As you may have gotten from our lead essay, this Summer Books issue, alongside a rich compendium of seven reviews of new titles, we are stepping away from the publication calendar to look at old books that we return to. In the special Winter Books issue to come, you can look forward to recommendations from the editors for great reads (and gifts) from 2024. But for now, I have asked the editors for stories about their most precious books, great works but also totems that some of us at the Washington Examiner magazine keep with us to sit on the shelf like old friends and, with any luck, pass down generations.

— Nicholas Clairmont, life & arts editor