Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly linkup of book bloggers hosted by The Broke and The Bookish! This is a topic very near and dear to my heart: I grew up on an inland lake in Michigan, and until I moved out to Nevada, you could find me in the summer going back to my mom's pretty often to take advantage of the opportunity to lay out on the boat. I did plenty of reading while basking in the sun, and even though I'm generally of the opinion that any read can be a beach read if you take it to the beach, here are ten books I think match the breezy feel of a day by or on the water!
The Devil Wears Prada: I've talked about the
life lessons about balancing work and home that can be taken away from this novel, but it's also a thinly-disguised expose about working for Anna Wintour at Vogue and the descriptions about how the rich and fashionable live are frothy and fun to read about.
Pride and Prejudice: A lot of Austen would be very beach-readable, but this one, to me, has the most lightness and humor. There's lots of romance, too, and it's very easy to just enjoy without having to think too hard.
Gone Girl: Gillian Flynn takes the domestic drama suspense novel to a whole new level. Nick and Amy's awful behavior gets you hooked and the plot races forward at a breakneck pace, so you're sucked in and it's hard to put down.
Bridget Jones' Diary: This book is as rip roaringly funny now as it was when I first read it in high school. Whenever I feel like I'm not adulting very well, a dip into Bridget's story makes me realize I have it much more together than I give myself credit for. And that I'd rather die than record my daily calories and alcohol units in my diary.
The Other Boleyn Girl: I imagine lots of people will have long since read this one, but a good royalty-behaving-badly book based in the Tudor era will never not be a great way to pass a day in the sun. If you've read this one but you haven't read any of the companion novels dealing with Henry's other wives, they're cut from the same cloth.
Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: Chuck Klosterman is a fantastic writer, and his collection of insightful and witty essays on pop culture pull tons of references together to make you think (but not too hard) about the world we live in.
Dead Until Dark: As you've probably heard even if you never watched the series, True Blood was a sexy, soapy romp that also touched on some larger themes. The book series mostly stays away from the larger themes part, but keeps all the steamy fun recounting the romantic adventures of Sookie Stackhouse, psychic waitress. This whole series is actually pretty delightful even if paranormal romance isn't really your genre.
Chocolat: They made a movie out of this, but I hated the movie so if you did too don't let that dissuade you. This story of Vianne, a single mother, who makes chocolate, and her young daughter in a small French village has romance, female friendship, and a running battle between our heroine and the local priest who takes a strong and instant dislike to her.
The Rosie Project: When a socially awkward and intensely logical (and probably autistic) college professor decides it's time to get married, he devises an intensive questionnaire to find him the most ideal mate. But when one of his friends puts Rosie, who definitely would not score highly on the survey, in his path, he finds himself drawn to her despite knowing she's not "right" for him. Or is she? I'm no fan of romance, but this is sweet and funny and perfect to take for a day by the water.
The Big Rewind: I juuust posted about this, but it's the best beachy book I've read in a while, so I'm adding it to this list. Fun and smart and witty and a quick read, this is a great choice to tuck in your beach bag.
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