Picking a book (or three) for the beach can be tough. Do you go classic? Contemporary? Literary? Sci-fi? Here’s a guide to help you.
For those looking for the quintessential beach read: A Hundred Summers // Beatriz Williams (review)
For those who want something set in the rural south/Gulf of Mexico region: Salvage the Bones // Jesmyn Ward
For those looking for southeastern shore/Southern Gothic: The Shore // Sara Taylor (Shannon’s review)
For those who love a good space opera with a hint of a love story: Fortune’s Pawn // Rachel Bach (review)
For those that love an adult book that reads with the angst and ease of YA: Steal the North // Heather Brittain Bergstrom (review)
For those looking for a few hillbillies and a banjo in their literature (and who isn’t?)*: Deliverance // James Dickey (review)
For the list lovers and music fans out there (and who doesn’t want their life to be like a Bruce Springsteen song?)*: High Fidelity // Nick Hornby
For those who want classic literature: Far from the Madding Crowd // Thomas Hardy
For those who like their TV a bit trashy and the literature it’s based on only slightly less so: Witches of East End // Melissa de la Cruz (review, also that house (it should never have been cancelled)!)
For those who want non-fiction (with a road trip): All The Wild That Remains: Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner, and the American West // David Gessner
Why is there a picture of Lake Tahoe with this post? The reason is two-fold: I didn’t want to gather all of the images (pure laziness) and Lake Tahoe is my only beach destination this year. Here’s to mediocrity.
*And when you get home from your beach day, you can curl up and watch a movie. Both of these have fabulous adaptations.