The weekend was busy. On Saturday night, we hosted a benefit for the Mercantile Library at which David Baldacci spoke. He gave a very excellent talk, and everybody went away happy.

One thing that I remember him talking about in his speech, in answer to a question from the audience, was that the way we can prevent acts of terror is to have more economic justice around. That made sense to me: the more contented people are in their lives, the less they want to go blow something up.

Next year’s speaker: A. S. Byatt, who wrote Possession.

“Possession: A Romance (Modern Library)” (A.S. Byatt)