According to recent reports, adult attention spans are now just eight seconds long. And, yup, that’s mine, when I crack open a new book. If I’m not enthralled after a few pages, I toss it aside. With a sad stack of half-read tomes on my night stand, I was thrilled to finally lose myself in Alexandra Fuller’s latest memoir,Leaving Before the Rains. Her first book, Don’t Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight, is one of my all-time favorites. This account of the disintegration of her marriage is a sad one, but I am in awe of the way she constructs a sentence. I gobbled it this weekend. Do you have a summer read that made it past the 8-second rule? Email me: erica@the-e-list.com.

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tags: Wafflebar, Sound View Beach, Old Lyme, Cupcakes and Flying Hearts, Old Lyme, Izzle’s Smoothie Bar, Madison, Liv’s Shack at Harbor One Marina, Old Saybrook