Dear Great Book Guru, My family and I attend the Sunset Serenades at Memorial Park every Thursday and I don't know what I enjoy most: the music, the sunsets, or the crowd-watching. While at last week's Serenade, I overheard a fellow concertgoer saying that there is as much drama "here as in the new book THE THREE WEISSMANNS OF WESTPORT." Have you read it and, more importantly, would you recommend it? Sunset Serenade Fan Extraordinaire

Dear Extraordinaire, How I agree with you! The Civic Association's Sunset Serenades celebrated its tenth anniversary this summer and we all have Petrice Kaider to thank for this beloved Sea Cliff tradition. She came up with the idea herself and every year she singlehandedly organizes, schedules and tweaks the concerts , working on them from early winter until the final serenade of the season, which this year will be on Sept. 2. Back to the book, however: THE THREE WEISSMANNS OF WESTPORT by Cathleen Schine is yet another modern version of Jane Austen's SENSE AND SENSIBILITY. Here we have a mother and her two fiftyish daughters- one emotional and dramatic, the other bookish and reserved- banished from their beloved cavernous upper West Side apartment to a small beach cottage in Westport, Connecticut. The elderly mother has been cast from the family home because of a tangled, late- life divorce. Foolish old man, scheming younger woman, battling children, a sinking real estate market, imploding stock portfolios - all join together to make for a good summer read- nothing more, nothing less!