Hi, friends:

Yesterday I went to New York City for the day — always a whirlwind, but nice to remember how close it actually is to Northampton.

Now I’m back in the newsroom, revisiting Emma Kemp’s excellent cover story on Timmon (or Tim) Wallis and Vicki Elson, a Northampton-based couple who have been instrumental in the people’s fight against nuclear weapons. Emma, if you recall, was recently an intern here at the Gazette, and she’d been wanting to write about these two activists for some time after hearing about Wallis, who last year was part of a global organization — the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) — that won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize.

Along with Wallis, Elson is now also involved with ICAN, and the couple is doing important grassroots work here in the Valley and beyond to make communities compliant with the ICAN-facilitated Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, also known as the Nuclear Ban Treaty. It’s a timely piece: As I’m writing, it’s being reported that North Korea claims to have destroyed its major nuclear test site, only weeks before Kim Jong Un and President Trump have their scheduled meeting. Wait, another update: Trump just canceled their meeting, citing Kim’s “tremendous anger and open hostility” in recent statements. You can read more about the Nuclear Ban Treaty in Emma’s article, which doubles as something of an anti-nuclear love story — activism brought Wallis and Elson together, and now they are a united front in more ways than one.

Also a united front: Caroline Pam and her husband, Tim Wilcox, who run Kitchen Garden Farm in Sunderland. This week, Caroline writes about the financial stresses involved in operating a successful business — it’s truly a labor of love.

Also in this issue, Steve Pfarrer reviews two books by authors with strong Valley ties, “The Boy Who Walked to Distant Lands: Stories” by Zane Kotker; and “Love, Laughter, and Rhubarb” by Tinky Weisblat.

What’s on your summer reading list? I just finished “The Woman in Cabin 10” by Ruth Ware, a fun beach read that I actually read on a beach. Send me your recommendations at bhauser@gazettenet.com, and maybe I’ll include a few next week.

In other book-related news … Anne Fadiman will be reading from her new book, “The Wine Lover’s Daughter,” this Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Whately Public Library, 202 Chestnut Plain Road in Whately. In her memoir, Fadiman focuses on her relationship with her father, Clifton Fadiman, literary critic, editor, radio host and appreciator of wine. You should go!

Today I’m remembering Philip Roth, who died earlier this week. As The New York Times recently put it in a headline, Roth was a “Peerless Chronicler of Sex and Death.” He was also a peerless chronicler of New Jersey. When I think of Roth, I think of my father, who’s from Elizabeth, N.J. and knows all the Newark landmarks in Roth’s books. I wonder how many fathers and daughters out there share Roth like we do. We also share a love of Tom Wolfe, another legend recently lost, who pioneered the genre known as New Journalism. The other week in Northampton, Forbes Library put up a display of his books, along with a photo of Wolfe in his signature white suit.

If beach reads aren’t your thing and you’d rather share a few thoughts on these two writers, please do.

Have a great weekend.

Brooke Hauser