It's too hot to move, but you should be able to summon just barely enough energy to turn the page. If you can, then you'll be fine. The hot weather will eventually end, the kids will go back to school, and you'll wonder where the summer went.

In the meantime, reading is a great way to conserve energy (your own), and at the same time, it's a guilt-free activity because you are expanding your mind—or just having a good time between the pages.

The Devil and Miss Prym by Paul Coehlo is as enchanting and transcendent as his other books (The Alchemist, The Zahir), and like those books, it confronts a timeless question. Is mankind inherently evil? A town may receive a fortune in gold, but the price is someone's life. What will they do?

If ever there were a book for the dog days of summer, it's Can't Wait to Get to Heaven by Fannie Flagg. The book is full of the wacky characters you expect to meet in a Fannie Flagg book, from Mrs. Elner Shimfissle who is literally up a tree, to Tot Whooten of Tot's Tell It Like It Is Beauty Shop, but it's also about friends and family, how they enrich our lives while driving us crazy. Pour yourself a big glass of iced tea, and enjoy.

Family

The Brambles, by Eliza Minto, is a novel about family life, its frustrations and joys, the varied reactions that death brings to individuals linked by DNA and fractious love, but with a twist that causes the large, self-absorbed Bramble family to reconsider itself in a major way.

Espresso Tales is the second in what will no doubt be another series by Alexander McCall Smith (44 Scotland Street). Once again his characters inhabit the pages of the book, one chapter at a time, since these stories were originally published as installments in The Scotsman newspaper. Even in short bites, these characters are full of life, vivid, funny, and always entertaining.

It won't be out until late August, but fans of Anna Quindlen will want to pre-order Rise and Shine. This is a novel about two sisters, one famous, one not, who find their well-ordered lives turned upside down because of a careless remark. Quindlen writes beautifully and sensitively, revealing the shifting balance of power between the sisters, set against a Manhattan backdrop.

For Children

For children, there's Olivia Forms a Band, in which our favorite porcine becomes a one-pig band.

Older readers won't want to miss School's Out—Forever, the second in James Patterson's Maximum Ride series about bird-kid Max and her flock, pursued by the Evil Erasers.

If there's one book kids of every age will want, it's Pirateology. Like its predecessors, Dragonology and Egyptology, this one is fascinating on many levels. It's chock full of pirate lore, with all sorts of intriguing bits and pieces within the exquisite pages.

For readers ages 4-8, the Robert Sabuda books are captivating, and the newest, Castle, reveals a medieval castle in extraordinary pop-up fashion.

Peter and the Shadow Thieves (by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson) finds Peter leaving the safety of Mollusk Island for darkest London. This is the sequel to Peter and the Starcatchers and it's every bit as exciting.

If none of these sparks your interest, dozens of bestselling authors will be releasing books all through the summer and fall. Some on the list are: Daniel Silva (Messenger), George Pelecanos (The Night Gardener), Sandra Brown (Ricochet), Nora Ephron (I Feel Bad about My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman), Margaret George (Helen of Troy), Frederick Forsyth (Afghan), and Pulitzer Prize-winner Edward P. Jones (All Aunt Hagar's Children: Stories).

We can pre-order any of these titles for you. There's never a reason to be without a book in hand or nearby.