<p>Saving ceecee huneyicutt for those who like secret life of bees…similar and good for beach read. More in depth…on the corner of bitter and sweet, sarah’s key, winter gsrden and the book thief. the last child is a good thriller, mystery by john hart. Currently reading Jeffery Deaver the burning wire</p>
<p>Anne Rivers Siddon books are good beach reads. After reading “Colony” quite a few years ago, I went on a binge, reading all her books. All were easy,breezy enjoyable, but became a little predictable. (IMO, that happens with many authors.)</p>
<p>Jodi Piccoult books are also good, but not all of them are breezy beach reads. MY RL Book Club read “Nineteen Minutes” last year – well written, but SO disturbing!</p>
<p>There are some great suggestions on this thread! A-a-a-a-ck – so many books, so little time!</p>
<p>Thanks for answering the beachy read question Lalafum. Enjoy your lazy day reads.</p>
<p>Grew up outside Charleston on Edisto Island. I remember my sister and I being pulled out in a riptide as my mother and friends played bridge under the umbrella. They were happily waving back to us as we were throwing our arms into the air, as we bobbled up and down, taking turns holding each other up from drowning. Surfers heard our screams on the wind and rescued us before the mom made it through the breakers.</p>
<p>Read with a buddy!
:)</p>
<p>While walking the shore, took notice of lots of pulp favs being held by folks.
Heart of the Matter, Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang, The 3 Weismans of Westport, The Namesake, 8th confession, 7yr *****, Wicked Prey.</p>
<p>Marley & Me… laugh and cry!</p>
<p>and second the Janet Evanovich series with Stephanie Plum!! i laugh out loud when i read them… sizzling 16 is now out!!</p>
<p>I read Marley & Me on the beach, I looked like a crazy person between the laughing and crying! I read this when I had put a deposit on a yellow lab, sight unseen. Thank God my lab is nothing like Marley!</p>
<p>Went to B&N last night, picked up Outlander, and another book that looked interesting called Castaways. (4 couples are friends, one couple drowns on a sailing trip, the remaining 3 couples discover many secrets while trying to figure out what really happened to the drowned couple).</p>
<p>From the cover and size of Outlander, I never would have guessed it would be a beach read! But I’ve read the first 2 or 3 chapters and it seems like it will be awesome. Might have to clear some space on the bookshelf, because I love books that come in Series. Once I become wedded to characters, I always want to know more about them, and what happens next.</p>
<p>author - yikes! I know there are often bad riptides in the area. We’ll be at Isle of Palms. We plan to go into Charleston and play tourist because haven’t done that in years, but we know enough to go early in the morning before the heat builds up, and retreat to breezy IOP by mid-day!</p>
<p>I am reading Anna Quindlen’s “Every Last One” and Stieg Larsson’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”. Every Last One is fine, but I can put it down but Girl with Tattoo is excellent and I am looking forward to the other two books in the series. Have to put The Help on my shopping list.</p>
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<p>After starting, and falling in love with Outlander, I bought a Kindle so I wouldn’t have to lug those huge books around. </p>
<p>For those of you who are impatiently waiting for book 8, Gabaldon has a novel coming out in the fall called The Exile which is Outlander re-told from Jamie’s perspective.</p>
<p>Every Last One is not light funny beach reading but it is good. Maeve Binchy is my go to comfort, ease of reading books.</p>
<p>I found Castaways a little boring and odd. Interested to hear what you think.</p>
<p>I read “Every Last One” a month or so ago, brutal but well written and worth reading.</p>
<p>Late to the party here but I, too, suggest The Help. That was our book club selection for May. Everyone loved it.</p>
<p>I also suggest American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld. In the middle of America, America by Ethan Canin now and its pretty interesting.</p>
<p>If you like comic essayists like David Sedaris, Sloane Crosley has a new book out titled “How Did You Get This Number”. I read her first book (I Was Told There’d Be Cake) and was laughing out loud too many times to count, so I am looking forward to many chuckles at the campground with this one…</p>
<p>Alexander McCall Smith (author of the Ladies Detective Agency books) has two other series that would qualify as good beach reads. There are the 44 Scotland Street books set in Edinborough Scotland and following a whole cast of characters through their normal lives- and very funny. Then there are Isabel Dalhousie mysteries. Transports you right to Scotland.</p>
<p>Just finished The Swan Thieves by Kostova and really enjoyed it. I highly recommend it.</p>
<p>I liked the first Outlander book, but liked each succeeding book less and gave up on the series. My favorite time travel book is The Time Traveller’s Wife. </p>
<p>I loved Georgette Heyer in high school, but haven’t reread them in a while. I also love the Dorothy Sayers mysteries. If you want to read sci-fi written by someone who loves Heyer and Sayers (and Bronte) try the Miles Vorkosigan books by Lois McMasters Bujold. I am completely hooked on the series. </p>
<p>I am currently reading the Dresden file books - I find them enjoyable but don’t love them. They are noir-ish mysteries in Chicago with vampires and wizards and fairies.</p>
<p>The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls.</p>
<p>If anyone else is reading this thread looking for suggestions, I suggest almost anything by Bill Bryson: A Walk in the Woods, In a Sunburned Country, I’m a Stranger Here Myself, A Brief History of Almost Everything, or The Mother Tongue (English and How It Got That Way). Funny and enlightening at the same time. If you can only read one, try A Walk in the Woods. I chuckled and laughed out loud.</p>
<p>The Spellman books by Lisa Lutz are laugh-out-loud funny. Kind of mystery, kind of extreme dysfunctional family.
All of Joshilyn Jackson’s books are wonderful. Not a series. Gods in Alabama was her first.
Donna Leon’s crime series about Inspector Brunelli in Venice. Excellent.
Cara Black’s Amie LeDuc series set in Paris.
Sarah Addison Allen’s books are sweet, easy summer reads. A bit of the woo-woo factor included.
Read the Barbara Michaels books (Elizabeth Peters is her alter ego). Lots of Gothic Rom Suspense. I read them starting when I was a teen and continued into adulthood. They’re in PB & often at Half Price Books. My younger D (17) reads them now :)</p>
<p>Here is what I’m reading this summer: Girl w/ dragon tattoo (a great read),
The White Queen (historic fiction-War of the Roses),
The lost City of Z (Great non Fiction man book, but I loved it too)
The sixteen Pleasures (about art, Italy and conservation, fiction type, older book)
Manhunt (about Abraham Lincoln’s killer, nonfiction, great read that someone should make into a movie)</p>