Dan Webster

Summer's coming, which means something special to young readers. Free from the need to worry about homework, June, July and August offer a collective opportunity to discover all those great novels your teachers have been recommending as long as you can remember.

There is a literature of rage, one that has long and noble roots. It ranges from the Bible to Cormac McCarthy, encompasses every style and tone from the epic Russian novels to the comic plays of Oscar Wilde, and it became the catalyst that helped fuel the school of hardboiled detective fiction as the genre evolved from pulp magazines to hardback novels.

It's May, and – with apologies to Clement Clarke Moore – it feels as if we've all emerged from a long winter's nap. Yet things are going to heat up eventually. And, following the recent Get Lit! celebration, they're already starting to heat up on the literary-reading circle.

Like many young boys, and a growing number of girls, Sam Clay grew up fantasizing about doing great things. Super great things. As one of the two title characters in Michael Chabon's novel "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay," 17-year-old Sam "dreamed the usual Brooklyn dreams of flight and transformation and escape." His dreams ultimately would come true, more or less, through the World War II-era comic-book superheroes he would create with his cousin, Josef Kavalier. But long before then, Sam's major form of escape came through his active imagination. "He had devoted an embarrassing number of hours of mute concentration – brow furrowed, breath held – to the development of his brain's latent powers of telepathy and mind control," Chabon wrote.

Psssst! That nonprofit state group is giving out some free money to artists again. Here's the official explanation: "The Artist Trust/Washington State Arts Commission Fellowship Program recognizes practicing professional artists of exceptional talent and demonstrated quality, acknowledging an artist's creative excellence and accomplishment, professional achievement and continuing dedication to their artistic discipline."

And last, but not least, for Get Lit! 2008 we have Tobias Wolff. Wolff, the acclaimed author of the memoir "This Boy's Life" and the 2008 fiction collection "Our Story Begins: New and Selected Stories," will read from his newest book at 1 p.m. today at the Spokane Athletic Club, 1002 W. Riverside Ave.

From the very first time that someone slaps a Band-Aid on a knee we've skinned or a finger we've nicked, we become conscious of blood. Most of us limit that interest to wondering about the workings of our arteries, veins and capillaries while trying to avoid having actually to see the stuff.

Anyone who has an interest in the world at large would benefit from reading the books of Thomas Cahill. Cahill, who will visit Auntie's Bookstore at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, is the author of such notable histories as "How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe" and "Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter."

Dan Butterworth may be the last writer in Gonzaga University's 2007-08 visiting writers series, but he's hardly the least. In addition to his teaching duties as an English professor at Gonzaga University (where he also serves as department chair), Butterworth – who will read at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at GU's Cataldo Globe Room – has published both nonfiction and poetry.

Brevity may be the soul of wit, as Hamlet's antagonist Polonius says, but this much also is true: Length is no necessary measure of intelligent commentary. This is particularly relevant when the laugh-lines are cast as limericks.

"Three Cups of Tea" is a story of how failure turned into unprecedented success. The nonfiction book by Portland author David Oliver Relin tells the story of Greg Mortenson, a mountain climber who failed in a 1993 effort to climb the Himalayan peak K2 but who then became an advocate for the students of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

It's always nice when someone local gets national attention. It's even better when that same person gets attention from the community that helped spawn him.

Loving James Crumley is a little like loving the darkness at 4 a.m. Especially when you awaken in a sweat. And rather than going back to sleep, you find yourself obsessing about all the things that you haven't done, that you've failed at doing or that you'll never get a chance even to try.

In a year that saw the Academy Awards going several ways at once, correctly guessing 18 of the 24 categories was good enough to win the annual Spokesman-Review Oscar Contest. Three entrants hit the mark of 18, and two of those tied by correctly predicting that the best picture winner, "No Country For Old Men," would snare four awards in all. They share $100 movie gift certificates.

This may be a column devoted to books, but the Big Read is changing all of that. As part of February's community-wide reading project – which is sponsored by Spokane Public Library, the Spokane County Library District and the Fairchild Air Force Base library – a film-noir series will continue during the coming week.

When Robert Hass answers the phone, he sounds like any other 66-year-old guy who's just returned from a run. "Calling it running is sort of flattery at this point," he says with a slow laugh. "I get passed by old ladies speed-walking."