Sometimes that summer vacation just doesn't work out, but if you find just the right book, you can have a satisfying summer getaway just the same. Read what my friend Sharon Randall has to say about this in her recent column.  http://www.sharonrandall.com/Home_Page.html

This summer, I haven't been able to get much further from home than Elkhorn Slough, which is a very nice place, but not exactly a trip to the Bahamas.  Nevertheless, I have spent time in the English countryside circa 1935 with the delightfully eccentric Mortmain family by re-reading Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle.  I also spent thirty years with two generations of an Indian family as they create new lives in America by reading Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake. Before that, I joined Elizabeth Gilbert in Italy, India, and Indonesia in her memoir Eat, Pray, Love.  

I haven't decided what my next reading journey will be, but there is a small stack of possibilities on my bedside table just waiting to take me on another wonderful vacation.  Happy summer reading!