Best Beach Reads 2011 from Good Housekeeping Magazine:

Then Came You
(Release 7/12/11)
by Jennifer Weiner
The queen of chick lit returns with a new novel about four women, bound by obligation and opportunity, who must struggle to become a family.

The Paris Wife
by Paula McLain
The twenties are roaring, and a not-yet-famous Ernest Hemingway has just met the woman who will be his first (of four) wives; she narrates this engrossing novel about their love and its undoing.

State of Wonder
(Release 6/7/11)
by Ann Patchett
A researcher flies to Brazil in search of her former mentor, who in turn is hunting for a drug that can extend fertility past 60. Delusion? Think Heart of Darkness with formidable female leads.

Planting Dandelions
by Kyran Pittman
Pittman's memoir wryly and perceptively traces her improbable path from a bohemian 70s childhood in Newfoundland to her current “semi-domesticated” life as a wife and a mother of three in the American South.

The Gap Year
By Sarah Bird
A shy teen takes up with the high school football star, then vanishes with her trust fund. Her parents (exes) reunite to track her down. A funny story about growing pains, with a twist or three.

The Memory of All That
(Release 7/19/11)
by Katharine Weber
Weber’s family boasts a slew of characters: Grandma was Gershwin’s mistress, while a granddad inspired Annie’s Daddy Warbucks. This rollicking memoir does them all justice.

Conquistadora
(Release 7/12/11)
by Esmeralda Santiago
A Spanish bride sails to Puerto Rico in 1844 to help run her in-laws’ plantation. There, she battles heat, disease, and the cruelty of slavery — and comes out on top, defying convention at every turn.

Caleb’s Crossing
by Geraldine Brooks
Curl up, literary romantics: It’s 1665, and a secret, risky friendship is set to unfold between a Native American graduate of Harvard and a minister’s daughter who herself yearns for education.

Nothing Daunted
(Release 6/21/11)
by Dorothy Wickenden
Drawing on a cache of old letters, Wickenden tells the true story of two Smith grads (one of them her grandmother) who venture out to rugged Colorado in 1916 to teach in a frontier school and leave an indelible mark.

Sister
(Release 6/7/11)
by Rosamund Lupton
When her artist sister is found dead, Bee doesn’t buy the suicide verdict. She moves into Tess’s London flat, befriends her friends, and gnaws her way toward the truth. Taut and tingling.

Beach Reads 2011- Best Books for Summer from Redbook Magazine:


Mercury in Retrograde
by Paula Froelich
Froelich, best known for her gossip reporting for the New York Post's infamous Page Six, whips up a deliciously dishy novel. Lena Lippencrass is a 20-something socialite with a secret: After years of her dad paying her bills, she's finally been cut off. As she struggles to keep up appearances, she makes some unlikely friends in her decidedly unglam new apartment building: desperate reporter Penelope and type A lawyer Dana.

Bought
by Anna David
Emma Swanson, a journalist in Los Angeles, is desperate to get off the red-carpet beat of endlessly running after celebs to ask them who they're wearing. So when she discovers that many of the anonymous, gorgeous women she spots on the red carpet are actually highly paid escorts, she's intrigued — and jumps at the chance to report on this career-making story.

The Late, Lamented Molly Marx
by Sally Koslow
Molly Marx knows she's dead; she just doesn't know how — was it a horrible accident, or was she murdered? From an in-between space known as the duration, Molly is able to keep tabs on those she left behind, including her cheating husband and her adorable daughter. As she watches her loved ones, the clues weave together into a very surprising ending to this unexpectedly spunky book about life after death.

The Story Sisters
by Alice Hoffman
Elv, Megan, and Claire Story are sisters who depend on their imaginations to escape their less-than-ideal home life. Elv, as the eldest, often takes the reins, using her words to create a magical safe place for her sisters. But Elv needs to be taken care of too, and as she grows up, she — along with Megan and Claire — realizes that a story can only take you so far. The sisters' struggle to grow and thrive in the real world will keep you riveted to the pages of this heartbreaking novel about the powers and limits of love.

Pretty in Plaid
by Jen Lancaster
As a teen, Jen Lancaster knew what she liked: scrunchies, hairspray, Jordache jeans, and the feeling of being a little bit fabulous. Laugh and cry at this hilarious collection of essays that chronicle Jen's fearless fashion faux pas through the ages, her 11 (yup) years of undergrad, and her not-so-glamorous entry-level jobs. You'll revel in the lessons she gleans from her travails: primary among them, that the ability to laugh at your mistakes is the best skill you'll ever learn

Perfection
by Julie Metz
Julie and Henry's marriage was seemingly perfect: Their passion helped them weather their storms, and they both adored their daughter, Liza. But when Henry unexpectedly died of a heart attack, leaving Julie a widow at 44, she uncovered a whole hidden side to him. As Julie struggles in this lyrical, haunting, and utterly gripping memoir to determine the depth of Henry's infidelities, she also uncovers some hard truths about herself.

Commencement
by J. Courtney Sullivan
Thrown together as floormates the first day of college, Celia, Sally, Bree, and April are completely disgusted and confused by one another's ideals and personalities. So, naturally, they all end up the closest of friends, weathering breakups, bad grades, and family drama as a team. It may sound like the set-up to a cheesy chick flick, but as this novel takes the women from their first shaky steps toward independence through the ups and downs of their 20s, you'll relive — and celebrate — the stomach-dropping moments of the best friend — relationship roller-coaster.

The Wish Maker
by Ali Sethi
In this sweeping family saga, 20-year-old Zaki, in the United States for college, grapples with his identity when he returns to Pakistan for his cousin Samar's wedding. The narrative seamlessly skips from the present to Zaki and Samar's unconventional upbringing in the politically volatile Pakistan of the 1990s, providing both a compelling view of a country we hear so much about and a satisfying yarn about what really makes a family.