Beach Reads

Memorial Day weekend is often considered the “unofficial” kickoff to summer. It’s when crowds usually flock to the island, whether it’s for the season or just the weekend. Suddenly it’s a little louder, a little more crowded, and a lot harder to find a parking spot. If being at the beach isn’t enough to relax you, a good book is a great way to help you escape. These new summer reads will take you to Nantucket, Scotland, and even close by in Pennsylvania. Each one is an engrossing summer story that is perfect to put in your beach bag.

“Golden Girl” by Elin Hilderbrand

Vivian Howe is a successful author and mother of three young adults when she is killed in a hit-and-run car accident while jogging in Nantucket. She finds herself in the “Beyond” and is assigned to a “Person” named Martha. Martha agrees that Vivi’s death wasn’t fair, and for one last summer she lets Vivi watch what happens with her children, her best friend, her ex-husband, and a rival author who has a book coming out the same day as Vivi’s last novel. Vivi is given the gift of three nudges; each one is an opportunity to influence the outcome of an event on earth. In time, Vivi learns her children’s secrets, she watches the investigation of her own death, and realizes that one of her very own secrets might come out. Where would these nudges make the most impact? “Golden Girl” is a reminder to everyone that the ones we lose never truly leave.

“That Summer” by Jennifer Weiner

Daisy Shoemaker has a great life. She has a successful cooking business, a full schedule of the volunteer work that she enjoys, and lives in a beautiful home outside Philadelphia. She should be happy, right? But she’s not, not really. Her teenage daughter is a lot to handle, her husband chooses when he feels like being distant, work is work, and even though she knows a lot of people, she doesn’t feel like she has any real friends. Daisy starts getting emails meant for a woman named Diana Starling. It turns out their email addresses are just one punctuation mark apart from each other’s. Diana is single and her life seems glamorous and sophisticated, a far cry from Daisy’s life. When the two women meet and become friends, it seems their connection might not be an accident after all.

“People We Meet on Vacation” by Emily Henry

Alex and Poppy met on a car-share ride home from college and have been the best of friends ever since, even though they have nothing in common. Poppy is wild, with insatiable wanderlust. Alex wears khakis and is a homebody. She lives in New York City, while he lives in their small hometown, but every summer they take a week’s vacation together. That is, until two years ago when everything was ruined, and they haven’t spoken since. Friends can tell that Poppy is unhappy and she knows it has everything to with Alex. She persuades him to take one more vacation together and make things right. She knows she has one week to fix things, but how is she going to get around the one big truth that always gets in the way?

“The Break-Up Book Club” by Wendy Wax

Jazmine, Judith, Erin and Sara don’t have a lot in common except that they love to read, and that they all feel their lives aren’t turning out quite how they expected. At book club meetings, these women bond over their love of books, what’s happening in their loves, and, of course, wine! Jazmine, a single mom, is a former tennis star and now a top sports agent. Judith is trying to make sense of her marriage and now-empty nest. Erin is planning to marry her high school sweetheart, but he seems to have a case of cold feet. Sara’s husband takes a job out of town and leaves her to deal with his mother, who thinks her son could have done better. The four women build a solid friendship and help each other navigate life’s challenges, find the courage to turn the pages of their lives, and decide how they want their own stories to play out.

“The Summer Job” by Lizzy Dent

There comes a time in everyone’s life when you dream of running away. Wouldn’t it be great to be someone else for a change? Birdy does just that, and pretends to be her best friend, Heather. The worst part is that Heather has no idea. Birdy takes the summer job that Heather didn’t want, working at a Scottish hotel. Heather is a world-class wine expert and Birdy is anything but. This job is turning out to be a lot more than she can handle. What’s even worse is that she finally found a man she actually likes, and he thinks she is someone else. Can she survive the summer pretending to be Heather? Sometimes it takes being someone else to figure out who you really are.

“Attachments” by Jeff Arch

Best friends Stewart Goodman and Sandy Piccolo, and the girl they both love, Laura Appleby, met in 1972 at a boarding school in coal-country Pennsylvania. Henry Griffin is the school dean who has a genuine fatherly interest and concern for the kids. The bond among them is so strong that when Griffin suffers a stroke 20 years later, it’s the three friends that he calls out for. They all return to campus, where old secrets and betrayals come to light, all of which are going to have a horrible effect on the dean’s 18-year-old son, Chip. “Attachments” feels like trying to put together the pieces of a puzzle, but the one piece you need to complete it is in a coma and can’t give you the answers you need.