What's All This Then?

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What's All This Then?

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Monday Edition

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Coudal Partners

A Lawn Chair and a
Spare Hour or Two

The 2003 Field-Tested Books

Introduction by Dave Reidy


The 2003 poster by Jay Ryan is sold out,
but the Field-Tested Books book
is available now in The Bookstore.

Each day of late summer offers pleasures all its own: the last blazing hot and sticky afternoon, clear skies and a cool breeze, damp evening air that should smell like spring but just doesn’t. In some ways, late summer is a microcosm of all we’ve enjoyed of the past five months. Maybe you’ve got plans to visit a B&B before the leaves change. Maybe your destination is the screened in porch behind your home that humidity has forced into vacancy. Either way, if you’ve got a lawn chair and a spare hour or two, late summer is a great time of year to do a little reading.

CP and friends have assembled a list of field-tested summer reading; books we’ve given the chance to make or break a lazy day at the beach, books we’ve asked to complete an escape from the workaday, achieved in body but not yet in mind. They did not let us down.

Our contributors tell us where they read the books they’ve recommended, giving each review a sense of place. In some cases, title and locale have little to do with one another. In others, destination played a role in the selection. It’s clear in every review that location impacted the reading experience. Perhaps you’ll find the perfect book for your own late-summer sojourn.

Thanks to Jay Ryan for designing and hand-screening the Summer Reading 2003 poster. It illustrates with a wink the magic of a great book in the summertime. We've found a place for it where we do our reading. Picture it where you do yours.

For packing convenience, most every listing is available in paperback, leaving plenty of room for sunglasses, eyeglasses and your favorite contact-wetting solution. As these fabulous books are sure to captivate you for hours at a stretch, it’s important to remember that the late-summer sun has not lost its strength. Cool air won't keep the fair from burning like a torch. We suggest this and this as trusty late-summer reading companion pieces. Enjoy.