keeps Helen Calder successfully afloat over decades, although not without family rivalries. In Regina Porter’s “The Travelers” 33 characters, most of them related, from two families, North and South, black and white, seek meaning in their lives over time, and each chapter almost reads as a short story itself. “Searching for Sylvie Lee” by Jean Kwok layers multiple mysteries onto a Chinese-American family saga of the missing person genre. Finally, coincidental with the death of Justice John Paul Stevens in mid-July, comes the publication of his memoir, “The Making of a Justice: Reflections on My First 94 Years.” Dig your toes into the sand and your mind into a good read-enjoy!