This week’s beach read recommendations came straight from the professionals of Cape Atlantic Book Company of the Washington Street Mall. Daunted by Cape Atlantic Book’s comprehensive collection of both fiction and nonfiction titles, we asked owner Tony to point us in the right direction. He immediately led us to the store’s very own display of “Penguins at the Beach”, featuring seaside and summer inspired tales distributed by Penguin Publishers. Here’s a rundown of some of those titles which Tony insists have been “flying off the shelves” :
1. On The Island by Tracey Garvis-Graves
In this runaway New York Times bestseller, thirty-year-old Anna Emerson is in desperate need of a change. An English teacher “worn down” by cold Chicago winters and a dead-end relationship, Anna jumps at the opportunity to tutor sixteen-year-old T.J. on a tropical island for the summer months. T.J., on the other hand, does not share Anna’s enthusiasm. His cancer is finally in remission and he is eager to get back to “normal life”. A summer of catching up on schoolwork is not what he has envisioned…In an unexpected twist of events, the two soon find themselves stranded on an uninhibited island and struggling to survive. What will become of these two lost souls in this moving coming-of-age story
2. The Beach Trees by Karen White
When Julie Holt was just twelve years old, her little sister disappeared, never to be found. At that tender age, this loss depleted the family ties she had once relied on. As an adult with a prestigious job in the arts, Julie meets a struggling artist who reminds her so much of her sister, she can’t help feeling protective. It is a friendship that begins a long and painful process of healing for Julie, leading her to a house on the Gulf Coast, ravaged by hurricane Katrina, and to stories of family that take her deep into the past.
3. The House at Tyneford by Natasha Solomons
In this New York Times bestselling “sweeping historical novel of love and loss”, it’s the spring of 1938 and no longer safe to be a Jew in Vienna. Nineteen-year-old Elise Landau is forced to leave her glamorous life to become a parlor maid in England. She arrives at Tyneford, the great house on the bay, where servants polish silver and serve drinks on the lawn. But war is coming and everything is about to change…When the master of Tyneford’s young son, Kit, returns home, he and Elise strike up an unlikely friendship that will transform Tyneford forever.
4. Call Me Zelda by Erica Robuck
As Tony of Cape Atlantic Book Company states, “anything Zelda Fitzgerald is popular right now.” From New York to Paris, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald reigned as king and queen of the Jazz Age, seeming to float on champagne bubbles above the mundane cares of the world. But to those who truly knew them, the endless parties were only a distraction from their inner turmoil, and from a love that united them with a scorching intensity. In this biographically inspired account of this 1920s icon, dubbed by her famous husband “the first flapper”, Robuck explores the private struggles of this highly public couple.
By Megan Kummer