Sometimes they are light while other times a bit suspenseful or adventurous, but the very best beach reads are always those that mesh seamlessly with the atmosphere of a great beach reading environment. Sun, sand, water, and that fresh beach breeze can truly make for a stupendous reading location, and choosing the right books for the occasion is just the cherry on top for the perfect leisurely day or night. Subsequent some serious considerations, we’ve compiled a 10-book list that is sure to please just about every beach reader out there. Here they are, and we hope you enjoy them as much as we have.
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1. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
This #1 New York Times Bestseller is about the beautiful yet much misunderstood Kya Clark, a nature-loving introvert who lives outside of town and becomes the target of townsfolk ire when suspected of being involved in a local death. Should she open herself up, or should she keep all locked away? This suspenseful and often dramatic tale of “The Marsh Girl” who lives by the water’s edge reveals nature and humankind’s intriguing dark and light sides all at once.
2. The Last Resort by Marissa Stapley
A beautiful couples resort rested on the beaches of the Mayan Riviera sets the scene for this unexpected thriller. Here, couples go to reconnect and work on past problems while enjoying the dream landscape, but as a severe tropical storm rolls in, the reader realizes all is not what it seems. Some of these couples aren’t who they say they are, and this dreamy resort also holds some truly deceptive secrets. What happens next is up to you to read and find out.
3. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
Big Little Lies is the story of an upscale suburbia, not unlike many, in which many of the lives therein mingle, connect, betray, compete, and more, in quite the saucy drama. This pinnacle of chick lit went on to become a #1 New York Times Bestseller as well as the focus of an HBO series with its own list of impressive accolades. What happens in this community when all those little deceptions take root? We won’t spoil it for you.
4. The Guest Book: A Novel by Sarah Blake
It’s summer on an island along the Maine coast in 1930s America. A young couple will share a forever fateful moment on a porch here. Fast-forward many years and this family will again encounter a fateful intersection between love and trust. Money isn’t allowing for keeping the Maine island, strangers enter that change everything, and history resurfaces that threatens to tear apart all family lore and love-lines forever. Is blood really thicker than water?
5. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Those looking for the very best beach books can certainly find a winner in the multiple award-winning novel, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. A tale of extreme metaphors and uncanny connections, we start with two young children living in different regions of Nazi Germany. As time goes on, their unique experiences and paths connect them, and what happens next is history. Smuggling, suspense, Nazi treachery, and lots more adventure and drama will unfold.
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6. Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brene Brown
This bestseller and source of a Netflix special is expert Brene Brown’s uniquely empowering rendition of what it means to experience, to fear, and to overcome. This powerful look into human emotion and reaction breaks down what it all means and then enlightens the reader with some great tools, tips, and secrets into utilizing this whole mental landscape for our own improvement and benefit. Let the sun shine in with this #1 New York Times Bestseller.
7. The Summer House: A gorgeous feel-good romance that will have you hooked by Jenny Hale
We have to say that fun beach reads are the exact stuff this novel is made of. The Summer House is a delightful beach read about two women who save up and manage to buy the dream beach house in North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Life is lovely here, and one of them even manages to catch the attention of a local heartthrob. A pleasant but stirring bit of drama comes into the tale when a lost diary threatens to expose the secrets of so many in town. Paradise always prevails, however, in this warming story.
8. The Nightingale: A Novel by Kristin Hannah
The Nightingale is the drama and excitement-filled tale of survival and intense love through the outbreak of World War II. As sisters Isabelle and Vianne each fight to survive with every passing moment in Nazi territory, fate, love, and heartache will also find ways into their already tumultuous lives. How these lives then intertwine and also react and mold to large-scale beliefs and alliances is nothing short of incredible. This is an absolute magnet of a beach read drama.
9. Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
If you are looking for more inspiring and moving books to read on vacation on the beach, you may not need to look beyond Lisa Wingate’s Before We Were Yours. It’s 1939 in Memphis, and a life of southern charm along the waterways is turned upside-down by a medical emergency and subsequent, mistaken and devious placements of the Foss children into foster care. Many years later, a well-to-do and on-the-rise family is shaken by learning of these past events and the underlying connections therein. Either redemption or unending pain and sorrow will prevail.
10. Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult
Small Great Things, presently being made into a movie, is the heartrending story of a white nurse from a racist family who is ultimately set to care for a black infant in the hospital. When the baby has a medical emergency, does she do what is right, or will she do what is wrong? A trial and media frenzy are next, but what really is the truth? This best beach read gets to the core of humanity, empathy, love, beliefs, and sacrifice.
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By BCR Staff
May 2019
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