I am writing this newsletter from the deck of the condo where I am staying in Beaver Creek, Colorado. I am on a weeklong vacation traveling to some of my favorite places in Colorado, which include Crested Butte and the afore-mentioned Beaver Creek. Today my boys and I spent some time at The Bookworm of Edwards Independent Bookstore in Edwards, Colorado. Every book in the store is hand-selected by owners Nicole Magistro and Neda Jansen. Nicole and I had corresponded via email and phone, so it was great fun to get to meet her today. We talked books, authors and book clubs. If you are ever out here on vacation, you want to check out this store.

I am in Phoenix at ThrillerFest, the International Thriller Writers Convention, where I am having a wonderful time meeting up with some of my favorite thriller writers. Last night there was a reception hosted by Steve Berry and a signing of THRILLER by many of its authors. As you may know, this anthology was written by more than 30 of the International Thriller Writers. Many of the stories feature the authors' characters from their previous work, or plots or settings that readers have come to know from their writing. It's a nice way to sample these authors' work. I know that many of the stories that I read made me add more by those writers to my future reading list. You can read more about THRILLER here.

School is out and summer has officially begun! Here at Kidsreads.com we're celebrating the long lazy days of summer with cool contests, hot features and books, books and more books!