I had no idea where the second Newbery winner would go. In Katherine Paterson’s Jacob Have I Loved, (1980), the narrator, Louise, was a lonely teenager on a small fishing island in Chesapeake Bay. She felt constrained as the slighted first-born twin in a family that followed strict traditional roles and religious practices. I did not expect her grandmother to become the heavy in this honest family drama about small-town struggles set at the beginning of WWII. Daily life on the island was well done and the satisfying ending with Louise finding work as a rural midwife, then love and happiness, hit the spot.

One more amazing read yesterday was the obit in The Economist for Bindeshwar Pathak, 80, an Indian reformer who uplifted millions crushed by India’s caste system. His unlikely mission was a lifelong dedication to teach untouchable workers and widowed women to embroider and make candles to support themselves. Despite a long learning curve for safe public toilets and opposition to including the poorest of the poor in society, he kept going.

Today is one of those days that make it seem like summer’s greenery will last forever. The later sunrises and shorter days don’t seem that short – yet. But the abundance at Rochester’s Public Market yesterday said the harvest has begun.

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