According to the Macmillan Dictionary, a beach read is “a book you can take on holiday, which is good enough to keep you engaged, but not so serious it will spoil your holiday.”
It seems the term first came into play around 1990, a marketing move by publishers to draw attention to their summer offerings. Perhaps the publishing world was attempting to mimic Hollywood, with its summer blockbusters?
Anyway, the term has worked its way into our consciousness, and we have a section dedicated to beach reads, books to entertain while not demanding too much of us.
With the first day of summer in the rearview mirror, the calendar is telling us it’s time for the beach, even if the weather hasn’t been particularly conducive to beachgoing so far. But whatever the weather, it’s time for beach reads, and the bookstore is full of novels brimming with romance, beach settings, wonderfully readable, page-turners, where the stakes aren’t terribly high, pretty much knowing the heroine or hero won’t die in the end.
Moving swiftly off the shelves is Elin Hilderbrand’s “Five-Star Weekend,” the next-to-last summer blockbuster she will write, as she has been announcing on the morning talk circuit. One more book, and she’ll be off to do other things. Emily Henry has arrived with “Happy Place,” her entry into this year’s Beach Read Rodeo, a tale of a couple who, having broken up while not telling their closest friends, decide to pretend they’re still a couple for the annual getaway of those closest friends. What could go wrong? What could go right?
Jean Stone’s “Vineyard Season” is the sixth in her current Vineyard series, bringing this joyful saga to an end while setting the stage for the next series, which is set up-Island. Crispin Haskins has turned out No. 6 in his Vineyard mysteries, “Exhibit: Murder,” and will be on the Island to promote the book at the end of July.
If you haven’t read Holly Eger’s “Split Rock,” it’s time to immerse yourself in her Island love story. T. Elizabeth Bell has two Vineyard beach reads: “Goats in the Time of Love” and “Counting Chickens.”
“Meet Me at the Lake” by Carley Fortune is running out the bookstore door. Betrayed once by Will, can Fern trust him now when she needs him most? Sunny Hostin is back with “Summer on Sag Harbor,” a follow-up to her Vineyard-set “Summer on the Bluffs.”
Out in paperback is Taylor Jenkins Reid’s “Carrie Soto Is Back,” as is Rebecca Serle’s “One Italian Summer,” a haunting look at mother/daughter relationships under the Italian sun.
June is Pride Month, and we have “Best Men” by Sidney Karger, who is a frequent visitor to the Island.
Suspense and thrills play into the beach-read scene, and “The Island,” by Natasha Preston, has just come out in paperback — a thrill ride with beaches, without the time for sunbathing.
To me, beach reads are books you enjoy, that take you to a happy place. They can be classics, like anything by Jane Austen or Charles Dickens. For some, nonfiction is the ticket. David Grann’s “The Wager,” the story of a shipwreck, death, and lies, is shaping up to be the nonfiction bestseller of the summer.
So find something to make you want to keep turning the pages, a book to bring a smile to your face, take it down to the beach, outside to the pool, curl up with it on the couch when rain falls from the sky — but find a book to give you some summer joy.
Mathew Tombers is the manager of Edgartown Books.
