[Beth]

I'm in a terrible reader's slump at the moment. Worse than the feeling generated by a morning's efforts to get a toddler ready to leave the house, only to glance at the clock and see that noon has past and you are still treading water. I usually suffer these slumps in the darkest days of winter; a surprise summer fizzout is no fun. Something will click at some point, but the interim is quite dispiriting.