I cannot believe it's September and that my boys are back in school. While we did a lot this summer, I still find myself questioning where the summer went! Last week we spent a lovely week on the Outer Banks. You can read my blog about what I read here. Please note that there are two blogs on this same page. The first one has my reflections on two books that were written by 9/11 widows. Scroll down for the vacation reading one, or read both at the same time!

I am looking forward to going to the Outer Banks later this month for our annual summer beach trip. While I have traveled to Toronto, Phoenix, Denver (and most of the rest of Colorado) and Atlanta this summer, all of those trips have been for business, for visiting or for looking at scenery. Trust me that when you are in Colorado where the palette is so spectacular, it's hard to concentrate on reading. So, I did knitting as we drove. Lots of knitting. But very little reading.

I am writing this newsletter from the deck of the condo where I am staying in Beaver Creek, Colorado. I am on a weeklong vacation traveling to some of my favorite places in Colorado, which include Crested Butte and the afore-mentioned Beaver Creek. Today my boys and I spent some time at The Bookworm of Edwards Independent Bookstore in Edwards, Colorado. Every book in the store is hand-selected by owners Nicole Magistro and Neda Jansen. Nicole and I had corresponded via email and phone, so it was great fun to get to meet her today. We talked books, authors and book clubs. If you are ever out here on vacation, you want to check out this store.

ReadingGroupGuides.com Editor Shannon McKenna and I had a lovely meeting last week with a New York area book group, Zagati Literati (named because they "love great eating and memorable books"), at Trattoria Alaba in the city. What a terrific and welcoming group of women! They discussed Atonement, which had many angles to explore both in the plot and the characters. We were impressed with the way they handled their discussion. There were no "egos" at the table, but rather a terrific conversation in which everyone's voice counted. Our contribution: giving them suggestions for their upcoming discussions, as they said they were tired of reading about "dysfunctional families." Given their love of eating and reading (and probably inspired by the terrific Italian meal), we suggested Lucia Lucia by Adriana Trigiani for their next read. And then, for their following title, we suggested Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, which we have been raving about at Bookreporter.com.

I have been getting lots of notes from authors and publishers asking if we know of any Mother/Daughter book clubs. With May being Mother's Day, we were wondering if any of you are in a Mother/Daughter book club, or if you know of anyone else who is. If so, please drop me a note at [email protected] with this information. There are a number of titles that are perfect for this audience!