​Summer Shorts is back. Every other Thursday at 6 PM, we gather in the store to read a short story together: silently, all at once, with nowhere else to be. The story is unveiled when you arrive. No preparation required. Just show up, settle in, and let the rest of your week fall away.

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​This session we turn to James Salter, who was born James Horowitz in New York City, published poetry in high school, and then let his father talk him into West Point. He flew more than a hundred combat missions in Korea before quitting the Air Force as a major in 1957 to write full time. That first life gave him his first novel. The second life, much of it spent in France, gave him everything else: books about marriage, desire, food, betrayal, and the slow passage of time. He never sold particularly well. What he had instead was the devotion of other writers, who passed his books around like a secret.

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Tonight's story comes from Dusk and Other Stories, the collection that won the PEN/Faulkner Award. We'll read one together and see what there is to say about it afterward. Happy hour pricing at the cafe. No RSVP required, but it always helps us plan.

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