Book clubs experience two periods when it's really ok to talk about where you're going and where you've been: back to school (September) and post-holidays (January).  It is resolved:

Pick only great books. While we don't want to neglect titles that deserve to be rediscovered, popular books of the moment that really work can cause members to weep with joy. And when a contemporary novel like The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows is so satisfying, a quick read and has a point, everyone in the club is happy.  A story told in correspondence (that's actual letters) just after World War II, the novel depicts life under the German occupation of the British island of Guernsey.  The inhabitants' literary society may just inspire your upcoming selections in unpredictable ways.

As we all head back into the "school year," remember that side conversations are an addiction, baked goods are always welcome and reviewing the good bits you have highlighted in your special markers in advance is never a bad idea. 

The Reserveby Russell Banks - A perfect, genre-bending. end-of-summer novel, the setting is the 1930s Adirondacks mixed with flashpoints from an increasingly embattled Europe. A nutty heiress, a Hemingwayesque hero and sweeping scenery, The Reservehas a few noirish twists and is almost pulpy in its weirdness.  Plus, the Hindenberg! Hardcover

The Book Thiefby Markus Zusak - It may be narrated by Death, a weary, sardonic voice but he actually takes an interest in the lives of humans, especially orphaned Liesel Meminger. She lives with her foster parents in Molching, Germany through much of World War II where the author's use of magic realism is exactly on point. A stunning classic for adults, young adults and everyone in between. Paperback

On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan - A minor work from the master, newly out in paperback.  It's 1962 and virgins Florence and Edward are on their ill-fated honeymoon in Dorset. A concise and almost harrowing tone poem about relationships and bitterness in a very specific time: before the Beatles and the world we presently know. Paperback

Nor do we appreciate them. Unless, of course, the reasons for not showing up to a summer book club are unique, clever, witty and absurd. There is also a fine line between saying you can't make it and over-sharing all the gruesome scheduling conflicts of the season and the appointed hour. Just keep it simple and show up very early  for the next club with your head held high.

Most book clubs have rules -- some unspoken, some written on parchment, others just dished behind members' backs -- stating that the person who picked the book must show up to that club. But what about the person who whines ("just wondering about the next club, did I miss something?") and then has a last minute engagement. We call it having it all possible ways.

A few meeting tips as members take wing:

• Be informal, but firm. Don't change times and meeting places to suit one person or every single members' vacation plans.

• Meet outside and discuss all the latest news. Make sure to keep straying members abreast of all the great books and classified information she missed.

• Don't try to accomplish too much during the summer. One book, one meeting, one plan. But if someone offers to host a waterfront barbecue, be the first to volunteer with unglamorous supplies.

On the cover, the author as a young girl. She is aiming a TV Western pistol at her readers -- in a 1950s style two-piece bathing suit. In Girls of Tender Age, Mary-Ann Tirone Smith tells three extremely compelling stories. That she manages to weave them into a seamless whole will leave you in tears, with fists pumped towards heaven and a wistful smile. All at the same time.

Colorful relatives like Uncle Guido abound. Mary-Ann's brother Tyler lives an almost reclusive life with undiagnosed autism, enjoying detailed studies of World War II and the polka hits of Jean Marie Kabritsky. The author's mother who goes back to the workplace the first chance she gets, proceeds to fill whatever free time she has with golf, cards and her bowling league.

And then a murderer stalks the ethnically diverse working class Hartford neighborhood.  It was a time when the doors were never locked until Bob Malm starts his crime spree.

The author tells her family story, the killer's story and the story of America after World War II with humor and the skills of an ace metro reporter. Regarding the 1950s woman, continuously on the verge of a nervous breakdown: "They are familiar with such verging because it is the fifties when women were either on the verge or actually having one." For her wedding, Mary-Ann requests her aunt sing Kumbaya, but she gets the house special, Ave Maria.

And then there is the horror of a neighborhood stalked. Most horrifying of all, when Mary-Ann's classmate Irene is murdered mere yards away from her own house, their teacher tells the class the next day: "There will be no speaking of Irene." And then her desk is carried out by two boys in the class.

The true crime elements of Girls of Tender Age (the title is taken from a brilliant harangue by the state's attorney) mix with lightness and authenticity of time and place. And if you ever wanted to know when the casual use of psychiatric diagnoses in everyday conversation first occurred, the author will set you straight. Ditto, the long summer days when you could actually waste time: "If you have time to waste, it means you're happy and doing well."

Begin your discussion at the beginning with the short dedication to Tirone Smith's father, who spent the last half of his life care-giving her older brother who never went to school.

If you read Vogue for the articles and The New Yorker to find out all about teen culture, you will have read Janet Malcolm's paean to Gossip Girl, Cecily von Ziegesar's 2002 groundbreaking -- no, really -- novel and subsequent series about a New York private school set. Malcolm calls Gossip Girl a transgressive fairy tale, but you can call it a summer selection.

With chapter titles like "An hour of sex burns 360 calories" and "Social awareness is next to godliness," von Ziegesar intersperses the stories of teen swinging, teen exclusion and hopeless parents with news flashes from the front. "Hey people!" reads one dispatch in an almost heartbreakingly old fashioned website called gossipgirl.net. It goes on to describe the nightly exploits of B, N and S, which stands for Serena van der Woodsen, the newly returned princess to the all girl's school, Constance Billard (read: Nightingale-Bamford).

You may compare Serena to Natasha, that is Countess Natalya Ilyinichna of War and Peace. Why not? The author does. You may also take down from the shelves all of Edith Wharton and Henry James if it will make you feel better. 

Just remember, War and Peace will take you all summer to read. Gossip Girl will take you two hours and then you can alert the club for an instant beach session.  Do not confuse the book with the TV show of the same name.  It's not as good, and after all, that would be cheating.