Dear friends:

You know, ever since I was babbling about prime numbers here and here, I’ve been insisting upon them, whether we crank the TV to volume twenty-three rather than twenty-two or I eat seventeen frozen Spice Drops for my snack rather than fifteen. Numbers are everywhere. I’m glad my math-teacher friend Lori is coming back up this weekend, as I have to ask her about knot theory, for which something important was proven by a new Bostonian but heck if I could tell you what.

But TV. We’ve just started The Sopranos. As Heidi is to toasted cheese, The Sopranos is to pasta and each episode leaves me hungry. Anthony! (God rest his soul.)

Our ad guy Al’s been slamming me with Talks with Roger (Talks with Rogers?). This is the Horn Book’s sponsored interview series, where publishers pay Horn Book for me to interview the author and/or illustrator of a new book and we edit and blast the resulting conversation out to our newsletters mailing list. Apparently I’m doing one a week for the rest of the foreseeable future. On the one hand, it’s freeing to read a book-for-work knowing I won’t have to review it at the other end; on the other, I have to hope and pray for an author who likes to talk, as well as for a book that suggests good questions (if it doesn’t, I turn it down). Twitter might lead you to believe children’s books is a profession filled with yackers, but no, and don’t blame me if you resemble that remark either way. I think my first understanding of the difference between the person and the book was when I met M. E. Kerr many years ago. On the page, I completely adored her bracing wit and skewering eye (eww. Sorry.) and was surprised by how laid back she was in person. People should read her more. And in line with our unofficial summer mystery theme — did you know she was lovers with Tom Ripley’s mom?

Pulling together your end-of-summer reading list? My smart friend Pam just told me about the new Denise Mina, which I will begin with eagerness despite being grievously annoyed disappointed by her last one. And maybe I’ll go back and see if Kristin L. and her extended family have finished dinner yet. Anthony!

Love,

Roger