What I've been reading and doing this summer... A friend of mine sent me a great book, Debra Ginsberg's Waiting, which is a wonderful explanation of the restaurant server mentality. No one can understand why I have always enjoyed working in restaurants -- except other servers! What really astounds people is how many food servers have advanced degrees. Ginsberg explains it all, in a way that is heartbreakingly familiar.

For a novel, I've been reading one of the loveliest books ever -- Ursula Hegi's Stones From the River. There's nothing I can say except that the language is wonderful, the characters interesting, if not always appealing, and it's set in Germany from end of the First World War through the end of the Second. It's been especially nice, since I tend to be a lazy reader, and gravitate more towards Terry Pratchett, for which I make no apologies, and Elizabeth Peters, a truly guilty pleasure. Speaking of guilty pleasures, I managed to read two books this summer that dovetailed right into a computer game I bought -- more on Knights Templar, dead Merovingians, and bad conspiracy theory later.