Donation lines were long and the piles of books for sale were as high as 6 feet, but it was puzzle sales that surprised organizers of the Berks Book Bonanza. If you could gauge anything about Berks County from the return of the beloved sale, it is that people have developed a love for puzzles through the pandemic. They've also done a lot of cleaning and a lot of reading, according to coordinator Judy Ellsworth. Puzzles, hundreds of them, flew off the shelves of the makeshift shop that took up three stores in the Berkshire Mall in Wyomissing. The sale lasted five days and ended Sunday with its $5 a bag sale. The event benefits Berks libraries and supports scholarships for the Reading branch of the American Association of University Women. The Book Bonanza has been an annual event since 1974, except for last year when the pandemic made it unsafe to shop in close quarters. "This is a gigantic year," said Ellsworth who has been involved with the sale for seven years. "We have two years' worth of collection and added days and hours. It's been phenomenal." Ellsworth said that at Wednesday's preview sale people were buying 20 and 30 puzzles each. Customers paid $10 just to get into the preview. The puzzles sold so quickly that they brought out incomplete puzzles and people bought them, too. By Sunday, customers were still eagerly picking over three long shelves of puzzles that remained.

Birdwatchers continue to follow Reading's peregrine falcons looking for signs of new life. The nest at the Callowhill Building has been watched for years by the Pennsylvania Game Commission and bird lovers alike. Art McMorris, the game commission's falcon coordinator, said that it appears the nest has failed. "Both adults are still present together in downtown Reading, but they do not appear to be nesting," McMorris said in an email. "This is puzzling, because the new(est) female arrived in plenty of time to recycle hormonally and begin nesting (she arrived April 2), and the pair have been seen copulating."

Can a cafe operate successfully with customers paying whatever they want? The answer is not simple. The Rev. Mary Wolfe's tour of the empty corner row home at 105 W. Greenwich St. is as much a dare as it is a dream. "This is where the community table would be," the Hope Lutheran Church pastor said as she gestured in the empty center room. The idea is bolder than it seems: a special table in the cafe where someone as important as a mayor, business executive or state senator would sip an artful