Best Books to Bring to the Beach

It's summertime, and the reading is easy. And our beach bag is already packed (and waiting by the door) with books that sizzle, simmer, steam - or make you laugh so hard your daiquiri bubbles out your nose.

Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead
Sara Gran's heroine, private investigator Claire DeWitt, arrives in post-Katrina New Orleans to use dreams, omens, and the occasional mind-expanding herb to help her solve a missing person/murder mystery. Smell something funny? That's not the city rotting in the humidity - it's our serious case of writer's envy. (Read our interview with Sara Gran here.)
Available online at amazon.com, $15.

learning to swim!
learning to swim!

Learning to Swim
Once we dove into Sara J. Henry's debut, we didn't come up for air until it was finished. When Troy Chance spots a bundle fall from a ferry opposite the one she is riding, she instinctively dives into icy waters to retrieve it. It's a crazy move - one that saves a life and changes hers in a way she could not have predicted. Floaties not required.
Available online at amazon.com, $14.

emily and einstein!
emily and einstein!

Emily and Einstein

Girl meets boy. Girl loses boy. Boy comes back as a dog. Linda Francis Lee spins a tender romance that includes a rascally dog, serial-cheater dead husband, and healing new love interest for the appealing Emily. Sure, it's miracles and magic, but reincarnating the scoundrel hub into a wise but scruffy dog named Einstein sounds pretty smart to us.
Available online atamazon.com, $15.

enough about love!
enough about love!

Enough About Love

This fabulously Frenchy novel by Hervé Le Tellier is a story about four characters who couple, uncouple, and recouple. Peer into the Parisian window of their romps and experience the forbidden thrill of illicit affairs of the heart. Summer is, after all, about lovin'.
Available online at amazon.com, $10.

Want to see the rest of our summer reading list?

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