Beach Books 2011—Part 2

Here's Part 2 of our annual beach books list. Let us know if we missed anything!

Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel by Jeanette Walls
The author of the stunning Glass Castles is back, this time telling her grandmother's story. It involves such feats as marrying and leaving a bigamist, selling hooch during prohibition, becoming a rodeo rider and other tales that will nearly make you fall off your lounge chair.

The Social Climber's Handbook: A Novel Molly Jong-Fast
If you're a Jackie Collins or Plum Sykes fan, then this is the book for you. The book about an upper eastside housewife who becomes unhinged after the financial meltdown of 2008 is the must-read of the glamaratti.

Summer and the City: A Carrie Diaries Novel by Candace Bushnell
For all the die hard Sex and the City fans comes the lastest installment of the prequel to SATC when Carrie spends a summer in the city with Samantha. Carries first date is at La Grenouille, a fancy French place which makes us guess her date is a bit older. Guess she started that pattern early!

Bossypants by Tina Fey
While we don't have a new Chelsea Handler book to look forward to this summer, we do have this tome from Tina Fey. We're guessing it features less sex and more food, but is just as funny.

Missed yesterday's? Read Part 1 of Beach Books 2011.

Beach Books 2011

No trip to the beach or pool is complete without a juicy read. Here are our selects for best beach books 2011:

If You Were Here: A Novel by Jen Lancaster. The author of the hilarious Bitter is the New Black and My Fair Lazy tries her hand at fiction in a story that will delight any Gen Xers' heart. The narrator, Mia and her husband, Mac, move from downtown Chicago to suburb Abington Cambs, the setting of many John Hughes' films. The couple settles in Jake Ryan's house from Sixteen Candles, with hilarious results. 

If You Were Here: A Novel by Abraham Verghese
At 688 pages, this sweeping novel centers around a nun and a British doctor she saves and transverses the globe from India, Ethiopia and New York City. It would be perfect for a long plane ride or when you want to feel smart.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
If you haven't read this triology, do yourself a favor and buy all of them now. Yes, the book is for young adults, but we don't know anyone who after reading The Hunger Games hasn't devoured Catching Fire and Mocking Jay within two weeks. They're more addictive than crack.

A Paris Wife by Paula McLain, the best historical fiction we've read in ages, which describes Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley Richardson, and their years in Paris.

Check back tomorrow for Part Two of our Best Beach Books 2011.

Late-Summer Beach Reads

If you've already powered through our list of summer beach reads, here are a few more to get you through Labor Day.


There's nothing like a little schadenfreude to go along with that glass of sauvignon blanc while you while away the hours on a lounge chair.  The Recessionistas is an insider's look at fictional families during the 2008 Wall Street bust. Author Alexandra Lebenthal is the CEO of a wealth management firm and a regular on David Patrick Columbia's site, so she's writing about a life she knows well. You can't help but feel a little smug about the simple saneness of your life when you read about how one character has to decide between $500 highlights and reducing her maid's hours. She chooses the latter.

For a hearty laugh, read Alphabet City: My So-Called Sitcom Life by John Paul Buchmeyer, a fellow blogger. It's the true story of JP's life as he envisions it as a sitcom akin to a gay Mary Tyler Moore. It's full of madcap story lines, knee-slapping moments and plenty of special guest stars, including Whoopi Goldberg and Tyra Banks.

Our friend, Shannon, recommends The Girls from Ames: A Story of Women and a Forty-Year Friendship. This heartwarming non-fiction story follows the lives of 11 women from Ames, Iowa who have been friends for 40-years plus. The easy read is a celebration of the power of friendship between women--an idea we wholeheartedly support!

100 Years of Travel Ads

If the Mad Men premiere whetted your appetite for vintage advertising, check out the coffee table book 20th Century Travel: 100 Years Of Globe-Trotting Ads. It's filled with classic ads from the past 100 years when traveling was still glamorous and getting there truly was half the fun.

It make an ideal hostess gift, too, for those of you lucky enough to have snagged invites to a friend's beach house!