Don’t let the kids have all the fun this summer — Albany Public Library is offering grownups their own summer reading club this year, beginning Friday, June 26!

With our Read It & Rate It program, you can read any book (seriously, we mean that), fill out a rating card that you can pick up from any branch, and get in on a drawing for weekly prizes. (APL cardholders can also participate online.)

New this year is our Lunchtime Listen program at the Main Library. Join us every Wednesday at 12:30 in the Small Auditorium during July and August and listen to a five-minute selection from a book. If you like it, check it out and take it with you!

Join APL’s summer reading club! We’ve got opportunities for young readers and teens to participate in the state-wide summer reading program Catch the Reading Bug and Metamorphosis@YourLibrary respectively, plus chances for adult readers to win prizes through our Read It & Rate It program.

With Read It & Rate It, you let us know what you think of the books you’re reading on special comment cards available at all APL branches and be eligible to win prizes like gift certificates and local merchant coupons. Click here for more information about all of our summer reading programs.

If you’re like me, you take the decision of what book to pack in your travel bag as seriously as deciding where to vacation. Choose one that’s too short and I run out of reading material before my vacation’s over. Pick one that’s too long and I run the risk of never finishing it when I get back and my reading time’s curtailed. And let’s not even talk about choosing a book that just turns out to be dull…

Anyhow, it’s June now, so summer book lists and recommendations are blooming all over. Here’s a sample– happy reading!

The New York Times Sunday Book Review has published its summer book review issue, with special sections on art and design books, cookbooks, travel books, and books on wine.

LoHud.com’s got a list of fiction, nonfiction, and science fiction suggestions for beach blanket books.

Summer reads from the Wall Street Journal (spotlights nonfiction, historical fiction, world/contemporary, and short stories).

Find out what business school professors are recommending in Business Week’s “Reading List for the Poolside MBA”.

NPR’s Summer Books 2008 features Diana Abu-Jaber on “Three Books with Blood… and Brains,” the ten best cookbooks for summer, and nine debut novels. 

Salon’s summer reads spotlight killer thrillers and chick lit.