Dear friends:

While I wish I could tell you I’ve been off the grid for the past month in some fabulous wilderness outpost, the reasons for my absence from your inboxes are far more mundane: Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines. I’m avoiding at least three more as I type. But that’s how things roll here at “the Horn,” as one unfortunate publicist had the temerity this morning with which to refer to us. I sincerely hope it wasn’t your book she was plugging.

We are deep into back-to-school stuff, with the September/October Magazine issue going to press on Thursday and our super-sized back-to-school-themed issue of Notes coming out in two weeks. Have you completed your summer reading? I’m seriously thinking Bruce and I need to rename our book club the Serial Adulterers Reading Group, as I am constantly cheating on the assigned book with others that catch my fancy. (Don’t tell Bruce.) So I am supposed to be reading Black Lamb and Grey Falcon but have been cozying up to My Brilliant Friend instead and taking Chief Inspector Gamache to bed with me every evening. (Don’t tell Richard.) I hope your own reading has been equally pleasurable and promiscuous (if that’s the sort of reader you are).

Have you seen our Mind the Gap award list yet? It’s our annual I’m not-gonna-be-ignored-Dan roster of great books that unaccountably failed to figure among ALA’s annual medals. Unaccountably I say! Without disparaging any of the books that actually won something, let me just say that if I ruled the world, Hike, Flamer, and Loretta Little Looks Back would all be slapped with “silver and gold.”* Alas, I don’t rule the world, which is probably better for you and me both.

Love,

Roger

*Unseasonal, you say? We are evaluating December holiday books right now. Season’s greetings!