At last! It's time to find a favorite spot to indulge in some aaah-inspiring reading this summer. As beach dunes beckon and lazy lemonade days lie ahead, what do area readers suggest you pack in your bag along with the sunscreen? Here is an eclectic selection of their intriguing recommendations.

Globetrotting adventures

Carol Brink, former pastor of Wrentham's Original Congregational Church thinks you'll enjoy "Black Order" by James Rollins, "a rip-roaring tale of espionage during the post WWII period, stretching from Washington, D.C. to Poland to the Himalayas and South Africa, as agents try to foil an attempt to create a perfect race. Explorations of evolution and quantum physics are woven into this dramatic tale."

She was equally enchanted with "The Rossetti Letter" by Christi Phillips. A historical novel of 17th century Venice, it portrays a modern-day scholar's search for the secrets of celebrated courtesan, Alessandra Rossetti, who mysteriously disappeared after uncovering a deadly Spanish conspiracy to overthrow the Venetian government.

"Khaled Hosseini, author of 'The Kite Runner,' has done it again," according to Sam Coale, professor of English at Wheaton College and theater reviewer for Trinity Square in Providence. "A Thousand Splendid Suns" is "a terrifyingly splendid and finally hopeful tale set entirely in his native Afghanistan, as much concerned with women as "The Kite Runner" was with men." Coale added that he found Don De Lillo's recent "Falling Man," about one couple's life post 9/11 "problematic but fascinating." "Christ Stopped at Eboli" has captured the heart of area lawyer, Max Volterra. Translated from the Italian and "beautifully written," according to Max, it is the memoir of Carlo Levi, painter, doctor and writer, who was banished to a remote corner of southern Italy in 1935 for his uncompromising opposition to fascism. The title refers to the fact that Christianity stopped at Eboli, just short of the desolate and primitive village of Gagliano, where Levi would spend unforgettable years of exile.

Americana in prose and poetry

Associate director of Lesley University's Creative Arts in Learning, Attleboro resident Kerrie Bellisario will be reading Carl Sandburg's "Poems for the People" this summer. "I just returned from visiting the Carl Sandburg National Historical Park in North Carolina," she notes, "and his background and beliefs are inspiring. The NPS site gives you a glimpse into the genius of this man's mind and this particular volume pays homage to his roots and work with laborers, immigrants, and others across America."

"The best book I've read recently," writes Sun Chronicle General Manager Roy Belcher, "is Nathaniel Phillbrick's 'Sea of Glory: America's Voyage of Discovery, the U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842.' Philbrick, now famous for his spellbinding history of the whale ship Essex and her crew, does an even better job of bringing to life this most extensive expedition of exploration in the history of the United States."

Sheila Cryan, a teacher at Bishop Feehan and mother of three, just finished "A Woman's Place" by Lynn Austin. "It's about four Michigan women from various stages and stations of life who choose to work in a shipyard during WWII. Neat glimpse, for a whippersnapper like me, into the life of women and the country as a whole during that period."

Joanne Doggart, owner of Where the Sidewalk Ends Bookstore, says she "read and loved (and was educated in the process) by Timothy Egan's "The Worst Hard Time" about the American Dust Bowl in the 1930s. It was a piece of American history that I was vaguely aware of, but this book made these families come alive."

Joanne also found "Summer at Tiffany" by Marjorie Hart "a lovely, wistful read. It's a sweet memoir about two girls from Iowa who travel to NYC in 1945 and are hired as the first female pages on the floor at Tiffany's. They are wide-eyed coeds living in that magical time of big bands, gloves and hats for dates, SERVICEMEN, and World War II."

Autism

With one of her young twin daughters diagnosed with autism, Wrentham marketing and communications consultant Kathy Sanguinetti finds solace and inspiration in "any book by Temple Grandin. She's someone who has made the best of her life even with a diagnosis of autism," says Sanguinetti. Grandin, a nationally recognized author and Ph.D Associate Professor at Colorado State University, speaks around the world on both autism and (yes) cattle handling. She tells her own story in "Emergence: Labeled Autistic." Another of her bestsellers is "Thinking in Pictures and Other Reports From My Life with Autism."

Secrets of the natural world In addition to "investor kits, annual reports and 10-K's, which I find to be some of the most interesting non-fiction available," local (Guyot Brothers) manufacturer Andrea Twombly writes, "I plan to re-read 'The Secret Life of Plants' this summer, as I am taking a course in herbology." An Amazon reader from Seattle has described the book by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird as "quite possibly one of the most engrossing books (on) the biology and modern day symbiotic relationship between plants and humans."

The real story on China

"Top of my reading list this summer is 'The Writing on the Wall' by Will Hutton," writes Ted Nesi, a recent Wheaton college graduate who now covers Norton for The Sun Chronicle. "Hutton looks at the rise of China as an economic giant, and analyzes the challenges that poses to the West, particularly because, despite its embrace of capitalism, China remains a one-party dictatorship. America's discussion about the outside world has been badly skewed toward Iraq and the Middle East over the past few years; the real story, to my thinking, is China, and how we deal with the emergence of a new superpower quite different from us. I hope to get some insight into that from Hutton, a well-respected observer."

1ABC

Finally, as Attleboro prepares to celebrate our 1 Adventure, 1 Book, 1 Community, my summer recommendation is "Fahrenheit 451" by Ray Bradbury. It's guaranteed to warm your lazy, hazy days and keep the home fires burning in the fall. Watch for information about 1 ABC events in the months to come! Happy reading!

KATHY HICKMAN of Attleboro can be reached at news@thesunchronicle.com.