Summer Reading

Summertime, and the readin’ is easy. Bookstores around the Valley report exactly what you would expect. If there is anybody out there carrying Proust to the pool, they are keeping it to themselves. At Barnes & Noble in Northridge, Tom Clancy’s book on the Gulf War, “Into the Storm,” is hot, according to manager Rick Mogil. “Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul” is also moving well.

Writers’ Choice

“We’re in a cafe,” manager Beth Anderson says of Portrait of a Bookstore, a Studio City bookseller inside the Aroma Cafe, where Jem Martin, above, browses. It’s a place where, even in summer, writers and other artists look for books to help hone their craft. Two bestsellers: the anthology “Writing Changes Everything” and “Art and Fear,” about “the kinds of things that block creativity.”

‘Indigo Slam’

Writer Robert Crais of Sherman Oaks has just returned from a 22-city tour promoting his new book, “Indigo Slam.” The seventh novel featuring hip L.A. private eye Elvis Cole, it is suitable for reading by “sand, surf, poolside or in the comfort of your own home,” Crais jokes.

At Dutton’s

One of the Valley’s oldest independent bookstores, Dutton’s in North Hollywood, is selling lots of copies of “Mason & Dixon,” Thomas Pynchon’s latest. Patrick McGrath’s scary “Asylum” is also doing well, as is Mary Higgins Clark’s “Pretend You Don’t See Her,” according to manager Abbott Alexander.