When I was in Paris (much too long ago!), I saw a boy playing in the park. Perhaps ten years old, he was wearing brown shoes, plaid pants, a short brown coat, a red striped scarf and a fedora. None of it matched or looked at all like what the other kids were wearing, but he was able to carry off the look with such panache I took a picture of him.

That's how I picture twelve year old Marcus, only lacking in confidence. In Nick Hornby's About a Boy, Marcus is picked on at school and lives with a rather hippie mother who is dealing with depression, while Will Lightman is 36 and living a "sub-zero" cool life off royalty money from his father's hit song. Trying to meet women, Will passes himself off as a single dad at a SPAT (Single Parents - Alone Together) meeting and abruptly meets Marcus on a trip to the park. Though a highly unlikely duo, Will finds himself helping Marcus feel more like the "regular" kids and actually ends up learning a lot about himself. If you haven't read Nick Hornby before, this is a great one to start with. Funny and sweet. And I definitely recommend his other books, including High Fidelity and Juliet, Naked.

In June I saw a charming group
Of roses all begin to droop
I pepped them up with chicken soup!
Sprinkle once, sprinkle twice
Sprinkle chicken soup with rice

Chicken Soup With Rice (A Book of Months) was originally written by children's author and illustrator Maurice Sendak and published as part of his Nutshell Collection in 1962. However, my first exposure to this fun title was when it was sung by Carole King and my grade school music teacher would play it in our class. How we loved to sing along! It wasn't until later that I discovered what an amazing artist Carole King is in her own right.

Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon--And the Journey of a Generation by Sheila Weller interweaves the lives, loves and careers of these extraordinary songstresses. Each had a vastly different childhood and upbringing, but all three became music pioneers and a hallmark for women everywhere. King's signature album Tapestry was number one on the Billboard chart for 15 weeks (still the record for a solo female artist); Carly Simon has won multiple grammys and an academy award in 1988 for Best Song ("Let the River Run" from Working Girl); and Joni Mitchell's Blue made the New York Times list of the top 25 "most significant albums of the last century" (Jan. 3, 2000). Read Girls Like Us to experience the music, learn where it came from, and what it means to Carole, Carly, Joni, and the rest of us.

 For fun, check out Chicken Soup from the 1975 TV special!

NPR is the best! I present to you Summer Books 2011: The Complete List. Indie books, hot summer reads, suspense, cooking, science. Here's the start of the summer reading post:

'Indie Booksellers Target Summer's Best Reads'

Recommended by Lucia Silva, Portrait of a Bookstore
The Great Night, by Chris Adrian, hardcover, 304 pages
The Ada Poems, by Cynthia Zarin, hardcover, 80 pages
The Family Fang, by Kevin Wilson, hardcover, 320 pages
The Sisters Brothers, by Patrick DeWitt, hardcover, 336 pages
A Moment In The Sun, by John Sayles, hardcover, 968 pages

For the complete list, click here