How to Pick Books You’ll Love for Your Summer Travels

Here’s my secret to finding a good bet.

It’s tricky — selecting books to pack for vacation. If you’re heading to a beach or foreign locale, you’ll likely be stuck with whatever it is you bring. So if it turns out you’re not as into it as you thought you’d be, that’s too bad for you. You’ll either have to continue slogging through it or read nothing at all. 

Tashe

(Side note: I’ve always wondered … why don’t resorts ever feature a book stand — or, better yet, a book vending machine — right by their pool or beach to cater to the vacationers who need a fresh novel? Similar to how there’s always a little shop that sells sunscreen and flip flops. I think it’d make a killing. Just saying!)

To pick a book, you could peruse the best-selling list or have a friend recommend something for you, but there’s no telling if you’ll really enjoy it until you crack it open. I typically try to circumvent this issue by choosing books written by authors whom I’ve enjoyed in the past and cross-referencing those titles with reader reviews. It’s not a surefire strategy, but at least I sort of know what I’m getting into before I even start, and other readers can confirm that it’s a decent choice. To that end, here’s what’s in my summer reading pile…

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

The author of Dear Edward, a heartbreaking yet uplifting story about a boy who’s the sole survivor of a plane crash, is back with an captivating premise: what if Little Women took place today and was told by Laurie (the male family friend/love interest)? In this version, a broken young man named William meets a spirited girl named Julia in college and gets sucked into her family orbit, which includes Julia’s three sisters, each remarkable in their own way. I’m a sucker for any retelling of Little Women, both in books and on screen, and the fact that this one is written by Ann Napolitano makes it extra appealing.

The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese

I recently finished Abraham Verghese’s autobiographical book The Tennis Partner and found the author’s voice lyrical and wise. His latest book is a work of fiction, and it sounds epic. The story takes place on India’s Malabar Coast and spans three generations of a family whose male descendents suffer from a rare affliction: a quasi-allergy to water. Oprah has proclaimed The Covenant of Water to be one the best books she’s ever read in her life, and that’s probably why it’s now on bestselling lists everywhere. I love a good generational family drama — Pachinko by Min Jin Lee and The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende are two of my favorites — so this book seems right up my alley.

Happy Place by Emily Henry

Is it me or is Emily Henry super hard to keep up with? No sooner do I finish one of her books than a new one suddenly pops up on the bookstore shelf! It’s like pulling weeds, but I mean that in the best way. Her voice is always fresh and appealing, and her characters super charming, despite their exasperating flaws. Happy Place, like Book Lovers, Beach Read, and People We Meet on Vacation (my favorite of the three) is once again about a dueling couple and their long, endearing road to finding their way to one another — this time, it’s a couple who has split up and must keep their separation a secret while on their annual trip with a group of friends. Of course, they’ll fall back in love during this vacation, but what I want to know is what hilarious topics will they banter about in the process? 

How to Stop Time by Matt Haig

I love, love, love reading or watching a mind-bending time-travel story. Why is this happening? What are the rules? How will the protagonist find a resolution in this strange situation? Two of my favorite transtemporal stories are The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger and, more recently, Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister. Author of The Midnight Library Matt Haig has his own time-traveling protagonist, Tom Hazard, although Tom isn’t so much a time-traveler as much as he is a slow-ager, a condition that allows him to live for hundreds of years. Still, Haig had me with the opening lines: “I am old. If you saw me, you would probably think I was about forty, but you would be very wrong. To give you an idea, I was born well over four hundred years ago on the third of March 1581, in my parents’ room, on the third floor of a small French chateau.” Irresistible, right?

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

Gabrielle Zevin has found incredible fame with her breakout book Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (one of my favorite novels last year), but as The New York Times points out in this recent article, she’s not a new author at all and has written about a dozen other books. After reading an incredible story like Tomorrow, of course it’s time to start mining the author’s oeuvre, and my friend suggested The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry (recently made into a movie) to start. The novel is about a young, widowed bookstore owner whose life suddenly gets turned upside-down by a mysterious package. Add in a beach setting similar to Martha’s Vineyard and Zevin’s magical prose and that’s a recipe for a great summer read.