July 03, 2013 
Miriam 
I’m not even going to pretend that anyone out there is reading our blog as we head into the holiday weekend. Personally, my head is already poolside, so I hope you all have great Fourth of July plans and the weather to go with them.
I leave you with this delightful list of books that pretty much suck as beach reads, helpfully compiled by Flavorwire. (Much as I love the dead Russian literary greats, I have to admit that they don’t pair well with sunscreen and bathing suits.) So, grab a Jackie Collins novel, or Snooki’s latest oeuvre (yes, she has more than one) and enjoy. Leave the heavy lifting for the fall.
Somebody once observed that in an American novel the boy chases the girl until she catches him, A French novel has the girl chasing the boy till he catches her, and that in a Russian novel they frown at each other from across the street and brood about it for the next 800 pages. Naturally, I’m sure you plan to spread out poolside with The Fault In Our Stars by John Green, a riveting, fast-paced lighthearted beach read if there ever was one. (It’s required reading in North Korean reeducation centers, I hear) The fact that this has been on top of the bestseller list for quite awhile doesn’t say great things for our pop-culure zeitgeist, I’m afraid….
Nice article.
Believe it or not, I’m having great fun with John Kenneth Galbraith’s “The Great Crash 1929″. Easy read, short chapters, only 175 pages… Who knew economics could actually be entertaining?