Summer Reading picnic is tomorrow, Thursday, Aug. 2, beginning at 12:30 p.m. with a Dennis Warner concert at 1. Meet us at Smokey Bear Park and enjoy hot dogs, sloppy joes, chips, Kool-Aid and ice cream. This will also be the first chance to pick up summer reading T-shirts!

If you are looking for some summer time reading then try Groupon’s Biggest Deal Ever by Frank Sennett. This book subtitled ‘the inside story of how one insane gamble, tons of unbelievable hype, and millions of wild deals made billions for one ballsy joker’ is a short history of the discount coupon giant.

White Bread by Aaron Bobrow-Strain has a fun cover. Come read about the social history of the store-bought loaf and read fun stories, great analysis and presents the next best thing since sliced bread.

And talk of food makes me want to bake or cook and that is only intensified by visiting the farmers’ market. I want to make what they are selling. Sweet Designs by Amy Atlas will let me “Bake It, Craft It, Style It” in over 175 recipes and fabulous dessert displays to create at home. If you enjoy reading Joanne Fluke’s Lake Eden mysteries then be sure and view all her recipes in Joanne Fluke’s Lake Eden Cookbook, which contains Hannah Swensen’s recipes from The Cookie Jar.

Poppy Markham is a culinary cop, or a chef turned health inspector who seems to be required to be more than health inspector when the owner of Capital Punishment is found dangling from a hangman’s noose in Stick a Fork In It by Robin Allen. You can also read about Poppy in If You Can’t Stand the Heat.

Carolyn Haines popular series starring Sarah Booth Delaney, now with a dozen books doesn’t show signs of waning with Bonefire of the Vanities. Even though Sarah’s fiancé is over protective and wants her to get out of the PI business, it’s too much a part of her and she is out to determine if the psychic medium who only accepts emotionally vulnerable and tremendously wealthy clients is really on the up and up.

I love the cover of We Only Know So Much by Elizabeth Crane. The story of the Copeland family is a story of crisis, but does the family know it and can they find meaning to their lives even looking in the wrong places?

Enough light stuff, The Reconstructionist by Nick Arvin examines the heart. One instant can change an entire lifetime explores the questions about science and matters of the heart and is it ever possible to escape the gravitational pull of the past. Asking similar questions is Dirt by David Vann, what is the legacy of violence and madness.

A quick reminder that the last day to turn in teen and adult bookmarks for prizes is two weeks from today, Wednesday, Aug. 15. Don’t miss out. There are some fund prizes available and one teen or adult will receive an iPad2.