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While the days are still cool enough to sit on the back step and read, I sort through the pile of unread books that has overtaken my little office this past winter and is now creeping out the door overtaking other rooms of the house.

Recently, I found this quote attributed to Francis Bacon, "It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own." Well, I started with "Black Beauty," and " Heidi" and "Beautiful Joe" and an assortment of Nancy Drew mysteries. They still reside on my bookshelf as well as a historical biography of Nicholas & Alexandria, which came along later.

Great books? Well, most would not think they are, but they are well-thumbed and remembered for the many hours of enjoyment they gave me the first time they were read. Later, they were joined by some of the classics and much of Dickens, which I read in junior high.

Now the shelves and bookcases scattered throughout my home are full of a variety -- everything from fiction to self-help to religion and psychology. Most of those had a good read through my 30s and 40s, but at this time of my life they just tend to give me a headache. So now my favorites are mysteries, but that's not to say I don't throw something of substance into the mix every now and then.

Recently while at a local bookstore I found several titles that almost flew off the shelf as I wandered through the stacks. I will mention some of these as possible good summer reads.

If you are into the celebrity scene, there's a new book by Anderson Cooper (I did not know he was Gloria Vanderbilt's son) which is titled "Dispatches From the Edge" which recalls the far-flung countries and places of danger he has covered in his years as a journalist. Interspersed throughout are musings of his coming to grips with the death of his father and brother -- which makes for a compelling look at his own inner journey as well.

"Saturday" by Ian McEwan is another reflective book -- this time one of fiction -- that explores a day in the life of a respected neurosurgeon as he reflects on his relationship to career and family as it is played out in the complexities of our world today. It's a head-trip but his is an interesting head to visit.

Going from the intellectual to the more basic there is a book titled "Larry, the Cable Guy" by Lewis Black for the "git-r-done" fame.

Another that looked most interesting if you are into the era of "Pride and Prejudice" is the book "The Man Who Loved Jane Austen." And for those who enjoy intrigue and suspense, there is a new hardback titled "The Faithful Spy" which dubs the author the new John LeCarre (yet another one).

We've now come full circle to celebrity once again with "The Importance of Being Barbra" about Barbra Streisand, of course.

One of my current favorites is a mystery set in the Flint Hills by Overland Park author Nancy Pickard. "The Virgin of the Small Plains" is unlike anything she has previously written. She does a great job of developing some memorable characters while exploring a murder in a small town in the Flint Hills in which a number of decent and upstanding citizens of the community are complicit. The murder victim is a young woman who goes to an anonymous grave. Because her identity is not known, she becomes a legend and a source of comfort for many who visit her grave seeking emotional and physical healing -- thus the title of the book.

Because I know nothing of poetry, I picked up a book in the children's section recently by Emily Dickinson titled "Poetry for Young People." I am now educating myself and am finding that not only is poetry understandable but also refreshing and uplifting, and that the old saying "never too old to learn something new" still applies.

Take some time out from gardening, house cleaning and repairs to wander though the air-conditioned coolness of a bookstore where adventures, wisdom, suspense and fun are waiting between the covers of a really good book. Take the kids as well. In fact, the kids will probably take you.