Happy Saturday, friends. Here's what we've been up to this week:

Lublin, a novel by Manya Wilkinson and published by And Other Stories, was reviewed for us by Kit Maude. Kit previously reviewed Bolt From The Blue by Jeremy Cooper in our pages, and his translations of Bad Girls and I'm A Fool To Want You by Camila Villada were recently published by Other Press.

Then our summer flash fiction series continued with "It was an ambush blind date: shivering in a tree, looking for Bambi…" by Michelle Morouse. We previously published Michelle's story "Before A Little Bit More."

We heard this week from contributor Roberta Beary (author of "High School Friendships and Other Dangers") about two recent books she's published: Carousel, a poetry collection, and Haibun: A Writer's Guide, co-authored with Lew Watts and Rich Youmans.

I asked last week to hear about your summer reading recommendations or plans, and was glad to hear from a couple of people already:

Eireann Lorsung wrote,

For summer recommendations, I have to second Spent Light, which I read based on your original note about it in this newsletter or on Bluesky. It's engrossing and stunning and very alive. I loved it. I'll also recommend a beautiful book containing some of the thousands of photographs taken by Corita Kent during her time working in the Art Department of Immaculate Heart College in the early 1960s. They've been collected and published as Ordinary Things Will Be Signs For Us by JL Books and Magic Hour Press. 

And from Abigail Oswald,

I'm reading a bunch of books about attention and art-making this summer: Rob Walker's The Art of Noticing, Laura Damon-Moore & Erinn Batykefer's The Artist's Library, and Keri Smith's How to Be an Explorer of the World, to name a few. I'm having so much fun!

If you'd like to write a couple of sentences recommending books for summer or telling us what you'll be reading — whether for fun or for research or, best of all, a bit of both — please be in touch.

Finally, just for fun, a couple of watery things I've been listening to lately: First, On The Water, by Lisa Bastoni, a singer/songwriter I was awed by on a subway platform years ago and have followed ever since. There are some great stories in these songs along with great music.

And second, Becoming River by clarinetist and composer Karen Wimhurst, created in response to the landscape (and waterscape) of Salisbury River Park. You can learn more about that at the always brilliant Caught By The River — I recommend subscribing to their own newsletter for lots of great place-based writing and art.

Thanks for reading,
Steve Himmer