Cornwall, UK, October 2011

It’s summer – hurrah!  I know that technically, summer started a few weeks ago.  But I always measured summer as beginning around the Fourth of July.  When I was a kid, I lived in upstate New York, and early July was when things really started to heat up.  That was when it was warm enough to swim in the lake and sit out for hours after dark.  In northern Virginia, it’s been hot for awhile (but not as hot as I hear it is out west – stay safe, everyone).  So to celebrate the beginning (for some) and continuation (for others) of summer, I thought it would be fun to pull together a list of good beach reads.  But I don’t just mean “beach reads” as “fluffy books to read on the beach.”  I picked out books for you that not only would be great to read on the beach, but that feature beaches or the ocean as an important part of the plot.  Enjoy…

Beautiful Ruins, by Jess Walter – There’s no beach in Porto Vergogna, but Pasquale Tursi is determined to change that fact.  Pasquo wants to make Porto Vergogna a genuine travel destination for Americans, like its neighboring Cinque Terre villages.  And it’s in building a beach that Pasquo is engaged when a boat pulls into Porto Vergogna’s rocky harbor bearing an American actress whose arrival will change Pasquo’s life forever.  You’ll feel the hot Italian sun baking down on you as you read about Pasquale and Dee and all the broken, but beautiful, people they encounter.  (Fully reviewed here.)

Seating Arrangements, by Maggie Shipstead – The beach here is a classic New England beach.  Winn Van Meter and family have returned to their summer cottage to prepare for the marriage of Winn’s daughter, Daphne.  Winn is preoccupied by his ongoing inability to get into an exclusive golf club, and he finds his eye wandering toward Agatha, one of the bridesmaids.  Meanwhile, Winn’s other daughter recovers from heartbreak near her beloved ocean.

The Song of Achilles, by Madeline Miller – This is a moving re-imagining of The Iliad, focusing on Patroclus and his relationship with Achilles.  Much of the action takes place on the great Trojan Beach as the reader witnesses the Greek forces massing on the sands and regrouping after each bloody day for ten years.  (Fully reviewed here.)

Skios, by Michael Frayn – Nikki Hook is the cool, efficient brains behind the operation of a cultural organization resident on a picturesque Greek island.  While coolly, efficiently managing the organization’s annual conference, Nikki is pleasantly surprised to discover that the keynote speaker is not the paunchy windbag she was expecting, but instead a rakish charmer.  Meanwhile, elsewhere on the island, Nikki’s friend Georgie squats in a villa preparing for an affair with a rakish charmer.  Imagine her confusion when, instead, a paunchy windbag shows up.  A simple case of mistaken identity leads to wacky hijinks under the hot Greek sun.

We, the Drowned, by Carston Jensen – The newest addition to the pantheon of seafaring literature, We, the Drowned follows the residents of the seaside town of Marstal from the mid-nineteenth century to the end of World War II.  There’s a touch of magical realism, a bit of war, and pages upon pages of adventure on the high seas.  (Fully reviewed here.)

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, by Ben H. Winters – Reader beware: much like Jaws, after you read this, you might find it hard to go back into the water.  Ben Winters takes Jane Austen’s classic Sense and Sensibility and recasts the Dashwoods and their acquaintances as island-dwellers terrorized by monsters from the deep.  It’s good fun, if a bit gory.  And very, very irreverent.

The Outermost House: A Year on the Great Beach of Cape Cod, by Henry Beston – Beston’s memoir is more like poetry than prose, containing such gems as the phrase “I walked in a shower of stars” to describe an evening stroll on the beach.  I read this one years ago, and I lingered for a long time over the gorgeous writing.  It would be best read alone on a craggy New England beach.

On Chesil Beach, by Ian McEwan – I love, love, love Ian McEwan’s work, and this tale of an awkward couple trying to honeymoon was a quick, but sad read.  You’ll feel the chill of the British seaside… and repression.  Brrrrrr.

N or M?, by Agatha Christie – Christie grew up in Devon, and several of her mysteries take place by the seashore.  This one is, maybe, my favorite.  The intrepid married detectives, Tommy and Tuppence Beresford, have been sent to the English seaside to try to unmask a Nazi spy.  Well, Tommy is sent there, and Tuppence follows.  They take up residence in a boarding house and settle in to observe the comings and goings of their extremely suspicious housemates in the beach town.  I read this in high school, and several times since, and I might need to pick it up again this summer.

Rule Britannia, by Daphne du Maurier – Twenty-year-old Emma wakes up one morning in her sleepy Cornish town to find no telephone service, a warship in the harbor, and American troops walking the streets.  Soon, the government announces that the US and UK have merged back into one country, which will be called USUK.  But Emma, her eccentric grandmother, and the other residents of the village have their doubts about this “friendly” military occupation.  Soon the residents of the town, led by Emma’s family, are in revolt, and the beaches of Cornwall present a perfect location for sabotage.

If you’re going to the beach this summer, what book will be in your tote bag?