We’re long past the first wave of beach reading lists, and I’m wondering what others are toting around this summer.
At our hostel in Vieques, Puerto Rico, I went straight to the community shelf where guests leave their sandy fiction. Mucho Anita Shreve. Janet Evanovich, check. But I found some less expected fare: Junot D??az’s Oscar Wao, and Claire Messud, too. Some adventurous readers had tread this way before. On our second day on the island, a couple of soggy paperbacks our hostess had left to dry in the sun caught my eye. Possibly loved. Possibly hated and hurled into the sea.
Which got me thinking: how are you feeling about your beach reading choices?
It’s a rough time for bibliophiles, a vacation. What to choose? Before I left NYC for Puerto Rico, I headed to McNally Robinson Bookstore (soon to be known as McNally Jackson Books) and picked up Margot Livesey’s The House on Fortune Street. I couldn’t have been happier. Four narratives about two women (and the men who love them) set in the rainy streets and dank apartments of the UK. I like my beach reading dark and stormy, thank you very much.