Beach Reading 2016

by Jennifer Yarbrough

​Whether you are poolside or beachside, on vacation or at home after work, summer is the perfect time to grab a book and catch up on your reading!

A Dangerous Age
Kelly Killoren Bensimon

A comedy set in New York City about four friends—Lucy, Sarah, Billy, and Lotta, that are getting older and trying to deal with it amidst the youthful culture of the Big Apple.

 
Tumbling Turner Sisters
Juliette Fay

In this Historical novel, Follow the four Turner sisters as they tumble their way from town to town to help save their family.  What they find on their Vaudeville journey is love and heartbreak and a new America. 

 
A Low Country Summer Series
Mary Alice Monroe

These stories, set in the Charleston Lowcountry, of friendship, family, and all the ups and downs that go along with them will keep you busy at the beach all summer long.  Check out, The Summer Girls, The Summer Wind, The Summer’s End, and A Lowcountry Wedding.


Altered Carbon
Richard Morgan

This science fiction novel, set 500 years in the future, explores a world where the human mind has been digitized and humans don’t die, but have their souls “re-sleeved.”  Read it soon and be ahead of the crowd, Netflix has picked it up as a future series! 

Disclaimer
Renee Knight

In this suspense-thriller, a mysterious novel appears at main character, Catherine’s bedside.  The novel is intriguing, until she realizes that it’s actually about her and a secret she has been keeping.  The only other person privy to the secret is dead—so who wrote this and who sent it to her and why? 

 
Modern Romance
Aziz Ansari

This investigative book written by actor-comedian Aziz Ansari delves into the world of modern romance.


The One & Only
Emily Giffin

When Thirty-three-year-old Shea Rigsby’s life in small town America is upended she must venture out on her own and discover the one and only thing that makes life worth living.

Beautiful Ruins
Jess Walter

Beautiful Ruins begins in the 1960s and sweeps us through to the present, taking us across continents from Italy to Hollywood, introducing us to a bevvy of interesting characters, and exploring the hopes and dreams they have throughout their lives. 


Girls in White Dresses
Jennifer Close

Isabella, Mary, and Lauren are at the point in their lives where all of their friends are getting married and getting their lives together and they feel like they are falling apart.  What keeps them going?  Their friendship.  Enjoy this story of friendship.

 
Swallow the Ocean
Laura M. Flynn

This memoir explores Flynn’s childhood with a mother that was, at first, considered “Bohemian,” but later diagnosed as schizophrenic.  Follow Laura and her sisters as they cope with their mother’s illness and parent’s divorce. 


Catastrophic Happiness:  
Finding Joy in Childhood’s Messy Years
Catherine Newman

This parenting memoir, from Real Simple journalist, Catherine Newman explores the ages 4-14 with her son and daughter, childhood, as she says.  Parents will laugh out loud at her stories and relate to her feelings of grief, happiness and the bittersweet joy of parenthood.


Different Seasons
Stephen King

Finally pick up this 1982 collection of four novellas, all written for a different seasons, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption (Hope Springs Eternal), Apt Pupil (Summer of Corruption), The Body (Fall From Innocence), and The Breathing Method (A Winter’s Tale).  If they sound familiar, it’s because 3 of the 4 have been made into films, check out the stories behind these films this summer! 
 
Forever
Pete Hammill

Cormac O’Connor travels from Ireland to New York City in the 1740s and then finds himself stuck on Manhattan Island Forever.  Literally.  Watch New York City change and grow over the next four centuries, as Cormac stays the same.  Something catastrophic happens in the early years of the 21st Century that shakes his world and makes him reconsider living forever.

Florida Books

The Minorcan Yoke and The 
Minorcan Quarter
Nancy Pellicer Dyer

These two books tell the history of local St. Augustine Minorcans.  The Minorcan Yoke traces their journey from Minorca, Spain to New Smyrna, Florida in 1768  as Indentured Servants and then their march to freedom in St. Augustine nine years later. The Minorcan Quarter picks up when they arrive in St. Augustine in 1777 and explores the challenges they faced and the obstacles that they overcame.

Turnbull’s Slaves:  A Minorcan Story
Donald H. Sullivan

This is a story of love and adventure set against the backdrop of the St. Augustine Minorcans’ trip from Minorcan, Spain to Florida as Indentured Servants in the 1700s.  This historical novel follows fifteen-year-old Miguel, as he navigates loss and love during a tumultuous time in our history.

 A Land Remembered
Patrick D. Smith

The history of Florida since 1858 as seen through the eyes of the MacIvey family. Learn about the swamplands and inhabitants (human and animal) and their interactions in one of the wildest states in the nation—our state! 

Lay That Trumpet in Our Hands
Susan Carol McCarthy

Set in the citrus groves of Central Florida in the 1950s, this story, told from the perspective of a teen-aged girl, shows us that even though there is hate in this world, it can be overcome and that we can all be everyday heroes and play our part. ​