If you need a good read, the folks at b, which is a part of the Baltimore Sun, have assembled a great photo gallery of recommendations from area libraries. leading off is "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern, which has been praised in reviews.

I jus finished Erik Larson's "In The Garden of Beasts," which was disappointing. I'll provide a more detailed review later this week, but in general, I found the characters uncharismatic, and the historical drama strangely undramatic. And that's saying something for Nazi-era Germany. I really wanted to like it, but found myself plodding through it.

To get you started on the gallery, here's an excerpt, courtesy of publisher Random House: " The circus arrives without warning.

"No announcements precede it, no paper notices on downtown posts and billboards, no mentions or advertisements in local newspapers. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.

"The towering tents are striped in white and black, no golds and crimsons to be seen. No color at all, save for the neighboring trees and the grass of the surrounding fields. Black-and-white stripes on grey sky; countless tents of varying shapes and sizes, with an elaborate wrought-iron fence encasing them in a colorless world. Even what little ground is visible from outside is black or white, painted or powdered, or treated with some other circus trick.

"But it is not open for business. Not just yet."