The Beach and A Good Book: Books to Read on Vacation

Few things in life compare with the simple pleasure of a good read on the beach. So we’ve scoured local bookstores to find some of the best books to read on vacation.

When You Want A Book That Will:

Keep You Up at Night

Not since Paula Hawkins’ The Girl on the Train has a multi-narrator novel kept us up so late at night. In Saran Pinborough’s Behind Her Eyes, London secretary Louise meets a handsome man in a bar, but is unsettled when she learns her new boss—her new, married boss, David—is that same man from the bar. When she bumps into beautiful, fragile Adele, David’s wife, the situation becomes more complicated. Why is David being unfaithful to his seemingly perfect wife? Why is Adele friendless and afraid of David? Who’s really pulling the strings in this chilling tale of lies, perception, and whatever that thing is we call reality?

Give You A New Outlook on Life

In Dr. Paul Kalanithi’s When Breath Becomes Air, the scalpel-sharp lines of life and death become as pliable as putty—ours to examine and mold. In the wake of his cancer modafinil diagnosis, Kalanithi, a neurosurgeon, questions the crux at which life and death meet—in the brain. Reflecting on his childhood, during which his father was often absent due to his own medical practice, his marriage, in which he and his wife are consumed by their budding medical careers, and finally his disease, Kalanithi takes us through the a series of flashbacks in which he realizes the importance of learning to live before one must learn to die.

Make You Laugh Out Loud

Is it Ignatius J. Reilly’s obsession with a green hunting cap? His unwavering regard for flatulence? Or the fact that he is a 30-year-old jobless man living with his mother that makes John Kennedy Toole’s posthumous Pulitzer Prize winner, A Confederacy of Dunces, one of the most satirical comedies in 20^th century literature? Whatever rabbit hole you follow into Ignatius’ unique world view, you will come out laughing until your sides hurt.

Tell us which book you read on vacation on Facebook @SouthernRentalsandRealEstate. Share your #sweetSouthernmoment of reading a good book on the beach!