MELANIE’S TOP 5 BEACH READS
My personal favorites: Pat Conroy's Beach Music and The Prince of Tides
The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd, who also wrote Secret Life of Bees
Nora Ephron's I Feel Bad About My Neck and I wish I had written it, because I do too, (feel bad about my neck, that is!)
A Gift From The Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh is truly a gift that keeps on giving. This book rests at my bedside and has since it was given to me by my dear friend when we first moved to Crystal Beach. I gift a copy to each of our beach house guests.
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theLOCAL
May/June 2016
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I am a reader. A shy and nerdy kid who changed schools frequently, I found companionship and escape in books. As Ernest Hemingway said, “There’s no friend as loyal as a book.” Still a little nerdy (but no longer shy) to this day, l love a good book and find the greatest pleasure in becoming lost in a wonderful story. There is no better place than the beach to indulge in this past-time. Choosing just the right book is the first step to a great, relaxing afternoon of reading on the beach. (Unless you have a really quirky sense of humor, I don’t recommend Jaws!). I asked several friends, all of whom are voracious readers, for suggestions of favorite reads and how they choose a book for carefree beach reading. Most of them depend on recommendations from friends. My sister loves to spend Sunday afternoons in a bookstore, browsing the shelves for intriguing titles and inviting covers. Nowadays, I get some of my best reading suggestions from Facebook friends who post mini-reviews when they finish a great book. I immediately put those suggestions on my wish list, so I’m never without a good read. However you choose your beach reading material, the soundtrack of the waves is the perfect background for an afternoon of reading. The breeze from the Gulf and the squawking of the seagulls offer just enough noise to help focus on the story. My pal Linda is one of the greatest readers I know. She reads widely from all genres and I have never had a bad recommendation from her. One reason I think that we are BFFs is that she, too lost herself in books throughout her
childhood. A career educator, she loves history and is drawn to historical fiction. She tells the tale of coming to Bolivar as a young teenager and haunting Faggard’s Store, where a revolving wire rack held a variety of paperbacks. She spent hours perusing that wire rack, then roasting in the summer sun on Gilchrist Beach while reading her selections. Faggard’s is where she found The Gadfly by Ethel Voynich. A work of historical fiction, the book is set in 1840s Italy during a time of revolution. The Gadfly is reported to have been Eleanor Roosevelt’s favorite book. (For the sake of historical accuracy, I must report that there may have been a boy involved in the Faggard’s Store situation). The beach and romance novels go together…well, like a wink and a smile. When else can we feel perfectly entitled to a steamy love story? And, if the story is set on a beach, all the better! Several of my pals recommended books by Elin Hilderbrand. Her books are set on and around Nantucket Island. The sand and the surf and the laid-back lifestyle of a beach setting are familiar no matter which beach we are enjoying. The Blue Bistro by Hildebrand came highly recommended. It is a book set on Nantucket Island, with the additional intrigue of the main character working in a restaurant – tapping in to the interest that many of us have in cooking (or at least eating!). Mysteries are always a good beach choice. Alexander McCall Smith’s series, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency can’t be beat. In this series, lady detective, Mma Ramotswe and her redoubtable