Dog days
From Pennsylvania on to New Jersey. We started the day at Mendham Books, where we talked books, books, and more books with Tom and Tori Williams and veteran bookseller Russell, but one of the best features of Mendham Books is Ellie. 
(You can only take so many author-in-a-bookstore photos before they start to get old, you know? Ellie is VERY photogenic.) Tom recently finished and loved Nicholas Baker’s Traveling Sprinkler, and after he read the flap copy aloud to us, I added it to my TBR list. Tori recommends The Son, by Philipp Meyer (historical fiction alert!) and Russell suggested the classic Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy, one of my favorite authors. Russell also recommended Jojo Moyes’ Me Before You, which I read and loved (Stacy’s reading it now).
From Mendham we diverted from the plan, because WORD Jersey City isn’t open yet. Instead, we followed Tori’s advice to hit Watchung Booksellers in Montclair. If you were an author and you were going to invent the perfect cozy, picturesque bookshop for your novel, it would look exactly like Watchung. 
Owner Margot Sage-EL said she’s reading Burial Rites by Hannah Kent, a brilliant work of historical fiction set in Iceland in 1829. We loved the author names stencilled on the walls, and the hardwood floors and the big bouquet of hydrangeas on a tale in the center of the shop and pretty much everything about Watchung.
From there we drove through the Lincoln Tunnel (Stacy drove; I’m claustrophobic) to visit Crawford Doyle on Madison Avenue, where my aunt, Dot McCleary has worked as a bookseller for many, many years. Dot has just started Alice McDermott’s Someone. Dot is amazing. Smart, funny, energetic, well-read—we had a great time. 
Fellow Crawford Doyle bookseller James suggested John Boyne’s The Absolutist, and Abigail, another CD book person, just finished Barbara Tuchmann’s The Guns of August (these are not lightweight readers).
The final stop of the day was Anderson’s Book Shop in Larchmont, NY, where I fell in love with the Ingo Maurer light fixture, adorned with quotes from great authors, which Anderson’s changes seasonally (“we’re about to put up our fall quotes,” bookseller Herb told me). Herb is reading The Hare With Amber Eyes. Fellow bookseller Donna loved The Girl You Left Behind. We’re up to 10 bookstores, almost 450 miles, and lots of coffee, chocolate, and wine (in the evenings only, of course). Phew! It’s been a very full three days.
