Believe it or not, summer is right around the corner.

That statement is perplexing, I know, especially since I had to clear frost off of my windshield once last week, and some of the people in my office swore it was going to snow. Considering we practically had spring-like conditions all winter, it may feel like summer is finally coming.

College starts letting out in a matter of weeks, and the Moses Lake School District won't be too far behind. (I suspect some of the kids waiting for June may quibble with that sentiment, but time is relative.)

So it's a good time to start thinking about what you're going to read during the summer months, especially since it sounds like reading may be practically the only activity still allowed out at the dunes. (Although rumor has it there may be a ban on all books written by Anne Rice and her respective pseudonyms.)

In the midst of covering economic development, downtown revitalization and agricultural goings-on, I like to take comfort in the joy of a good book beneath my covers. The job requires travel to far-off exotic places like Mattawa, Warden and Quincy, all of which, I'm happy to report, have excellent selections in literature and are connected to the Moses Lake library by the North Central Regional Library system, so ordering books and having them sent to your library site of choice is perfectly easy.

So, in putting away that copy of Joyce's "Finnegans Wake" (better luck next autumn and, hey, I'm right there with you in your confusion), here are a couple items — some relatively recent, some not — you might consider worth jotting down next time you're hitting the beach.

"The Lovely Bones," by Alice Sebold: Released in 2002, I only recently picked up this story, the tale of a murdered child watching over her family from heaven as they go through the grief process following her disappearance. It sounds grisly, but Sebold handles the subject matter is such a way that the reader is profoundly moved and often thoroughly entertained, a good mixture of humor and heartbreak. And you might consider the equally excellent first novel by Sebold's husband, Glen David Gold, entitled "Carter Beats the Devil," about the life and times of real-life magician Charles Carter, with particular emphasis on the days following the death of President Warren Harding, a short period of time after the president appears on stage in Carter's magic act. The opening chapter is dazzling, and the rest of the book follows suit.

"The Killing Club," by Michael Malone and "Marcie Walsh": Anything by Malone is usually a winner. This book is unusual in that it ties in to an ongoing storyline on the ABC soap opera "One Life To Live," where character Marcie Walsh has written the book, and a copycat killer is currently re-enacting the murders in soaptown Llanview. Malone recently left the position of head writer on that show. In the book itself, a Marcie-like detective character's friends are being killed off in manners similar to the way they, years ago in a secret club, the eponymous Killing Club, envisioned bumping people off. Got that? Murders based on made up murders inspiring murders on TV in a book written by a fake writer and a real writer? The story inside the actual book is easier to follow…

"The Final Solution," by Michael Chabon: Although the book never comes out and identifies him, this is a story in which an aged Sherlock Holmes, plagued by wear, tear and the occasional fugue, must find a missing African gray parrot, the only friend of a young mute boy whom "the old man" befriends.

"Hawkes Harbor," by S.E. Hinton: Much ado has been made of the fact that long-absent Hinton, of "The Outsiders" fame, has returned with an adult novel. She makes the most of it with excessive cursing and loads of sex scenes. Oh yeah, and vampires, which I wasn't exactly anticipating, but was willing to follow along to see where she took it. It's a good popcorn read, though, and people will think you're more literary than perhaps the book deserves, just because you're reading S.E. Hinton.

Matthew Weaver made up that nasty Anne Rice book ban rumor business for the purposes of this My Turn. He is also the business and agriculture reporter for the Columbia Basin Herald.