Dear Great Book Guru,  An exciting week lies ahead….  the many St. Patrick Day celebrations at our local restaurants- the annual Barbara Pym Conference at Harvard that many of my friends will be attending,  the election for Sea Cliff Mayor and Trustees on Wednesday, March 18.  Yes, a busy time but always time for a good book. Do you have anything that would be especially good this time of year? Marching into Spring

Dear Marching into Spring,  I am so glad you mentioned the Barbara Pym Conference. Pym is a favorite author of mine and this year the Conference will focus on one of her later novels QUARTET IN AUTUMN. The book’s quartet is made up of four people who share an office (and very little else) in an unnamed company doing rather meaningless work that could easily be done by computers.  In fact when they retire, they will not be replaced- their department will disappear as will they. Letty, Marcia, Norman, and Edwin tell their stories over four seasons,  and gradually we come to realize that their apparently gray, lonely, conscribed lives are much richer, much more complex that we could ever have imagined.  Set in the 1970’s this beautifully written novel has little plot- its merit lies in its unflagging attention to detail-  the extraordinary details of the lives of ordinary people. Highly recommended any time of the year!