Dear readers, Forget paddle boarding, badminton, the canoe slalom: If procrastination is your preferred summer activity, then Daniel Mason’s new novel, “Country People,” is worth your time. I loved Mason’s last novel, “North Woods,” which followed the inhabitants of a single home in Massachusetts over generations. Now, he takes us again to New England — this time, Vermont — and focuses on a 40-something man who arrives there with his family, hoping to finish the dissertation he’s been working on for 14 years. There’s a lot to love in “Country People,” particularly its cast, and I’m not saying that just because it features a Lagotto Romagnolo, an outrageously cute and intelligent breed of Italian dog known for its truffle-hunting skill. Zany eccentrics, as you’d expect from a fictional New England town, are in good supply. And as our critic Alexandra Jacobs wrote in her review, the book’s “depiction of the agony and bliss of procrastination is the world-class work of someone who must know.” No matter your seasonal vocation, I’ll wish you a summer that’s light on agony and heavy on the bliss. See you on Friday. In other news
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