How do you buy and prepare for the season?

We try to order everything ahead of time so that when things start to really pick up — from about July 4 through Labor Day — we can spend time with customers and not be tied up placing orders. Summer’s really the only time of year when we stock lighter reads, books for people to take to the beach.

Forecasting our customers’ taste is really like a sixth sense, and there’s an art to it. The books we sell by the case are not necessarily on every best-seller list, but they’re ones we love. Generally if our staff loves it, our customers will love it, too.

Any predictions for the store’s most popular books this season?

If we had to guess: Mark Helprin’s “Paris in the Present Tense,” “News of the World” by Paulette Jiles, Michael Ondaatje’s “Warlight,” Joanna Cannon’s “The Trouble With Goats and Sheep,” Amor Towles’ “A Gentleman in Moscow,” Helene Stapinski’s “Murder in Matera,” Madeleine Albright’s “Fascism: A Warning” and “Love, Africa,” by Jeffrey Gettleman.