Dear Great Book Guru,  This week Sea Cliff Civic Association's Sunset Serenades begin at Memorial Park, Thursday at 7pm.  I always love these concerts with toddlers,  children, and adults enjoying the music, picnic dinners  being shared,  the crowd watching the sun set,  a great sense of community  in a beautiful setting throughout the summer. .. One of my favorite things to do is to get to the park early, set myself up under a tree with a good book, and wait for the music to start. Do you have a book you would recommend?         Sunset Serenade Supporter

Dear Sunset,  I, too, love the Serenades and we all have Petrice Kaider to thank for organizing them every year. And  I just read a book I think you might enjoy:  PASSING ON by Penelope Lively. Written in the eighties, this short novel chronicles the lives of a middle-aged brother and sister living in a small English village in the year that follows the death of their mother. Helen and Edward  and the reader come to realize over the course of the book  how powerful a force  she had been and that even in death, she controls her children.  The sweetly melancholy air that pervades the book is shattered  when events occur, revealing the depth of their misery.  This a beautifully written, short work- perfect for a summer evening!