5 Great Beach Reads

BY: PROVOKR Staff

City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg

Set in the crime-plagued, graffiti-ridden New York City of the late 1970s, City on Fire is a sprawling novel that draws its multitude of characters—ranging from wealthy uptown strivers to a downtown gay couple to drug-taking teens from Long Island—into one massive web of intrigue. The crux of the plot revolves around the Central Park shooting of a young woman. The story unfolds in a nonlinear timeline, adding psychological insights into all the characters as the book progresses. Although it’s heftier than your average beach read, the tale is so well told and captivating, you’ll get the intellectual benefits of reading a serious novel along with the guilty pleasure of reading a good old fashioned mystery.

 

Beyond the Break by Kristen Mae

If you don’t mind getting turned on at the beach, then by all means bring Beyond the Break with you. This work of well-written erotica follows the deepening, sexually confusing relationship between two women who are both in heterosexual marriages. As one female reader who posted on Amazon put it: “As a card-carrying heterosexual, I expected to feel a little squirmy about the girl-on-girl aspect and was just reading because I love this author’s writing. I was SO WRONG. The sex was, in a word, mind-blowing.”

 

I’ll Take You by Eliza Kennedy

Here’s another steamy book but more in the chick-lit vein rather than erotica. The central character is Lily Wilder, a high-powered lawyer who’s about to get married but starts having second thoughts. Lily also happens to not be great at monogamy, which she proves by sleeping with a gaggle of men ranging from her boss to one of her fiance’s groomsmen. If you’re looking for light-hearted humorous fun in the company of an extremely flawed protagonist, this is the beach read for you.

 

Modern Lovers by Emma Straub

A Brooklyn-based novel about a group of old college chums who find themselves middle-aged and looking back on the trajectory of their lives just as their teenaged kids are about to begin their journeys. The chapters rotate between the various characters’ perspectives, but what holds them all together is Straub’s ongoing knack for evocative details and her poignant emotional observations.

 

Fast Girl: A Life Spent Running from Madness by Suzy Favor Hamilton

In the non-fiction genre, this memoir from an Olympic runner who also moonlighted as a high-end escort in the 1990s, delves into the untreated bipolar disorder that led her to both extremes. Favor Hamilton bares her soul and the book becomes a provocative look at one woman’s incredible journey from being a world-class runner to becoming a prostitute and finally becoming an ardent advocate for mental health.