Beach reads- any good recommendations?
 

Travelling with the kids to the beach and need some new ideas. I don't like real trash and I am tired of the chick-lit stuff that is so prevalent out there.

Any suggestions?

By the way, liked some of the ones I read in the summer, such as "The Secret Life of Bees" just to give you some idea of what I am looking for.

Thanks!

The same author has a new book The Mermaid Chair.

Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg is good.

I just finished reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon. It is an easy read and pretty interesting and unique. It is told from the perspective of an autistic teenager (the author worked with autistic kids for some years). It can easily be started and finished during the course of a week long beach trip.

MASTER AND COMMANDER. As you sit on the beach, waves rolling in, you can imagine yourself on the poop deck with Captain Jack Aubrey on the 14 gun HMS Sophie as her crew readies to board the 32 gun Spanish ship CACAFUEGO. Surgeon-Spy Stephen Maturin prepares for the wounded down below.

"The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold - so good your kids won't be adequately supervised!

Margot - I read The Lovely Bones too and thought that it was great. At first I didn't want too becuaseI thought that it would disturb me too much, having an 8 year-old daughter myself, but I found it strangely comforting. And well written for the most part.

The Lovely Bones
The Kite Runner
The Pilot's Wife
My Sister's Keeper
Mystic River
The Da Vinci Code
The Time Traveler's Wife

....these are all page turners, and should keep you interested :)

I have to second kite runner and time travelers wife- read both in book club and both very very good. not chick lit at all

Loved "The Secret Life of Bees" and did not care for "Mermaid Chair" at all.

If you really are tired of chick-lit (and so am I- I've just dumped three in a row that were not up to snuff) then the last two rec's were good ones. Those are good books.

And if you are sick of fiction altogether, and want something really interesting to start/stop easily, I have one for you. It's on the best sellers lists. It's called "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell.

I'd go with "Kite Runner" first if you liked "The Secret Life of Bees" in your fiction pile. "Time-Traveler's Wife" if you want something which needs a bit more thinking about context.

I enjoyed both Hotel Babylon and Kitchen Confidential (tell alls about behind the scenes at a hotel and chef/restaurants respectively).

I like many of the above suggestions. "Good Grief" by Lolly Winston is also very good.

if you like his quirkish sense of humore Skinny Dip by Carl Haissen is a great read. it had me laughing out loud on the plane and the beach.

The Way the Wind Blows.

It is not a newely published book but I am just reading "The Testament" by John Grishman and have a heard time putting it down. Very enjoyable and interesting. Don't know how I missed reading this when it first came out.

"Shadow of the Wind" by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. - part mystery, part love story, set in Barcelona. Starts with a father who takes his 10 year old son to the Cemetary of Forgotten Books, a very mysterious place, and he's allowed to select one book to save.

"The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson. Nonfiction story about the history of the Chicago World's Fair and the serial killer that preyed on the young women attending the fair.

"Mattanza" by Theresa Maggio. Another nonfiction book set in Sicily. Story of her experience living there for a year and witnessing the ritual harvesting of the tuna by the local community.

George, love the Jack Aubrey series. My husband and I read them all to each other over an 18 month span of time, whenever we would travel in the car together.

Definitely not chick-lit:

"The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls. I stayed up until 3 am to finish it the day I bought it last week.

"Saints at the River" by Ron Rash. Could not put it down so that I was reading it while walking through the airport between flights. I was torn between wanting to know how the dilemma was solved and not wanting the book to end.

"The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing" by Melissa Bank. Read it several years ago and re-read it recently. Very sharp writing.

I've read everything that Richard Russo wrote....at least twice. He writes so well that it makes me ache that I can't write like that. I think "Empire Falls" is being made into a movie. A few grim twists in the story though.

If you liked "The Secret Life of Bees" you would enjoy "My Last Days as Roy Rogers" by Pat Cunningham Devoto, I'll bet.

....Oh yeah, and "Something Rising (light and swift)" by Haven Kimmel is also an awesome read. Her memoir "A Girl Named Zippy" is laugh out loud funny (especially if you grew up in a small town). I've loaned it to everybody I know that likes a well-written funny book.

Oh man, I could probably go on and on.....

Not funny, but beautiful setting you could get lost in- magically lyrical and poetic prose, which I usually don't like but loved this one:

The Ghost Orchid by Carol Goodman

I don't if jamierin is going to use these good rec's, but I know I am.

Also like the new non-fiction best seller "Blink". Excellent book about how we make decisions and think, and an easy read- I read it in a couple of hours. A lot more interesting and funny than it sounds.

JJ5- It is sometimes scary how you and I agree on things. Love Secret Lifes - hated Mermaid Chair. Will have to look for Blink - it sounds interesting for non-fiction. You might enjoy Mountains after Mountains - non-fiction by Tracy Kidder. Its a look at one doctor's attempt to rid the world of tuberculous. On second thought - you might be having your fill of doctors these days but its a good book. Also consider any other book by Kidder - always very in-depth looks at a singular topic - building a house, inventing the PC, a year in the life of a single elementary school classroom etc. Excellent writing.

jamierin - I also enjoy Fannie Flagg - Redbird Christmas was particularly sweet. Time Traveller's Wife was also excellent -one of the best books I've read in a while.

Currently I'm re-reading the 5th Harry Potter book. So very addicting.

To everyone who liked "A Girl Named Zippy", the story continues with "She got up off the couch : and other heroic acts from Moreland, Indiana / Haven Kimmel."

KarenD - I couldn't put down "The Glass Castle" either. Amazing story!

Currently started a "chic" mystery series by the editor of Cosmo, Kate White. There are 4 books in the series so far. Reminds me of the Sue Grafton series, but set in NY. These would be great beach reads.

I also really liked the trilogy of memoirs from Carol Drinkwater, starting with The Olive Farm: A love Story. It's really about her life and buying an over grown olive farm in southern France. Kind of like "Under the Tuscan Sun."