Last weekend I soaked up some great music over three consecutive evenings at the 51^st annual Monterey Jazz Festival. The buzz before the weekend was not to expect the quality of entertainment that we enjoyed last year when the longest running Jazz Festival in the world celebrated its 50^th anniversary with performances by some of the top names in the field. But there was still some pretty good stuff going on over the weekend. Unfortunately, I missed an apparently smokin’ performance by British pianist-singer Jamie Cullum, but I enjoyed solid performances by Joshua Redman, Christian McBride, and vocalist Cassandra Wilson. Sunday evening’s opening show with Kurt Elling (who is rapidly becoming my favorite jazz singer) was, in a word, delightful. Well that’s all behind us now, but please know that the Library has many recordings of MJF performances over the years, so search for them in the Library’s catalog, check them out, and soak up some jazz!

I just finished reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. It’s about a journalist named Juliet Ashton who spent much of WWII writing for a British newspaper, a cheery, light-hearted column designed to help the English people keep up their spirits. The war has just ended and some of her columns have been gathered and published in a book that’s selling so well that her publisher has asked here for more. But Juliet is weary of war, and bombed out buildings, and want and rationing, and feeling older than her 32 years, and so begs her publisher to allow her to write on some other topic. The publisher agrees to give her several months to come up with another book idea. In the meanwhile she’s accepted an assignment to write a three part series for the London Times literature section about the philosophical, moral, and practical value of reading.

Out of the blue, Juliet receives a letter from a farmer from Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands, saying that has a book titled "Selected Works of Charles Lamb" that he bought second hand, which has her name and address were inscribed inside. He writes further, that as there is no longer a book store on Guernsey, might she be able to help him find a book seller in London who might have more books by Mr. Lamb? He’d like to read them and share them with his friends in the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. Juliet writes back saying that she is happy to help, but in the meanwhile, her journalist’s curiosity is peaked, and as she is working on a piece about reading, she wonders if he can tell her more about the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. Soon, Juliet is corresponding with a whole group of Guernsey folks and the amazing story of their lives during the German occupation unfolds. Through this series of correspondence, Juliet ends up not only finding the topic for her book, the experience is life changing for her. This is a story of hardship, courage, and humanity and how easily life can turn down a completely unexpected path.

This fictional tale is told entirely through a series of letters, and makes for delightful summer reading. Enjoy!

So far, it’s been an incredible year in sports. The 2008 Summer Olympic games were quite possibly the most viewed sporting event ever. There are tight races in both the American League and the National League. Could this be the year the Cubs win the World Series? The last time they won was 1908. Will Tony Romo take the Dallas Cowboys to the playoffs and to the Super Bowl? Spain’s Rafael Nadal beat the five-time champion Roger Federer in one of the finest men’s final in the history of Wimbledon. The Monterey Public Library has the following new sports titles:

Carlisle vs. Army: Jim Thorpe, Dwight Eisenhower, Pop Warner, and the Forgotten Story of Football's Greatest Battle by Lars Anderson

Major: A Black Athlete, A White Era, and the Fight to be the World's Fastest Human Being by Todd Balf

Preferred Lies: A Journey Into the Heart of Scottish Golf by Andrew Greig

The Great Swim by Gavin Mortimer

The Last Great Fight: The Extraordinary Tale of Two Men and How One Fight Changed Their Lives Forever by Joe Layden

The Match: The Day the Game of Golf Changed Forever by Mark Frost