Top Ten Books That Should Be In A Beach Bag

Top Ten Tuesday is an awesome meme hosted by the Broke and Bookish where we create and share lists of our top ten... anything!  The categories are so random and always fun that I can hardly wait to see what's going on next week.  This Tuesday we're featuring something that is very near and dear to me-- summer reading, and in particular those books that were just bound to be read on the beach!

1.

The genius of Libba Bray should be read and generally appreciated in all locations, of course, but the first book in the Gemma Doyle trilogy makes for the perfect beach read: it has scandal and gossip and best friends who fight, while it also contains snippets of decidedly less-chic lit subject matter, such as cults and magical paradises gone wrong.

2.

Yep, the Gossip Girl series.  The characters got old after a half dozen books for me, but the first book is a YA contemporary masterpiece-- seriously, forget the show!  This book is impossible to put down, sexy, and so funny you'll probably attract a lot of attention while you sprawl out on the sand, trying desperately to muffle your giggles.

 3. 

This is manga, people, and good manga it is.  Our heroine lives near a Japanese marina... and becomes involved in the bizarre discovery of two mysterious preteen boys who washed up on the shore and have a strange aversion to being out of the water for too long.  The art is spectacular.

4. 

The epitome of good chic lit.  Maureen Johnson is always funny, and the situations which arise for a family who owns a three-star hotel in Manhattan are too good to be missed.

 5.

 I have yet to actually read this one... but it's going to be in my beach bag this year, for sure.  The very cover makes me long for summer, which is practically tangible now.

6.

 I read this book on the beach last year.  Every time I pick it up, I can smell the surf and sea breeze and sand and seashells... YES, seashells do have a smell!  This is an atmospheric paranormal romance which is light enough for a beachy read.

7.

A fun graphic novel by fantastic American artist Ted Naifeh.  Polly is a governor's daughter who runs away to become a pirate after her ship is attacked.  Not unlike Elizabeth Swan, though the story and art manage to be unique in their own right.

8.

This is one of those rare books you can read and just let the story and the characters flow in your mind.  It's perfect for a do-nothing day of tanning intermingled with short swims in the ocean.

9.

This entrancing contemp romance will have you dreaming of summer afternoons spent munching on bagettes and spooning up sipping tea on the lawn of that Parisian park alongside the lazy Seine.  I love this book; can't recommend it enough.

 10.

 This one is best for a long beach holiday.  You can read a few dozen pages each day and let the mystery surrounding the small Southern town of Gatlin and its mysterious new resident, Lena Duchannes, build slowly to a shattering and shocking climax.  This is another of last year's beach books.  I love a good paranormal tome.