With September looming, we thought it would be a good time to check in with some of our favorite authors -- and some of the writers you're likely to be reading this fall -- to see what they really read this summer. Click through the following slide show to see what they had to say.

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You'll be better for it --  and seriously entertained.

URGENT (Do this right now!)

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Many people swear that, come summer, they'll finally get around to reading a classic work of literature they missed during their student years; "War and Peace" is a perennial candidate. For some, this is the intellectual equivalent of using a week of paid vacation to finish a big household project, like installing a patio. Others honestly believe that a 900-page Russian novel that seemed too daunting a prospect in November will somehow be easier to scale in a hammock. Too often, these grand plans end in shirking and a vague sense of failure. "Moby-Dick" the novel becomes almost as elusive as the white whale himself.

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A study recently published in the journal Research in Social Stratification and Mobility found that just having books around the house (the more, the better) is correlated with how many years of schooling a child will complete. The study (authored by M.D.R. Evans, Jonathan Kelley, Joanna Sikorac and Donald J. Treimand) looked at samples from 27 nations, and according to its abstract, found that growing up in a household with 500 or more books is "as great an advantage as having university-educated rather than unschooled parents, and twice the advantage of having a professional rather than an unskilled father." Children with as few as 25 books in the family household completed on average two more years of schooling than children raised in homes without any books.

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Here are seven great smart and thoroughly entertaining crime novels and thrillers to consider for your seasonal-reading pleasure. They'll transport you to exotic locations, help you travel back in history -- and, most important, take you far, far away from your days of multitasking at the office.

"A Fierce Radiance" by Lauren Belfer (June 8)

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Even if you're not at the beach or anywhere near sandy relaxation, a great romance novel can provide the perfect escape from everyday stress. The best part of romance fiction is that happy endings are guaranteed. While the perfect tan requires careful sunscreen, enjoying a romance requires only two things: a belief that everyone deserves a happily-ever-after, and the ability to ignore anyone who sniffs at your choice of reading material. A good romance novel is like the perfect day at the beach: wonderful and restorative from start to finish.

Allow me to help take some of the risk out of summer book shopping, courtesy of some of the best writers in the romance genre. I divided the list into three helpful categories: the long-ago, the here-and-now, and could-be-today-with-creepy-things, so take your pick.

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Wicoff ran a real-life literary salon in London (along with her friend, the late Diane Middlebrook), and then another in New York (with Nancy K. Miller) before setting up She Writes. She spoke to Salon about the voracious response to her online forum, and why women still need a support site of their own.

Why did you choose to set up SheWrites.com now?

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This week, we shine the spotlight on first-person narratives: A young backpacker's life unravels on a trip to China; a novelist traipses around Italy in search of adventure; a girl grows up with a white dad who wants her to act black; a movie star helps a sensitive young woman make it through a turbulent childhood and a "mean little deaf queer" comes out (and grows up) with honesty and good humor.

Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven

By Susan Jane Gilman

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Yet despite the vast popularity of the genre, decent thrillers are hard to come by. Even a writer who's delivered the goods in the past (I'm looking at you, Carlos Ruiz Zafon!) can disappoint. Some of the worst specimens have hokey plots whose "twists" you can spot a mile away; others feature characters so flimsy and dialogue so clichéd they make your average Stephen Seagal movie look like Ingmar Bergman. Most are just plain dull -- and can there be anything more dispiriting than a thriller that fails to thrill? Yes, there can: the knowledge that said thrill-less thriller is the only book in your beach tote or carry-on bag.

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In this fourth and final installment, we focus on historical novels: a gripping fictional portrait of Queen Elizabeth's early years, when she was still just "Lady Elizabeth"; a Victorian thriller featuring a mysterious housemaid and a gentleman obsessed with anthropometry; a juicy girl's-eye view of Louis XIV's court; and an intellectual romance that spans two centuries, partly set in Venice, where novelist George Eliot is on honeymoon.

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"The Lady Elizabeth" by Alison Weir

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"This Is How It Happened (Not a Love Story)" by Jo Barrett

"The problem," confides Madeline, the heroine of Jo Barrett's "This Is How It Happened," "was he was beautiful."

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This week's focus is thrillers: a suburban family is menaced by shady secrets and unexpected dangers; an art forger gets sucked into a bizarre conspiracy; a Stalin-era communist apparatchik seeks to redeem himself by uncovering a crime; an enigmatic college professor asks his class to unravel a hypothetical (or is it?) murder; and a divorcee becomes a mother-avenger as she searches for her missing teenage daughter.

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"Hold Tight"
By Harlan Coben

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In previous weeks, we featured thrillers, chic lit and memoirs. In this final installment, we bring you an assortment of mysteries and science fiction. They include a furry detective tale with a flock of sheep as the primary sleuths; a lighthearted mystery about a grumpy mobile librarian who finds himself at the center of a kidnapping; a sexy spy zinger courtesy of Elmore Leonard; a political thriller teeming with black ops and terrorist intrigue; a virtuoso mashup of SF alternative universes and Brazilian culture; and the fantastical journey of a gang of alter-ego heroines.

Do you have summer reading recommendations? Use the letters section to share your own picks.

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In this third of four installments, we spotlight five first-person narratives. All of them involve some kind of escape from average, everyday reality. Some document an actual journey: Anthony Doerr describes an enchanted year in Rome, while Rosemary Mahoney takes us on her trip down the Nile in a fisherman's skiff. Other books provide a peek at a different way of life: Paul Shirley chronicles his misadventures as a pro basketball player; Jon Katz conjures life with his animals at Bedlam Farm, manure and all; and Mary South recounts her decision to swap a publishing job for a life at sea.

No matter where you find yourself this summer, these memoirs will whisk you away.

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In this second of four installments, we spotlight five novels we've dubbed "chic lit." They range from a lighthearted romp through the life of a novelist turned obsessive fan, to a dramatic historical novel about 17th century Chinese maidens chafing against their limitations, to a comedy about a bumbling mommy flirting with adultery, to close encounters between New York dog lovers, to a sexy British melodrama featuring an abandoned baby and three now-successful women who may be the mother.

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"Little Stalker"
By Jennifer Belle
Riverhead, $24.95

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But what constitutes a great summer read? Every airport newsstand is teeming with generic potboilers and steamy tales of love lost and found. The real trick is scoring a book that engages your imagination just enough, but not so much that your brain's gears start to grind.

Over the next four weeks, Salon's staff will recommend a list of summer reads that won't make you feel cheap and empty. (Or maybe they will, in the best possible way.) In the coming weeks we'll spotlight a choice selection of mysteries, ch**k lit, fantasy, sports and memoirs.

This week's list is killer thrillers: the quest for a lost Shakespeare manuscript, the case of a missing girl's mysterious return, a dying man's search for the truth about his ex-wife, an Australian detective whose time off turns grisly, and the mystery of a tattooed corpse. We hope these add sizzle to your long, sultry summer.

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U.S. President George W. Bush quoted French existential writer Albert Camus to European leaders a year and a half ago, and now he's read one of the writer's most famous works, "The Stranger."

White House spokesman Tony Snow said Friday that Bush, on his Texas compound enjoying a 10-day vacation from Washington, had made quick work of the Algerian-born writer's 1946 novel -- in English.

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Dear Wifey,

Haw. Haw. Haw.

Haw haw.

You said no way I could read a book in 10 days. And when I said I was going to read the frog book, you said, Well, George, I hope those big words don't hurt your esophagus too much going down. The joke's on you, woman. I finished the dang thing. And just so you believe me, I'm going to write it all down in a little book report deal, and that way, you'll know I read every darn word. And Condi's going to check my spelling just in case you go all schoolteacher on my butt.

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