The days are getting shorter, Labor Day weekend has brought another spot of warm weather before that last, glorious lap of summer we call September arrives, and we need to talk.

You might hear us talking about how important it is to vote. About how essential it is to try and understand each other. About how we need to stay informed. About how we also need to listen.

Interviewing people from all perspectives to document that "stranger-than-strange political moment," journalist Abramsky investigates the dangers of polarization and misinformation. This author event from the Sequim Good Governance League will take place September 14 at 6pm, at the Dungeness River Nature Center.

Banned Books Week will arrive later in the month and there will unfortunately be far too much to talk about then. Meanwhile, we have  been finding that the books included in the New York Times' Best of the Century list displayed in our window are starting conversations and introducing readers to new writers.

Yes, there is plenty to talk about. The occasional hints of fall weather we have had will become more and more overt, and before you know it, it will be "Spooky Season." Come by and say hello!

Look, we are not telling you how to live your life, or that implying that if you choose not to preorder a copy of T.J. Klune's follow-up to his beloved House in the Cerulean See, that you are doing it wrong.

You may not want the long-sought continuation of that award-winning, best-selling, feel-good Port Book and News staff pick from a couple of years ago. We can respect that.

If none of that convinces you to preorder one of these Klune books, there is almost certainly something coming out soon that will excite you. Big names on the horizon include Robin Wall Kimmerer, Richard Powers, Rachel Kushner, Yuval Noah Harari, Sally Rooney, Jeff Vandermeer, Louise Erdrich, Matt Haig...  and a lot more. You are bound to find a gift to give your future self on the preorders list.

The store's "Vortex of Tiny Things" flanking the cash registers tends to pull in unsuspecting customers with little books, pencils and other diminutive temptations.

Our friend was in the hospital and they asked us his blood type but we couldn’t remember and he didn’t make it.

As he died, he kept insisting for us to "be positive," but it's hard without him.