READERS HAVING FUN

It’s been a great week of old (well, long-time) and new (two visits or second visit this summer) regulars refinding Roseledge Books. As always, we talked about important matters in and out of books.

Fig. #35. Lurking behind the unruly bush to lure walkers-by into Roseledge Books. You are never safe on Sea Street.

Of note:
**We discussed Roxana Robinson’s novel set in Maine, Cost: A Novel, and created a new genre: dysfunctional family chick lit.
**We agreed Lee Child’s The Enemy (Jack Reacher Novels) is our favorite Jack Reacher novel.
**The differing merits of Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch (e.g. The Last Coyote (Harry Bosch)) and Reacher make comparisons difficult. Thinking fast of other edgy detectives who chafe at working “inside the box,” I was shouting “How about Ian Rankin’s Rebus (e.g. Resurrection Men: An Inspector Rebus Novel (Inspector Rebus Novels)), or C.J. Box’s Joe Pickett (e.g. Open Season (A Joe Pickett Novel))” as the boaters were escaping down the walk. They shouted, “Next summer,” and waved.
**Reader comment: Nathaniel Philbrick’s In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex is better than The Wreck of the Whaleship Essex because First-mate Chase’s report was self-serving.
**I learned about Tom Bissell and have ordered his Chasing the Sea: Lost Among the Ghosts of Empire in Central Asia.

I was on the porch reading and trying, unobtrusively, to lure walkers-by who read into Roseledge Books. But the walkers-by were few. Last week may have been the peak week. The breeze is strong enough to make reading Ryszard Kapuscinski’s Travels with Herodotus (Vintage International), a trade paperback, a one-handed fight with flopping pages. And Daniel Silva’s The Secret Servant (Gabriel Allon) is a page-turner which makes looking up to watch the tide and the incoming sailboats a problem. So now I’m inside.

The high-bush blueberries may be the downfall of the cheeky chipmunk. He was ignoring available blue blueberries and sitting on the big rock he uses to crack the rose hips which apparently aren’t quite to his taste yet. A breakthrough, for sure. If it stays dry and rain-free for 24 more hours, my screen doors may close again.