What are your favorite things to do in the summer?

Lately, my favorite things are reading, traveling, and (I hate to admit it) catching the new summer series on cable TV. I think at some time in my (not too distant past) sitting by a pool or on the sand at a beach would have been right up there. And swimming would have hit the top of my favorite-things-to-do list. (But a visit to a pool or the beach always involved a book. Or two or three.) Lately, my old favorites like riding my bike, roller skating and running aren’t even making the top ten anymore.

Just in case any of you are favoring more sedentary activities (as I seem to be doing), I’m going to recommend a great book, a new TV show, and a travel destination.

The book I highly recommend is one that I picked up in the Borders at the Jet Blue JFK terminal because I had a four hour layover. It was Elizabeth George’s latest Thomas Lynley mystery, and I loved it. (I have to admit that I love to read mysteries probably even more than I love to read romances. Give me romantic suspense and I’m in heaven!) I used to be an avid fan of Elizabeth George’s, but I haven’t read her in a while. This story and the English setting fascinated me, and since she’s never a quick read, it distracted me from things I had to get done. For me, that’s always a sign of a really good book. (“Silence of the Lambs” once cost me a whole day in Hawaii! Stephen King’s “Salem’s Lot” made me miss most of a Labor Day Weekend at a good friend’s house.)

Now for the TV series. So far my favorite new series of the summer is “Memphis Beat” on TNT. “Covert Affairs” on USA is premiering tonight, but it will take a lot to edge out “Memphis Beat” as one of my new favorite summer shows. Of course my “old” favorite summer TV series include “White Collar,” “Burn Notice,” “The Closer,” and “In Plain Sight.” But the thing I really like about “Memphis Beat” (aside from the fact that it’s a cop show) are the characters and the setting. I’ve watched three episodes and I want to visit Memphis.

The travel destination I’m going to recommend is Queechie, VT. I’d never heard of it. My sister dragged me there on our way back from Nargansett, RI to Syracuse, NY. We did visit a beach first, and the route makes a nice triangle on the map. We stayed in Woodstock, but the place that drew my sister there was the glass blowing factory that Simon Pearce established in Queechie. Simon relocated his family there from Ireland and bought an old mill to design and manufacture his glass. His wife is a potter. In addition to a waterfall and glass and pottery demonstrations, there’s a fabulous store and a gourmet restaurant. Shopping, great food and wine–that seems to define what I like in a travel destination–even more than a beach. Queechie is a bit out of the way, but if you’re visiting New England, I highly recommend it.

One more thing–as long as I’m listing favorite things and recommending… It’s the fiftieth anniversary of the novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird.” If you haven’t read it, I recommend it. If you have read it, I recommend reading it again. I had the great pleasure of teaching that book for fourteen years to ninth graders, and I never grew tired of it. I intend to read it again myself before the summer ends.

Have you got a list of favorite things you like to do in the summer? Do you have a book or a travel spot or TV show that you’re crazy about? Or do you have a memory of reading “To Kill a Mockingbird?” or seeing the movie?

Please share.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 at 6:25 am and is filed under Cara Summers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.