Summer is the perfect time to catch up on all those books you’ve been meaning to read all year. Whether you’re reading at the beach or by the pool, these 10 books are sure keep you entertained on your summer vacation!
1. The Vacationers, Emma Straub
Hardcover, 304 pages
"Delicious . . . richly riveting . . . The Vacationers offers all the delights of a fluffy, read-it-with-sunglasses-on-the-beach read, made substantial by the exceptional wit, insight, intelligence and talents of its author.”–People (four stars)
2. Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn
Paperback, 432 pages
“Ice-pick-sharp… Spectacularly sneaky… Impressively cagey… Gone Girl is Ms. Flynn’s dazzling breakthrough. It is wily, mercurial, subtly layered and populated by characters so well imagined that they’re hard to part with — even if, as in Amy’s case, they are already departed. And if you have any doubts about whether Ms. Flynn measures up to Patricia Highsmith’s level of discreet malice, go back and look at the small details. Whatever you raced past on a first reading will look completely different the second time around.” –Janet Maslin, New York Times
3. Beautiful Ruins, Jess Waters
Paperback, 368 pages
“Lyrical, heartbreaking, and funny . . . Walter closes the deal with such command that you begin to wonder why up till now he’s not often been mentioned as one of the best novelists around. Beautiful Ruins might just correct that oversight.” –Kansas City Star
4. The Good Luck of Right Now, Matthew Quick
Paperback, 304 pages
“Mr. Quick ventures to the edges of society,…He rewards us with an irresistible urge to think the best of humanity, to understand not only the need to walk in someone else’s shoes but also the altruistic power attained from doing so.” –Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
5. The One and Only, Emily Griffin
Hardcover, 432 pages
“Brace yourself for a tearjerker: A tale of friendship and loyalty in a small, football-crazed Texas town shows how quickly things can change when tragedy challenges all that the characters hold dear.” –InStyle
6. Little Known Facts, Christine Sneed
Paperback, 304 pages
“An entertaining, formally inventive read …the world that Sneed creates in Little Known Facts— a blend of truth and fiction that weaves real life actors and directors into Renn’s everyday life — makes for a clever take and a fun read.” –Los Angeles Times
7. Night Film, Marisha Pessl
Paperback, 640 pages
“A very deeply imagined book . . . sprints to an ending that’s equal parts nagging and haunting: What lingers, beyond all the page-turning, is a density of possible clues that leaves you leafing backward, scanning fictional blog comments and newspaper clippings, positive there’s some secret detail that will snapverything into focus.” –New York
8. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
Paperback, 576 pages
"The great pleasure of the novel is the wonderful complexity and the remarkable skill with which this first novelist spins the tale. And a gruesome tale it is. . . . A great, dense, disturbing story, wonderfully told." –Cosmopolitan
9. Wonderland, Stacy D’Erasmo
Hardcover, 256 pages
"Briskly addictive. . . Some sentences dance like wind chimes in a hurricane; others evanesce. . . D’Erasmo expertly conjures the seductive uncharted space that lures the sculptor, the musician…" –O, The Oprah Magazine
10. Cutting Teeth, Julia Fierro
Hardcover, 336 pages
"Cutting Teeth sings with beautiful sentences, masterfully crafted scenes, and a deeply imagined inner life for each character…a fresh perspective on the journey of parenting that is at once modern and timeless." –The Boston Globe
What books are going to be in your beach bag this summer?
