Dear Great Book Guru, Last weekend I had a fabulous time at Sea Cliff Beach’s Friday Night Music. Sue Giordano has been organizing these evenings for many years and this opening night was  spectacular with both the Roger Friedman Band and Joe Ciampa’s band RiDe performing- truly  double the pleasure! While there, I heard a group of fellow music lovers talking about a new book they had all recently read- a psychological thriller whose lead character was particularly loathsome. Any ideas?                                       Fan of Sand and Music

Dear Fan of Sand and Music, Listening to the amazing music at Sea Cliff Beach this weekend, I too vowed to return every Friday. Also, this weekend, I read the SUMMER HOUSE WITH SWIMMING POOL by Herman Koch who wrote the widely acclaimed: THE DINNER. The title SUMMER HOUSE … is a play on fatuous vacation real estate offerings, but there is little playful about this novel.  Marc Schlosser is a successful physician to a star filled roster of actors, producers, singers, and models.  His practice is based on keeping these celebrity patients happy by accepting- no, actively encouraging- their less than healthy lifestyles, in addition to offering a steady supply of drugs.  In the first chapter Marc is accused of murdering one of his well-known patients and for the rest of the book we travel back and forth over the previous year to learn how these charges came about.   He is a despicable character, but the story is compelling and cries out to be read in one sitting. Not as good as THE DINNER but recommended, nevertheless.