Summer's Hot Reads - Life, Love, Divorce, and Advice in a Small Town

Memorial Day weekend is the official kick-off to summer. So do you have all the necessary tools at hand to optimize your enjoyment of the long hot days ahead?

1. Hammock, lawn or beach chair
2. Iced tea, lemonade, or potent potable of your choice
3. Fiction or non-fiction book just as long as it's good

You're on your own for the first two, but I can help with the third.

Throughout the season, I'll be highlighting books to add to your summer reading list. Look for another one tomorrow and in the days ahead.

It Takes a Village To Inspire a Book
Today's featured book (in the interest of full disclosure) has a personal connection. During my college and early adult years I used to drive through a village so tiny it had no spotlight, a place that mixed incredible charm with a 'local color' sort of tackiness. I used to fantasize buying a home there, and when I asked about it I was told, "Oh, Freeville...yeah, a lot of artsy types seem to live there."

Lo and behold, somebody wrote a book about Freeville. And not just a nobody somebody, but the woman who was chosen to be Ann Landers' successor at the Chicago Tribune.

Around the World and Home Again
Amy Dickinson writes the syndicated column "Ask Amy," and in The Mighty Queens of Freeville she reveals how an advice columnist who helps people sort out their problems doesn't necessarily have all the right answers for herself. Her tale of small town life, her brief marriage to a dashing (but unfaithful) international broadcast journalist, the challenges of raising a daughter in London, Washington, Chicago, and Freeville, the hits-and-misses of male-female relationships, and the long line of divorced women in her family, is a quick and entertaining read. My review has more details.

See also: The Mighty Queens of Freeville Book Review

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