2014 Summer Beach Reads

Looking for the perfect page turner to add to your beach tote? Our editors delved into the newest novels to round up this list of nine favorites. Each one is a perfect companion for a day at the beach with your toes in the sand. Discover which of our summer beach reads is perfect for you.

• Next: Two Sisters by Mary Hogan

by Mary Hogan
Twenty-four-year-old Muriel is short, overweight, and an expert at avoiding her judgmental family. Pia is lanky, blonde, and a perfect daughter to their mother, Lidia. Each woman has a big secret that makes Hogan’s first novel for adults a truly moving read. (William Morrow; $15, amazon.com)

• Next: The Possibilities by Kaui Hart Hemmings

by Kaui Hart Hemmings
From the author of The Descendants, this book tells the story of a mother grieving the death of her 22-year-old son with help from an unorthodox cast of characters: her live-in father, a recently divorced friend, and a young girl with information that could change everything. The Hawaii native’s second novel already has movie rights secured. (Simon & Schuster; $25, amazon.com)

• Next: Delancey by Molly Wizenberg

by Molly Wizenberg
You will cheer for Wizenberg, writer of the popular food blog Orangette, and her husband as they navigate the exciting and some-times treacherous task of opening a Seattle pizza shop—and try to build a marriage, too, in this honest, sprightly memoir. (Bonus: Tasty recipes included!) (Simon & Schuster; $25, amazon.com)

• Next: No Book but the World by Leah Hager Cohen

by Leah Hager Cohen
Ava and her brother, Fred, were raised off the grid by unconventional parents. Fred is accused of murder as an adult, and even as his sister tries to help him, she grapples with the fear that the accusations may be true. (Riverhead Books; $28, amazon.com)

• Next: And the Dark Sacred Night by Julia Glass

by Julia Glass
The National Book Award–winning author’s new novel centers on a middle-aged man seeking the identity of his father. A trek across New England leads him to unearth an accident and its startling repercussions. (Pantheon; $27, amazon.com)

• Next: Frog Music by Emma Donoghue

by Emma Donoghue
The author of the best-seller Room returns with a novel chronicling the 1837 real-life unsolved murder of Jenny Bonnet, a bicycle-stealing, pants-wearing San Francisco woman. Her friend sets out to solve the whodunnit, and Donoghue’s unveiling will keep you planted in your beach chair. (Little, Brown, and Co.; $27, amazon.com)

• Next: The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing by Mira Jacob

by Mira Jacob
When her brain surgeon father begins hallucinating bygone family members, Amina returns home to find out what’s wrong. This vivid debut novel spans 20 years from India to New Mexico as the mysteries of her Indian-American family unravel. (Random House; $26, amazon.com)

• Next: Gemini by Carol Cassella

by Carol Cassella
The Bainbridge Island–based author explores what happens when an unconscious hit-and-run victim lands in the hospital with no ID and no one to claim her. A determined doctor searches for the truth before it’s too late. (Simon & Schuster; $26, amazon.com)

• Next: The Vacationers by Emma Straub

by Emma Straub
It’s easy to get hooked by this story of a family vacation gone awry. The characters—a delightful Griswolds-meet-The Royal Tenenbaums sort of crew—stay with you, as does the sunlit setting on the Spanish island of Mallorca. (Riverhead Books; $27, amazon.com)

• Next: More Summer Beach Reads