Finally, we have here a mere indication of what best to concentrate on as we are scorched by those big holes in the ozone.

Forget the war, the decline and fall of the government, the prospects of battles with North Korea and Iran, the rather benign status of the Democrats, the negligent media, grab yourself a tall frosty beverage and escape into the world of murder and intrique. Why keep dwelling on all the macro bloodshed when you can fret about a more manageable number of murders?

Thanks to all for the "link" instructions to read the reviews. No thanks, though to the reading recommendations...to gory for me. I'll just stick with lighter fun authors this hot summer, like Nora Roberts, where all the heroes live happily ever after. I need it after reading Kevin Phillips, Greg Palast, Paul Krugman, etc.

PS: Those of you who like to critic other peoples grammar, punctuation and spelling...get a life and go volunteer at your local school district and help tutor a struggling student.

Way less brain power required thanks.

Is Salon planning to add any books to the summer reading list that *don't* involve graphic and gruesome accounts of death? To me a beach read means something that's actually pleasant and fun, not disturbing and/or plain old nauseating. To each his own, I understand, but as of today every one of them appears to follow that theme. A little variety.... please?

The reviews really aren't missing. Click on the link to the first review, read it, and find a link to the next one at the bottom of the page. Happy reading!

I know that you were focusing on detective/mystery/horror genre books, but I sure would love to see someone at Salon--Scott Rosenberg, maybe?--sometimes review books from the genre that I read regularly: Science Fiction.

Maybe I'm being silly, but I would think that a literary magazine (Salon), in a very 21st Century medium (the Web-based magazine), which no doubt has plenty of SF-reading readers (computer geeks often read SF) would want to target that audience. At least, you know, once in a while.

I mean, you review graphic novels every other week; I have seen interviews with folks like Neal Stephenson and Iain Banks here (though rarely); how about tossing some crumbs to us technonerd types?

Maybe we get one a day for 6 days?

I really ought to read a book this summer. I've been feeling pretty bored with books lately and busy at work.

Maybe I'll get out of work and go to B&N for a few hours. It's 95 here today and A/C whoring seems a good choice.

George M., it's a fine point, to be sure, but the issue at hand has to do with notional agreement (from the American Heritage Book of English Usage: "There is grammatical agreement ... and agreement in meaning, or notional agreement. Usually grammatical agreement and notional agreement coincide. In the sentence 'He laughs,' both are singular. In the sentence 'We laugh,' both are plural. But in some sentences a subject can have a singular form and a plural meaning. Thus in the sentence 'Her family are all avid skiers,' the noun family is singular in form but plural in meaning, and the verb is plural to agree with the meaning. In other words, there is notional agreement, but not grammatical agreement, between the subject and the verb.)

Why, out of six novels chosen, is only one penned by a woman writer, and only two feature women protagonists?

Next time please make a greater effort to include a broader spectrum of writers and topics. Plenty of other places are happy to give free publicity to privileged white male writers. Salon should choose to be different!

The reviews are set up as a series of articles, which is a little confusing.

Click the link at the bottom of the first page; it will take you to the first review. The link to the second review is at the end of the first review, and so on.

You folks tell us you have identified the books we should be reading this summer; you promote it on the "front page"; you run a big article about the books, but THEN YOU DON'T TELL US WHAT THE BOOKS ARE. The article seems as if it is a lead-in to a series of short paragraphs on each book, but it's not. Instead, it's an invitation to follow a link at the bottom of the article to a book review. Come on! Tell me what the books are! At the very, very, very, very least you could, at the end of your introductory article, list the titles, the authors and a very short sentence about the book. Please do not make me cavort across your entire website looking for for the information. After all, my boss could pass my desk any second.

Is this a new summer treasure hunt? We all run to the bookstore and start hunting for a book with this plot? Will you give us additional clues on a daily basis until someone finds the right title? Is there a prize...such as a vacation to Cabo? As an avid and curious reader...this is torture!

I can't get to the rest of the article either.

I would think that a senior writer for Salon would know that a group "becomes," with an '-s.'

it dissapeared