Top reads for both men and women to enjoy this summer while relaxing in your beach chairs…
Picks for the Ladies:
1. The Lake House by Marci Nault
Fifty years ago a group of teenagers promised each other never to leave their lakeside town. Then Victoria received a call from Hollywood that promised a bigger life and she broke her pledge to her friends. She comes home with intent to make peace with her friends and they completely shut her out. Haunted by tragedy, she longs to make peace with her childhood love, but even he may not be able to forgive and forget so easily.
2. The Bungalow by Sarah Jio
This story takes place in the summer of 1942 and begins with twenty one year-old Anne Calloway, who is newly engaged and has joined the Army Nurse Corps on the Pacific island of Bora-Bora. She encounters a mysterious soldier named Westry, and their friendship blossoms. The two share a private world in an abandoned beach bungalow until they witness a gruesome crime. Westry suddenly gets redeployed and their love vanishes with the winds of war.
3. Perfection by Julie Metz
Julie and Henry’s marriage seemed perfect. Their passion got them through their fights, and they both completely adored their daughter, Liza. Yet tragically, Henry unexpectedly died of a heart attack, which left Julie a widow at the age of 44. After Henry passed away she uncovered a secret side to him that she never knew existed. As Julie struggles with the depth of Henry’s infidelities, she also uncovers some astonishing truths about herself. This story brings you on a ride through love, death, infidelity and truth. Truly a page-turner, Perfection will surely be a beach read you will not want to put down.
Picks for Men:
1. Inferno by Dan Brown
This tale is set in Italy where Robert Langdon, a Harvard professor of symbology, is drawn into a world that is centered on one of history’s most mysterious literary masterpieces – Dante’s Inferno. Langdon battles with a creative riddle that pulls him into a landscape of secret passageways, and futuristic science. While reading Dante’s dark poem, Langdon races to find answers and decide who he can trust before the world is completely changed for the worst. Like most of Dan Brown’s work, Inferno draws readers in with conspiracies and mysteries.
2. Joyland by Stephen King
This novel is set in a small town amusement park in North Carolina in 1973. Joyland tells the story of a summer when college student Devin Jones comes to work as a carny and faces the legacy of a vicious murder and the fate of a dying child. The events he confronts that fateful summer change him forever. Truly a classic Stephen King psychological thriller.
3. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
At the novel’s opening, a father recounts a folktale to his two young children about a young boy who is taken by a div (also known as an ogre), and how it is not as terrible as it first seems. A day after he tells the tale of the div, the father gives away his own daughter to a wealthy man that lives in Kabul. What follows is a series of stories within the story, told through multiple viewpoints, spanning more than half a century, and shifting across all continents. The novel moves through war, separation, birth, death, and love and illustrates how people’s actions are shrouded in ambiguity. And the Mountains Echoed promises to be a captivating and interesting read.
By Brittany Cassidy