Beach Books
 

Need a couple good books for our week in Tortola.
Any ideas? Someone said Tales from Margaritaville was good.

Depends on what you like to read. Tell me the last 5 books that you loved, and I guarantee that I can come up with a suggestion for you.

I really enjoyed Tales from Margaritaville. Another one that I liked well enough to keep was The Missionary's Position - can't recall the author, but it was a very fun beach read.

Ok ejcrowe- Here are a few i have read in the past few years and enjoyed. Looking for light reading, but not too sappy. I read your trip report for Tortola. Cant' wait... Thanks!

The Secret Life of Bees
Life of Pi
The DaVinci Code
The Hobbit, and Lord of the Rings books
The Red Tent
Memoirs of a Geisha
Time Traveler's Wife

Okay, I've read everything on your list except Red Tent, and I enjoyed them all except for Geisha, which I couldn't finish. In no particular order, I would recommend:

The Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

Plainsong by Kent Haruf

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver

The Harry Potter series by J K Rowling

These represent a nice blend of character-driven books and plot-driven books. Some of them are lighter, others more literary, but none of them are too heavy for a nice vacation read--just meatier than most books on the best seller list. These are all books that I've read and enjoyed, and in some cases, loved and returned to again and again. I would be willing to bet that you'll like at least one of those recs.

I guess I would pick books with a more tropical theme. First if you haven't read Don't Stop the Carnival by Herman Wouk it is a must for Caribbean Travelers. A Trip to the Beach by Bob and Melinda Blanchard is sort of a Carnival for restaurants. Bahamarama and Jamaica me Crazy by Bob Morris are two Craibbean themed quick reads. Anything by Carl Haiisen. Not Caribbean Themed but one of the best books I've read recently is Angels and Deamons

Howard, I agree with you. I like reading books about the areas I'm traveling to, and I did enjoy the Wouk and the Blanchard. And I think Hiaasen is a riot!

About a year ago, someone here once recommended An Embarassment of Mangos, which I tried to read but then put down. I picked it up again a few weeks ago and found that this time I couldn't put it down--it's the memoir of a couple who sailed from Canada all the way down to Grenada and back again, spending a total of two years on their sailboat. It focuses mostly on Grenada, the Bahamas and the DR and I must say that I loved it this time around.

tewels: I loved those books, too! Try some of these:

**The Kite Runner
**My Sister's Keeper , Songs of teh Humpback Whale, Salem Falls , or anything else by Jodi Picoult
**The Pilot's Wife
**Carl Hiassen novels
**Mystic River

Empire Falls and Straight Man, both by Richard Russo, are also books that I've enjoyed while on vacation. He's a funny writer in general with a great sense of both the ridiculous and sublime of human behavior.

I love your list of books, and have read most of them (except Time Traveller's Wife), but I wouldn't think of them as "beach reads." On vacation, I also like to read something more oriented to where I am--either in place or in spirit. I just read a fun book that has a tropical flare that you might enjoy. It's called Frangipani by Celestine Vaite. It takes place in Tahiti, but it has a wonderful island atmosphere and great characters. I also enjoy funny travel writers, like Redmond O'Hanlon--Into the Heart of Borneo is hysterical. I also enjoyed a later book of his, called In Trouble Again. Very funny... :-)

I also love the #1 Ladies Detective Agency books--there's a new one just out. His other series about Scotland is also pretty good (Sunday Philosopher's Club), though not quite up to the LDA ones.

Looking forward to more suggestions!

EJ-- Forgot to mention An Embarassment of Mangos. loved the book. Not a novel but a two year travel diary of sailing the Caribbean interspersed with recipes. Loved the part about stopping in Exuma and talking about the people some of which I have known for years Especially Dearie who used to provide me with Yellow grits which I would take home and Christine who did island tours

"Island" books:
The White Man in the Tree
--ss, Mark Kurlansky
The Pagoda
-- novel, Patricia Powell
The True History of Paradise
-- novel,Margaret Cezair-Thompson
Small Island
-- novel, Anne Levy
Fire in the Cane
-- novel, Glenville Lovett


Good reads:

A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali
-- novel, Gil Courtmarche

Perfume
-- novel, Patrick Susskind
Snobs
-- novel, Julian Fellowes

Anything by Tim Cahill,ss

Good beach trash:

The Historian
-- novel, Elizabeth Kostova

Tales from a Life of Insatiable Excess
-- confessional, Gael Greene

Tiv, I've only read two books on your list, so I look forward to giving the others a try. Thanks!

I read so much so I could probably suggest many but I just read Cage of Stars by Jacquelyn Mitchard and would recommend it. Sounds like it would be a good fit for you based on what you've read recently.

Tewels, we seem to have read all the same books. You will probably enjoy two by a new author, Elizabeth Noble, cALLED "The Reading Group" and "The TENKO CXlub."

You might like "Easy in the Islands" by Bob Shacochis. It's a slender collection of easy short stories. He's a great writer and worked in the Peace Corps in the Caribbean if memory serves.

Coooooooool.
I'm hitting Half Price Books today with my new list.
Many thanks. T

If you like Haissen - Anything by Lawrence Shames, anything by Elmore Leonard, anything by Randy Wayne White. Hemingway - "The Old Man & the Sea"

FYI, this is my first posting! I signed up for Forums after reading
this fantastic Caribbean forum (special thanks to ejcrowe and Howardc for your generosity and great advice.)

Tewels: we have the same taste so try these too:
The Best American Travel Writing 2005 (and 2004, 2003)
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Seabiscuit
I love anything by Jim Harrison.