Dear Great Book Guru, I had such a wonderful time at the Porchfest this weekend and I met many new and old friends. It got me thinking that there’s a whole wide world out there and perhaps I should  get out of my reading comfort zone – mysteries - and try a new genre.  Any suggestions?  Porchfest Reveler

Dear Porchfest Reveler, I loved Emily St. John’s latest novel: SEA OF TRANQUILITY.  This short novel spans four centuries and we visit each through time travel. The book opens in 1912 with a young aristocrat Edward St. Andrew banished from his English ancestral home to the Canadian wilderness for a minor infraction. While wandering in the woods, he hears a haunting melody and glimpses a visitor from another time: Gaspery Roberts. Gaspery will reappear in the 21^st, the 23^rd, and 25^th centuries and while there is much different about these times, there is much the same.  Pandemics decimate countries, book tours take place, and hotels employ security guards.  It’s a strange mixture of future and present as characters appear, disappear, and then reappear century after century.  The Sea of Tranquility is home to moon colonists who escape the travails of earth living only to find themselves living the very lives they were trying to escape.  This a beautifully written albeit challenging read that takes us through time in search of clues as to what the future holds for humanity. Highly recommended!