Vacation Reads!
Vacation, staycation, mind-cation … I think we’re at that time in the year, slash the pandemic, slash our lives, that we’ve earned some “beach reads”. (Unless you’re like my stepmother, who upon hearing this week’s theme said “I don’t go to the beach, and I don’t read lightweight books.” If that’s your instinct too, this newsletter will not be up your alley but there are plenty of weighty book suggestions in the archive! For the rest of you, my mentally and emotionally exhausted kindred spirits, read on.)
One of my favorite vacation rituals is selecting which books to take, which is my final thing once all the packing is done. Obviously one (me) needs a selection so that one (also me) is not stranded somewhere, without wifi or a bookstore, with only one book that you (FINE, I) really don’t feel like reading. A personal hellscape!
My selections usually follow this roadmap, which might be useful to you too:
Kerry’s Book Packing List
A juicy book to kick off the vacation, nothing too substantive. Like something from Reese’s Book Club or a mystery, usually one that I’ve been looking forward to reading. This First Book is key to rest and reset your mind, and get into the swing of RelAXaTioN. Like the first fruity cocktail of the vacation.
A memoir-type book that has some substance but isn’t deeply hard-hitting or unbearably sad. With Second Book, your brain is ready for a little nutrition, but just a little. Like a fruit salad.
Book Three is lovely fiction. By this point the freneticism has reduced such that I can drop into fiction fully. Often I usually opt for something that’s based in a location that is not my home, to reinforce that I’m traveling. A Nicoise salad of a book.
Fourth book can be non-fiction or otherwise more substantive. This is the “Lin-Manuel Miranda read Hamilton on vacation and so can I” portion of the reading list. (Confession: I actually tried to read Hamilton on a beach vacation. Got about halfway through and abandoned. This is why we bring options, people!)
Anyway, by this point you’re ready and motivated to absorb something hearty and healthy. Plus, if you’re not a fast reader, maybe you never get to this on your trip, and that’s ok. You can feel good that you have it in queue!
Books five onward are really just for comfort and extreme backup, if you can’t sleep and need a midnight snack, or if any of the others didn’t work out. Even better if it’s a series because then if you whip through one, you can keep going.
So with that template, below are a few good vacation reads. And even if you’re not vacationing any time soon, they’ll still serve you right, whether you need a palate cleanser between “smart books” or simply have lost momentum in reading. I find that a fun vacation-style read gets me RIGHT back into the swing of things.
You 100% didn’t ask, but no, I do not carry 5+ physical books when I travel. I did as a kid, though, and boy it must have been a pain for my parents. Books everywhere!
It feels humiliatingly on-the-nose to suggest a book called Beach Read for a … beach read, but this is a great romantic drama-comedy about two writers with way more insight, heart and maturity than its name and cover would suggest. And yes, it’s delightful, fun, engrossing, a perfect vacation read! I loved it.
(Alt suggestion in this category is Daisy Jones and the Six, which we’ve talked about.)
Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods is his memoir about walking the Appalachian Trail. Very funny, sweet and sharply observed, the exact right amount of wistful, with some well-researched history and nature writing about the trail itself. Perfect for sitting by a campfire.
(Find more memoirs here.)
This gorgeous novel, Beautiful Ruins, follows a love affair through 1950’s Italy (I know, you’re already sold) through present day Hollywood. It’s a swoony meditation on love, ambition, regret, fame and success - all the things. Just literary enough to feel good, poolside.
(More “place as character” fiction here.)
Oh, you prefer a mystery, you say? Here’s an oldie but a goodie - The General’s Daughter, which centers on a pair of military detectives trying to solve a high-profile murder on an Army base. This is the kind of mystery I like - snappy dialogue, the right amount of humor, with sneakily incisive critique - in this case of the military, of “honor” and secrets, and of the fraught power dynamics between men and women. I also liked DeMille’s The Gold Coast. (Please note: all the expected murder mystery TWs apply here.)
No, In Cold Blood isn’t a lighthearted read, but it is a powerful piece of narrative non-fiction, one of the first ever written (!.) Truman Capote reconstructs the murder of a Kansas family, following through the trial, in a haunting, chilling, mesmerizing tale.
(Some other investigative non-fiction faves here.)
And if you really need brain candy, and sometimes we do, go on and read the Bridgerton books. Sure, the writing won’t win literary awards but honestly, is that why we’re reading these books? No. They certainly are fizzy, fun fairy tales with steamy love scenes and witty, sly dialogue, especially amongst the Bridgertons themselves (this *is* a strength of the series, of which I’ve read three. SO FAR.)
If you’re new here, you can also revisit my “holiday reads” which roughly follow this pattern as well. Or even if you’re not new here!
A Year of Shakespeare: I HAVE NOTHING TO REPORT
Would it count if I … watched Shakespeare? Probably not in a year of reading, sigh.
As always, the books above link to Bookshop.org, which supports independent bookstores. You can see all my past recommendations on my Bookshop.org page. Also, shout out to my local library, which has heroically been doing curbside service for a year. Librarians are the best!
And for anyone who celebrates, Happy Easter, Happy Passover, and happy Spring.
Yes yes yes to Beach Read, Beautiful Ruins, and In Cold Blood, which actually sent me down a rabbit hole of Truman Capote just-this-side-of-gossip content. And thank you for spending a wee bit of your social capital on making it acceptable to read the Bridgerton books. They're next on my list.