By Perrie Samotin, StyleCaster

Put these on your must-read list. Between lazy days, vacation time, and weekends at the beach, there's no better season than summer to kick back with a stack of good books. And, as luck would have it, the stories hitting shelves right now are intelligent and compulsively page-turning.

Related Article: 10 Summer Blazers To Combat Freezing Air-Conditioned Offices (For Under $100)

Don't be put off by the fact that so many are considered literary fiction, as these novels are every bit as entertaining and addictive-if a bit more thought-provoking-as summer's typical soapy beach reads.

As admitted bookworms ourselves, we've compiled a handy list of 12 buzzy books to add to your summer reading list, stat. Let us know in the comments section below if you've already read any of the novels, and which you're planning to dive into this summer!

1. Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight Critics are calling this novel this year's "Gone Girl" thanks to its twisty plotlines and dueling narrators,

Read More »from Buzzy Books to Read This Summer

The answer is yes! The practice can help you achieve slim-down success by burning calories, toning muscles, improving your sleep, and helping you de-stress. Get ready to say "Om."

- By Marnie Soman

More from Good Housekeeping:

• A Snack to Satisfy Every Craving
  
• Melt-Proof Makeup
  
• 8 Tips to Be More Productive Working From Home
  
• Quick Ways to Add Color to Your Room

Read More »from Can Yoga Really Help You Lose Weight?

WikimediaBad news for those who like that glass of wine (or two…or three) before bed: it may actually be ruining your sleep.

Related: Underage Alcohol Tasting Might Become Legal in Washington State

While alcohol may be helpful for falling asleep, a study by Canadian and British researchers found that it's actually worse for staying asleep, according to The San Francisco Chronicle. And, if you're kicking back more than your fair share of cocktails, you're ruining your chances even more for a good night of sleep. The more you drink, the worse it is for staying asleep and the less time you spend in REM sleep.

Related: Your Alcoholic Beverages Might Soon Have Nutritional Labels

The study took 500 volunteers and gave them various levels of alcohol: One to two drinks was a low dose of alcohol, moderate was three to four drinks, and more than four drinks was a high dose. Then the volunteers went to sleep 15 to 30 minutes following their last drink. Each one of the volunteers fell asleep more quickly

Read More »from Contrary to Popular Belief: Alcohol May Impair Sleep

By Shannon Farrell, Daily Makeover

Summer Cocktails That Have Beauty Benefits
During these gorgeous warm months, we just can't say no to a cold cocktail and outdoor seating at the local watering hole. Although most are on the hunt for "skinny" low-cal cocktails, we're more worried about the effects alcohol has on our skin. So we're resolving to undo at least some of the damage by staying hydrated with water, drinking in moderation and mixing spirits with some of our favorite beauty-boosting ingredients.

Related Article: 5 Foods That Give You Better Skin

The Berry Booster Blueberries are rich in antioxidants that neutralize free radicals to protect the skin from premature aging.

1 ½ oz Berry acai vodka
1 oz fresh blueberry puree
1 oz seltzer
Mix vodka and blueberry puree in a shake with ice. Top with seltzer.

Tequila Sunrise Makeover
Vitamin C is found in many of our favorite skincare buys, and for good reason. The antioxidant stimulates collagen production, protects skin from harmful UV rays and even improves texture

Read More »from 4 Summer Cocktails with Beauty Benefits

Laura Doss/FITNESS MagazineBy Hallie Levine Sklar

The only problem with hot weather is that, well, it's so darn hot outside. Put the cool factor back into your workout routine with these tricks from top fitness pros:

Related: 10 Exercises to Turn the Outdoors Into a Gym

1. Adjust your body temperature
Hop into a cold shower before your workout. A German study this year found that a pre-exercise cooldown improves performance in the heat -- probably because it lowers your heart rate as well as core and skin temperatures. Too chicken to try it? Even just cooling your neck or head with an ice pack may make a difference.

2. Check the map
Does your usual running route leave you broiling in the sun? Find a shady new one through the Road Runners Club of America (rrca.org), which features running routes around the country via Google maps. You can also log on to weather.com, which offers a local parks forecast, a fitness comfort index, and an hourly forecast to help you figure out the best time of day to exercise.

3.

Read More »from Love Your Summer Workout: 10 Motivation Tricks

By Augusta Falletta, Beauty High

An Expert's Take on Models Eating Cotton Balls to Stay Skinny It's no surprise when a new diet plan takes over the modeling world, considering we've heard of everything from the Master Cleanse to the Tapeworm diet, but the latest diet fad (or breaking news, rather) among models is just downright disturbing. When we read that Bria Murphy, Eddie Murphy's daughter and aspiring model, revealed that some models have turned to eating cotton balls dipped in orange juice to feel full on virtually zero calories, we were beyond shocked. There's incredible pressure on models to be thin, especially during busy times like fashion week, but eating non-food items found in your medicine cabinet and dipping them in juice takes things to an entirely new low. After picking our jaws up from the floor, we turned to Marissa Lippert, dietician and nutritionist at Nourish NYC, to get her take on the latest weight loss trend. Read on to learn about the scary ramifications of this diet.

Related Article: 4 Key Ways To Change Your Diet For

Read More »from An Expert’s Take on Models Eating Cotton Balls to Stay Skinny

Daugherty and Menakaya at their Fort Worth reunion. Photo: Courtesy Chidinma Menakaya.When Patience Menakaya was seven months pregnant with her first child 29 years ago, she suddenly found herself in an unenviable position: A student at Dallas Baptist University, she was all alone in Forth Worth, Texas, after her husband became stuck in their native Nigeria during a coup d’état. After developing visa problems, she was kicked out by the friend she'd been staying with, and had nowhere to go.

More on Shine: Mother, Son Reunite Thanks to Facebook and the Kindness of Strangers

Enter Lolamay Daugherty, wife of the pastor where Menakaya attended church, who offered a generous solution. “We told her to just come and live with us,” she recalled, speaking with Yahoo! Shine this week. “We were happy to have her.”

It was a precious gift that Menakaya, now 53, said affected the entire course of her life. And last week, after three decades of ups and downs that included moving around the country, raising six children (all now college grads), splitting from her husband and eventually

Read More »from 'Fairy Godmother' Gets Surprise Thank You From Mom After 27 Years. We Melt.

I'm still obsessed with the four categories I've developed-which, for lack of a better name, I'm currently calling the Four Rubin Tendencies.

These categories describe how people tend to respond to expectations: outer expectations (a deadline, a "request" from a sweetheart) and inner expectations (write a novel in your free time, train for a marathon).

To learn more about the Four Rubin Tendencies, read here and here. In a nutshell:

Upholders respond readily to both inner and outer expectations

Questioners question all expectations, but will follow expectations if they think the expectations are sensible (effectively making all expectations into inner expectations)

Rebels resist all expectations

Obligers meet outer expectations but struggle to meet expectations they impose on themselves

I'm still working on refining these types, and I'd love to hear what you have to say about the following questions. Obviously no one would answer all these questions,

Read More »from Consider These Questions Posed to You Upholders, Questioners, Rebels, and Obligers