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Books For THE BEACH S ummer has always been my favourite time of year I love everything about it â€" the richness and variety of the greens, the beauty and abundance of the flowers, the birds, the smells, the heat â€" even the humidity. I especially love the hours between four and six o‘clock in the afternoon, when the heat of the day has settled on my shoulders like a comâ€" fortable old sweater, and 1 can curl up on a lounge chair in my backyard and indulge my passion for one of the season‘s true luxuries â€" A the books of summer. | _ @@ Exactly what defines a summer book? Truthfully, I‘m not altogether sure, except that l think it has something to do with light. Light as opposed to dark, lightâ€"weight as opposed to heavyâ€"duty. lightâ€" going as opposed to difficult sledding. This move toward the light can be seen in all aspects of our culture, from the brainless summer blockbusters at our local cinemas and the endless parade of reruns on television, to our sudden preference for the backyard barbecue over dinner at a fancy restaurant. It seems that when we shed our heavy winter clothing, when we abandon our sombre greys and blacks and crowns for soft pastels and bright flowery prints, when we discard our boots and run around barefoot through the grass, we also shed several layers of ‘shoulds, as in "I should be doing this, or ‘I should be reading that" In summer, we read what we want, and what we want, for the moast part, is something light. But not too light Like a good lite beer, we want a book that will quench C anada‘s most successful suspense novelist and bestselling author, JOY FIFLDING, has penned 12 books, including her latest, Missing Pieces (Doubleday Canada, 1997) A graduate of the University of Toronto, she lives with her family in Toronto and Palm Beach Now open in Waterloo at 428 King Street North, phone: 486â€"401 A (CANADIAN #00K CQOMPAN Y Gireat Books Are Just The Beqinning €4,* our thirst without making us feel too full, a book that will engage us, but not overwhelm us, a book that will enterttain without insulting our intelligence, a book that will bring a tear to our eye without truining our 9 day. We want a good story, a clever plot, lots of engaging dialogue. A little mystery never hurt. Romance is always welcome, although . nothing too coarse. Like a good barbecue, we want things simple, a little spicy, and most important, fun. We want all the messes cleaned up, the fights resolved, the puzzles put together, the mysteries solved. We want the boys to get the girls, and the girls to have it all. We want the good to be rewarded and the bad to go to hell. In short, we want a happy ending. If we can‘t always have it in life, we want it in our fiction. Especially in summer, when the air is ripe with the illusion of serenity, and the warm breeze teases us into thinking that we have all the time in the world. Some of the books I‘ll be reading this summer are Black and Blue, (Anna Quindlen). Blood Work, {Michael Connelly), Publish and>* Perish, (James Hynes}, Damascus Gate, (Robert Stonc). The Wise and Foolish Virgins. (Dan Hannaht, High Concept, (Charles Fleming}, Golf Is Not a Game of Perfect, (Dr. Bob Rotella and Bob Cullent}, And we want it tidy by Joy Fielding