5 Books for the Beach!

Written by: JANSSEN BRADSHAW of Everyday Reading

Summer is here! Even with two little girls who aren’t in school, it still feels different from the rest of the year.

And I’m determined to squeeze in as much beach reading as possible, even if I have to substitute “apartment patio” for “beach.”

Here are five books I’d recommend to pack along this summer:

1. Zero Waste Home by Bea Johnson – This is a completely fascinating book by a woman about her family (her, a husband and two sons) and how they live a lifestyle that produces a single quart jar of trash EVERY YEAR. I don’t have any aspirations to get that low, but it was so interesting to read about and be inspired by the changes they’ve made. I’ve lent my copy to several people already who’ve loved it too.
2. I’ve Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella – I don’t like everything by Sophie Kinsella, but the best of her books make me laugh until I cry (and then I have to read all the funny parts aloud to my husband). This is, in my opinion, her best one. It’s a quick, fun read that has remained one of my favorites.
3. Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor – This is YA at its finest. It’s also fantasy at its very best. I am a huge YA fan, but not much of a fantasy reader. This book changed my tune – it is fabulously written, tightly plotted, and just overall one of the better books I’ve ever read. (Also, the second book in the trilogy is perhaps even BETTER, unbelievably).
4. A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table by Molly Wizenberg – I love food books and this is a spectacular one. I gave it to my mom for Mother’s Day a few years back and she told me that she’d loved it so much she immediately bought copies for two friends (she said she loved it too much to risk lending out her own copy for fear she wouldn’t get it back). It’s a perfect marriage of stories and recipes.
5. Room by Emma Donoghue – This book is pretty intense; it’s narrated by five-year-old Jack who has spent his entire life living in a garden shed. His mother was kidnapped and has been kept there for years, but as Jack (her son by her abductor) grows older, his mother realizes that she must attempt a breakout. When it goes off successfully, both she and Jack must learn to deal with life in the regular world again. It sounds horrific, but it’s actually so full of hope, I couldn’t put it down.

What are you reading this summer?