It's Book Recommendation time again!

Every year we take a week-long beach vacation with my family. And every year around this time (with SIX ENTIRE WEEKS TO GO) I start getting antsy – not even as much for the actual beach as for the week preceding it. I love the anticipation and I love the preparations and the list-making and the battery-charging and I LOVE PACKING, and Dave is always pissed that I request that he get the suitcases down from the attic two weeks in advance so I can start rehearsing for the actual Packing Event, which usually takes place a day or two before we leave.

And every year I write a post where I take requests for good beach reads and everyone is really nice to tell me what they've been reading and what they want to read and then I read through each and every one of those suggestions and read the synopsis on Amazon and eventually figure out how to pare them down to five or six books but then I never seem to remember to tell you what I ended up buying or what I ended up liking or hating or maybe wanting to throw into the ocean to get waterlogged and sink to the bottom and become entangled in seaweed which is like, pretty much the worst thing ever, don't you think? GAH I hate seaweed. I especially hate it when it wraps itself around my ankle and I get all jumpy and start flailing about in the water like some sort of breaching whale. That's how bikini tops come off, people. With RECKLESS FLAILING.

Which reminds me of a story! (I swear I was not originally planning to tell this story, but now I've thought of it and I can't NOT tell it.) So, let me just come out and say that I was an Early Bloomer in regards to my Womanly Cycles. And when I was 12, I was not ready to use Tampons, as they were scary in two ways: 1) I was expected to be knowledgeable about my anatomy and 2) we'd had a Our Bodies talk in Girl Scouts and someone had demonstrated the absorbancy of a Super Tampon by PUTTING IT IN A GLASS OF WATER. For the record, tampons expand a heck of a lot more in a glass of water than they ever would in a PERSON but no one told us fifth-graders that, so I was genuinely afraid that if I used one, I'd never be able to get it back out. Note to all Girl Scout Leaders or also anyone who must give a Bodies Talk to Elementary School-Aged People: PLEASE REFRAIN FROM THIS PARTICULAR VISUAL AID. So I wore pads at the beach. Pads! At the BEACH. Into the water and everything. And this was at an age where I was very interested in meeting cute boys, so that's what my cousin and I spent our time doing: meeting cute boys at the beach. Except then we'd be swimming with those cute boys and suddenly a maxi pad would go floating by and everyone would scream and run out of the water and I went along with them because although I was hardly grossed out by my own maxi pad, I was most definitely embarrassed by it. This happened more times than I care to admit to you. But what else was I supposed to do? I SAW A TAMPON IN A GLASS OF WATER AND IT GREW TO THE SIZE OF A CANTELOUPE. I decided I was way more willing to lose my maxi pads to a rogue wave.

Anyway, this year I'm going to stop being such a selfish whiner and tell you what I've read recently before I start demanding you give to me first. I'm done being a Taker! I am going to GIVE. On the grounds that you don't hate me for what I'm about to say about Twilight.

Books I Have Recently Read

By Emily Cassee

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

I hated Twilight. Here's the thing, I can see where all you people who loved it are coming from; I really can. The teenage angst, the thrill of young love, the whole bad boy phenomenon... except I don't really identify with it myself, and it didn't really take me back to my teenage years, either. So for me, there's that, and then there's also the very minor fact that you can't deny in any way, shape or form that it's about vampires. Which makes me just think, vampires? Really? I just am not a big fan of fantasy stuff, so I think that's the big wall I have up against Twilight. It's about VAMPIRES. I just don't do pasty-white, sorry. And the biting and the hunting for blood and the general creepy feeling. Needless to say, I cannot continue with the series. I will not attempt to rent the movie. I am done with vampires. (And this is someone who rolled her eyes at the idea of wizards and went on to love Harry Potter, so DON'T SAY I DIDN'T TRY.)

American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld

This book seems to get a lot of rave reviews. I liked it. I didn't love it. I thought the first two-thirds were way more interesting than the last, but I think that's because the last third is so much more emotionally complicated than the first two. And that's not necessarily a bad thing for a lot of people, and it usually isn't for me, so I don't know what the deal was. I just started to get a little less empathetic for the main character by the time I got to the end. Also, I think I would have enjoyed this book a lot more if I hadn't KNOWN that it was modeled after the life of Laura Bush. I mean, yes, I would have SUSPECTED, obviously. But the whole time I was reading it I was wondering, “Is this something the author totally made up or something that ACTUALLY HAPPENED to Laura Bush?” It distracted me to the point where I think I would have liked to read it first without knowing, and then read it again with the knowledge that it had been based on a real person. Of course, I can't do that now, and neither can you if you just read this entire paragraph. WHOOPS.

Peony In Love by Lisa See

Beautifully written and is an interesting insight into 17^th century China which originally sounded about as interesting as teenage vampires, but ended up being fantastic. Except for the one minor thing about how the story is DEPRESSING AS HELL. I loved the writing and I actually loved the story (and I loved her book “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan” which I highly HIGHLY recommend) but WOW was it a real downer. This is not a beach read; this is a dead-of-winter-comfort-yourself-with-baked-goods-or-possibly-Xanax read.

A Bump in the Road by Maureen Lipinski

So Maureen reads my blog! And she always left these hilarious comments and then when her book came out she sent me a copy and even if I knew she wouldn't read what I wrote here about her book I would still tell you that I loved it. THIS is a perfect beach read. My only complaint would be that it ended too soon. One of my considerations when it comes to picking a beach book is that I generally want it to be AS LONG AS POSSIBLE so that I can stretch out my enjoyment. I actually look at the page count if I'm browsing online for books. Anything under 250 just will not do. I don't know how long Maureen's book was, so I can't officially complain about length, but I can complain that it was so fun to read that I devoured it. Hence: Not long enough.

Testimony by Anita Shreve

Testimony is about a sexual incident at a prep school that ends up tearing apart the lives of those who were directly involved as well as those who weren't. Blah. It was boring and skimmable. And not only was it boring, it was totally inconsistent. It is told from the viewpoints of many, MANY of the book's characters, and some are done well. I mean, I never really ended up CARING about any of them (FAIL FAIL FAIL) but some of them seemed to really jive with the character's education level and manner of speaking. Others did not. I ask you, do you know of any teenage boy who would describe a 14-year-old girl as “lithe”? Like, more than once. I'm sorry, I don't care WHAT prep school you go to or WHAT college you hope to get into, no teenage boy I have ever or will likely ever meet uses the word “lithe” in everyday conversation. Also, I just didn't think the story was good or believable. I like believable. See above, re: vampires.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver

Brilliant; absolutely brilliant. Get it. Read it. Say, “I HAD NO IDEA!” and also, “AMAZING!” sixteen thousand times each chapter. Have your life changed. Or at least, think really hard about changing your life but wait until the book comes back from your mother-in-law so you can read it again and figure out exactly what you're going to do change-wise.

Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner

Enjoyable, but not great. Mostly, I wanted to throttle the mother in the book, who has lengthy and rather irritating inner monologues concerning WHY her 13-year-old daughter isn't speaking to her and WHAT is going on in her daughter's life that is making her so distant all of a sudden and HOW is she going to get her to open up to her and WHY is it so hard to raise a teenager with values these days and after only three pages I wanted this ridiculous woman to stop trying to be her daughter's friend and be HER MOTHER instead. MY GOD, people, if you are a PARENT, then you can DEMAND INFORMATION FROM YOUR CHILDREN, and stop worrying about whether you're invading their privacy or making them uncomfortable. They're your CHILDREN and you can't be their doormat. I don't know if they ever really resolved that issue; there were lots of other things going on and all those were wrapped up nicely by the end of the book, but it bothers me that I don't think the mother ever REALLY got it.

Ok, now I've given. You're free to give back.

Comments

[Carrisa]

Same Kind Of Different As Me by Ron Hall & Denver Moore. This book touched me on so many levels. It's a memoir, but don't be fooled. It's anything but boring.

I could go on and on and list a bunch more, but I won't. Because I really want you to read this one.

[christa]

I've been reading anything and everything by Charlaine Harris these days. She wrote the Sookie Stackhouse series, which is about vampires. I hate fantasy and found Twilight to be meh, but these are such a fun read. Her other series are less fantasy and equally fun.

[Amy]

Loved, loved The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. And it's got over 400 pages.

I have my own pad stories too. Riding all the water rides at Six Flags then running through the park with my friends so we could meet our group at the entrance by the time the park closed. Yeah...it fell out of my shorts while running and I looked back to see it on the ground. EWWWW!! And my shorts were a lovely pinkish hue. HOW FREAKING EMBARRASSING!

[chrisc]

Oooh, read The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger if you haven't already. Ignore the sappy and horrible looking movie previews you may have seen for the film coming out next month. The book is awesome. One of my all-time favorites, and it's great for the beach -- not too challenging, but also not completely mindless, which I personally hate.

[Jessica]

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

Any of the Malcolm Gladwell books.

I hated Twilight.

[Michelle]

A few years ago I read The Overachievers by Alexandra Robbins. It's about "the secret life of driven kids" as a guidance counselor I thought it was interesting, but also, I lived it (and from the sounds of it you did too) so it might be interesting to you. You can read the first few pages herehttp://books.google.com/books?id=IBUMHM71cSIC&dq=overachievers+book&printsec=frontcover&source=bn&hl=en&ei=t4NbSvnQC4HVlAeswKzjBA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4

[Megan]

I am actually re-reading some of my favorite books from childhood and recapping them on my blog. I'm reading BSC books, and I've got the first Nancy Drew for this week.

I also just got my hands on "Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches' Guide to Romance Novels." I can't wait to start it. Even if you're not a big fan of romance novels, it's hilarious and VERY good.

[Kimberly]

Operating Instructions by Anne Lamott.
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.
The Red Ten by Anita Diamant.
The Other Boleyn Girl by Phillipa Gregory.

And my mom recommends the Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs.

Have fun at the beach!

[Megan]

Oh, and I hated Twilight. I read it on maternity leave last year and just couldn't get through it. Then again, if that book had been out when I was 12, I would have read it a zillion times and signed all correspondence with "Mrs. Edward Cullen."

[Karen]

A good summer read is "The Little Friend" by Donna Tartt. Nice and hefty; it's Southern Gothic/coming of age/mystery, with a great homage to Louise Fitzhugh's "Harriet the Spy". What's not to love?

And then, if you like that, read "The Secret History", same author, but in the winter. Totally different setting.

I also love Jonathan Kellerman's suspense novels, recurring character, series, action. Perfect summer reads.

[Karen]

Oh, and my pad story: my mom told me all about The Facts of Life the summer i was 12. She had laryngitis, but I guess she had psyched herself up and was worried I'd get my period before she got better and stopped sounding like Quasimodo. Anyway, it was freaky to hear her rasping, "So this happens to your body every month" and then she handed me this giant box with samples of pads.

That box sat in my closet for two years. I didn't get my period till i was 14, and I was FINE with not getting it. My mom was worried; she thought there was something wrong when I didn't start.

She never told me about tampons. I loved to ride my bike, but who wants to ride a bike with a squishy, disgusting, irritating pad in place? FINALLY, I got brave enough, saved my allowance, biked (ick) to the drugstore, and bought my first box of tampons.

Later, I told my mom how much better they were, and she said, "I know! Aren't they great?!" Uh...why didn't you TELL ME ABOUT THEM, then?!

Hmph.

[Ashley]

I came to suggest Same Kind of Different As Me but I saw it as the first comment. It's a good beach read while still leaving you with things to think about.

I'll also second (or third) The Thirteenth Tale and Water For Elephants.

My book club is currently reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I haven't started it but we picked it as a "beach type book" for the summer. Let us know the final decisions!

[Mandy]

I'm reading Twilight right now and I'm pretty sure I'm going to hate it too.

The Thirteenth Tale
Love in Condition Yellow
Crazy Love
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Pillars of the Earth (this one surpasses your 250 rule about 4 times)
Water for Elephants

And my favorite I've read in the last year...
A Thousand Splendid Suns

[Kristen]

The Wedding Officer by Anthony Capella-

It's romantic, It's set in Naples, and makes me want to eat a huge bowl of spaghetti and down some limoncello. I loved it!

[Kristina]

OMG books! I love talking about books! Anything by Wally Lamb is destined to be wonderful. My personal favorite is “I Know This Much is True”. Also, “The Time Traveler’s Wife” is my all-time favorite book (and the movie is about to be released, so I think everyone should go out and read it in case the movie doesn’t do it justice). Anything by Jodi Piccoult is a fast, interesting read, but does not always have a feel-good topic. If you’re looking for some laughs, “Then We Came to the End” by Joshua Ferris had me laughing out loud. I also just read "Three Cups of Tea" which was good and a little sappy, but very inspiring. Good lord, I could really go on forever, so I’ll shut up. Happy Reading!!

[Katie]

Ok . . . I'm a librarian. I'll try and make this short, but I totally agree with those who suggested:

The Red Tent
Water for Elephants
Pillars of the Earth

I'm currently enjoying The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe.

If you want a laugh, any of the Sweet Potato Queens books are hilarious. Totally beachy material. I think God Save the Sweet Potato Queens is one of their first (and best).

The Eyre Affair (and its sequels) by Jasper Fforde is also hilarious.

I'll stop now.

[Grechen]

I just finished Pretty in Plaid by Jen Lancaster and I LOVED it! It is a super quick read. I laughed out loud a few times.

[Allison]

Lately I haven't been totally thrilled with anything I have read, but I think that's due less to the quality of books and more to the fact that I can only read a couple of pages a night and it takes me months to finish one, so by the end I lose interest. I am reading "I, Mona Lisa" by Jeanne Kalogridis right now, though, and I'm zipping through it more quickly than usual which is proof I really like it.

I also recommend anything by Ann Tyler, if you haven't read her. Her books always have interesting characters, good writing, aren't TOO long, and since you're in the Maryland area you may like that they are set in Baltimore.

Greg Maguire's books (Wicked; Son of a Witch; Mirror, Mirror) are all good, too. Weird, but good.

Have a great time!

[CaitStClair]

I third The Red Tent by Anita Diamante and second A Year of Living Biblically. I really enjoyed both books. My favorite series is Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, don't know if you've read it or not but I definitely recommend checking it out. The best part is that they're all at least a few hundred pages and there are 6 or 7 books. They will keep you busy for a good long while no matter how quickly you tear through them.

[Allison]

Oops, I meant Anne Tyler, not the clothing store :-).

[Allison]

I just finished "World Without End", which is the sequel to Pillars of the Earth that someone else suggested. Either one would make a great beach read!

[Nicol]

I recently read Breakfast at Tiffany's and really enjoyed it. About an 8 yr old girl and her imaginary friend. At age 9 he must leave her promising that she will forget him. She doesn't and later they find each other as adults in New York. Love story.

[Nicol]

Didn't like the 13th tale but I loved the The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society that someone else mentioned.

[She Likes Purple]

I enjoyed Twilight, but Stephenie Meyer does not know how to construct a sentence.

I'm reading "Love or Something Like It," and it's good so far.

[Sara]

The Mortal Instruments (it's a trilogy, and yes they are all out in print) by Cassandra Clare. It's fantasy but not on your standard level. Yes there are vampires (and werewolves and demons and warlocks and fairies), but while they have an important role to play it's not all about them. It's kinda a romance, but also a coming of age. Each book is 450 plus pages, but be fore warned its a little twisted. link to first book http://www.amazon.com/Bones-Mortal-Instruments-Cassandra-Clare/dp/1416955070/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1247516118&sr=8-1