It’s a soupy day, with the forecast calling for a 100 percent chance of rain. The rainfall produces varying beats and tempos as it meets the roof, is shaken from tree boughs, rolls off from the flashing with a splat onto the porch. It is a day for reading. Or napping.

As much as I would like to pursue those options, first I will make a foray into the sogginess to meet a friend for coffee at a bookstore cafe. I will likely manage to depart the store without having purchased reading material because I have newly arrived books from Amazon to read:

Every Day Gets a Little Closer: a Twice-Told Therapy by Irvin Yalom. Yalom and one of his patients collaborated on this. She agreed to keep a journal of her experience of the sessions, and so did he. This book presents both of their perspectives. I’m looking forward to seeing these juxtaposed.

The Marquis de Sade: A Life by Neil Schaeffer. An unusual choice, I realize, to mention on a blog that focuses on well-being, mindfulness, and spiritual matters. However, this is a blog that also focuses on mental health. I am fascinated by the circumstances surrounding the life of Donatien Alphonse François de Sade, wanting to learn what factors in his life influenced him. He left an irrefutable mark on society, and this book — the result of a decade of research and well-reviewed — looks to provide more than a sensationalized peek at a complex man who, despite his self-destructiveness, pushed against the limitations of authority for the right of free expression, however perverse.

All I need now is a pot of tea and I’m set. But first, the friend and the bookstore.