It’s getting hot outside and the summer season is upon us. Time to grab the beach towels from the cupboard, brush off that lounge chair, and fill your tote bags with the essentials — books!
Here are 5 legal (and non-legal) beach reads to keep you occupied while enjoying your summer.
1. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi. Paul Kalanithi was 36 and on the verge of finishing a decade’s worth of training as a neurosurgeon when he was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. This is a sad and heartbreaking memoir and, as Kalanithi transforms from doctor to patient and tries to figure out what makes a meaningful life, you just may find yourself blaming the bright summer sun for those tears in your eyes.
2. Who Do You Love by Jennifer Weiner. Rachel and Andy meet one night in an ER waiting room when they are eight years old. As the two grow up, they continue to meet again and again until they are left to wonder if they are meant to be together.
3. All is Not Forgotten by Wendy Walker. After young Jenny Kramer is violently attacked at a party, she is given a controversial drug to erase her memories of the event. While her physical wounds heal in the weeks and months that follow, Jenny struggles with her emotions, unable to deal with not knowing what happened. Her father becomes obsessed with finding her attacker, her mother wants everything to go back to the way it was before, and the psychiatrist treating Jenny finds himself stuck in a moral quandary. All is Not Forgotten is a compelling and suspenseful novel that questions the importance of memories.
4. The Pursuit: A Fox and O’Hare Novel by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg. Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg return with the next book in their Fox and O’Hare series, which follows Nicolas Fox, an international con man, thief, and undercover FBI agent. When Fox is kidnapped, he and his partner, Special Agent Kate O’Hare, must pull off the most daring con of their lives in order to save a major U.S. city from a huge disaster.
5. Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. Alexander Hamilton tells the story of the often-disregarded Founding Father from his life as an orphan in the Caribbean to his untimely death in a duel with Aaron Burr. If, like me, you’re obsessed with the Broadway show Hamilton, you’ll know the closest you’ll probably get to experiencing the musical is listening to the soundtrack while reading this book. But this book is more than the musical — filled with history and details, it’s a remarkable biography.
Happy reading! Let us know what’s in your to-be-read stack in the comments.
Shanna Lisberg. Shanna is an attorney who lives and works in Seattle. She can be reached at selisberg@gmail.com.
