14 great summer beach reads for 2021

What is a good beach book?

If the idea of summer is to get away from everything and relax, then the summer beach read will take you to that place. The ideal beach read is a simple book still full of substance. Vacation is the best time to reflect, after all.

They’re largely culled from the ranks of Amazon’s top-selling titles. These 13 recommended beach readings will get you fascinated. These books are accessible for purchase on Amazon and have four-star reviews or better on the website.

The Guest List: A Novel

It is Reese’s Book Club choice. Lucy Foley writes it, and it is a murder mystery set during an island wedding just off the shores of Ireland. The book is full of suspense and secrets that are revealed later. The bride and groom, the wedding planner, the bridesmaid, and many other people don’t become too attached. Sooner or later, you’ll see one of them appear deceased within “The Guest List.”

It is Reese’s Book Club choice. Lucy Foley writes it, and it is a murder mystery set during an island wedding just off the shores of Ireland. The book is full of suspense and secrets that are revealed later. The bride and groom, the wedding planner, the bridesmaid, and many other people don’t become too attached. Sooner or later, you’ll see one of them appear deceased within “The Guest List.”

The Last Thing He Told Me

The story was published in the months before the most recent one of Laura Dave’s “The Divorce Party” was released. Reese Witherspoon and her production company bought the rights; Julia Roberts signed on to play the lead in the series version to Apple TV+. That’s right, “The Last Thing He Told Me” is full of juice. The novel tells the story of one woman, her teenage step-daughter, and her husband, who disappears. Vogue described the novel as “ light and bright, despite its edgy plot.”

Untamed

Glennon Doyle’s “Untamed” still holds its position as a top-selling book after its publication in March of 2020. Her No. #1 New York Times bestselling memoir has featured famous faces like Reese Witherspoon to Oprah Winfrey raving about it, and lakhs of copies being sold. The book is a powerful and emotional read that is a powerful account of Doyle’s journey to self-discovery. Discover the consequences of her leaving the stumbling blocks behind and begins being true to herself.

Project Hail Mary

Is there any genre more romantic than sci-fi? If you’re searching for an experience out of this world this summer, “Project Hail Mary” could be a perfect choice. The latest novel from Andy Weir, best known for “The Martian” is about the story of a man who awakes in a spaceship without any clue why he’s in the spaceship and who he is. Happily for humanity, it turns out that his qualifications for his position (he’s an astronaut) or even his purpose (to save the planet Earth). As with other books featured in this list, “Project Hail Mary” will be heading to Hollywood: Ryan Gosling is expected to play the lead role in the film’s big-screen version.

Seven Days in June

One of the novel from Tia Williams, “The Accidental Diva,” seems to be crafted specifically for readers who love beaches. “Seven Days in June” is not just set in summer, but natch and also in the realm of literature. The story of two writers reconnecting following a long-lost romance as a teenager was called “one of the most anticipated romance novels of the summer” by Oprah Daily.

Malibu Rising: A Novel

“Malibu Rising” is the new novel from Taylor Jenkins Reid. Reid previously released one of the top beach readings with “Daisy Jones & the Six,” an esoteric oral biography of a fictitious 1970s rock supergroup. This time around, Reid spins a story set mostly in 1983 and is about an unnamed Southern California family, a house party, and a raging wildfire. Publishers Weekly praised the book: “This page-turning indulgence hits the spot.”

The Guncle

Steven Rowley’s “Lily and the Octopus” was called one of the Washington Post’s “feel-good books to brighten your summer.” In the novel “Guncle”, Patrick, known to his nephew and niece by Gay Uncle Patrick, GUP, and GUP unexpectedly becomes the primary caregiver for the two little ones. “Rowley’s depth and humor will warm even the most jaded hearts,” the Post said.

The Chosen and the Beautiful

According to Bustle, it is “one of 2021’s must-read novels,” according to Bustle. The author Nghi Vo, “The Empress of Salt and Fortune” reinvents “The Great Gatsby” from the viewpoint of Jordan Baker. It is F. Scott Fitzgerald’s book Jordan is an American white woman who is Nick Carroway’s lover. In the novel “The Chosen and the Beautiful,” Jordan is an edgy Vietnamese adoptee.

The Other Black Girl: A Novel

The debut novel written by Zakiya D. Harris has generated lots of buzzes. An Amazon editor’s choice for the Best Book of June 2021, “The Other Black Girl,” is based on Harris’s former life at a top publishing company. The novel is described as suspense. The novel is a tale of Nella, a 26-year-old editor assistant working at a top publishing house. Nella is the sole Black employee of the all-white team until Hazel arrives, and the ensuing complications are afoot. “Harris’s writing propels you forward through the story,” the New York Times said.

The Ugly Cry: A Memoir

The first non-fiction book in this roundup, “The Ugly Cry,” is the story of Danielle Henderson’s growing up. According to its publisher says, “Black, weird, and overwhelmingly uncool in a mostly white neighborhood in upstate New York.” Her mother has raised Henderson as a TV writer and a podcaster. According to the Associated Press, Her memoir was declared “ powerful and energetic.”

People We Meet on Vacation

The author Emily Henry wrote the book specifically about beach reads or, at least, one of the 2020 editions, “Beach Read” which was the first New York Times bestseller. The author returns in the summer, and “People We Meet on Vacation,” about two friends from the past, Alex and Poppy, returning to their routine of summertime fun is there to woo you. The Wall Street Journal called Henry’s “ laugh-out-loud funny” dialogue.

Tiger Girl and the Candy Kid: America’s Original Gangster Couple

The truth is that true crime stories aren’t intended for binge-watching only. “Tiger Girl and the Candy Kid” is an e-book by veteran writer Glenn Stout about Jazz Age villains Margaret Whittemore and Richard Whittemore, the “original gangster couple” of the book’s title. Stout’s work was one of the New York Times’ picks as the top novel crime books to read in the summer of 2021. “Stout has done more than simply chronicle the couple’s crimes,” Tina Jordan wrote for the Times. “He has tried to understand what motivated the Whittemore’s.”

Crazy Rich Asians

A classic experience of reading on the beach requires the classic beach book — or two. The first selection from this collection is Kevin Kwan’s huge 2013 smash, “Crazy Rich Asians”. If you’re reading this novel for the hundredth time or are reading it in the first place (after watching the movie on the hundredth occasion), you’ll be pulled by the excitement of the love story between Rachel Chu and Nick Young.

Valley of the Dolls

Here is my second choice for a classic beach book. Jacqueline Susann’s passionate and incredibly written “Valley of the Dolls” was published in 1966. It is set in post-World War WWII New York City; it’s an account of three women who have huge dreams and often huge drug addictions. In a piece written by Nancy Bachrach in an interview with NPR, “‘Valley of the Dolls’ is a zipper-ripper that has been called trashy, tawdry, glitzy, lusty, sordid and seamy -and that’s just the beginning of its appeal.”