What is the best beach-reads book you ever read?
StepToons@aol.com
Hello! Dennis Lehane's "DARKNESS TAKE MY HAND" was a "Beach Read" that I just couldn't put down. I came pretty close to getting sun poisoning over that one. After that I read all of the other Lehane books with the same enthusiasm. (Great Newsletter by the way!)
CShank1246@aol.com
The best beach reads for me are "Gone With The Wind" and "Watership Down." Great books to get lost in. Oh and "The Outlander" of course.
AuntGigiR@aol.com
My favorite beach read: Colony by Anne Rivers Siddon.
johno99@comcast.net
"Hawaii," by James Michener. Best towel-weight I ever had.
Heavychef2@aol.com
One of the best beach reads: Remember Me by Mary Higgins Clark.
Yentl7@aol.com
Beach Music and Beaches.
jmlwarren@yahoo.ca
Summer Sisters by Judy Blume was awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Buttercupmlm@aol.com
My favorite beach-read of all time was Ring of Endless Light by Madeline L'Engle. It's a beautifully moving book with a storyline that makes it very hard to put down!
Dedwill02@aol.com
Tie= Cold Mountain, Beach Music, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldrich (P. K. Dick)
Dearauggie@aol.com
Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man by Fannie Flagg (copyright 1981).
MOMACALADA@aol.com
Many years ago when I lived in L. A. I used to listen to books on tape constantly to ease the traffic woes. I learned to listen to only really good readers...often the chosen have no clue.....and came a cross a book being read by Kathy Bates. She is a wonderful reader...so I bought an abridged version of "The Silence of the Lambs" No one had ever heard of the book at that point...and I listened to the book on a trip up to Northern California. It was so fabulous I immediately went out and bought the book itself. I loved that so much I bought tons of copies to give to all my friends. All this long before the movie...What a book!!!!!
JEarh13191@aol.com
Beach Music by Pat Conroy or The Horse Whisperer.
dbelk105@adelphia.net
It's very hard to pick one, but FRIED GREEN TOMATOES by Fannie Flagg is an easy reading, very enjoyable book.
NCBengt@aol.com
Montana Sky by Nora Roberts.
SAMABILLY@AOL.com
THE BEST BOOK I HAVE READ IS JULIE AND ROMEO, IT IS AN EASY READ, YOU CAN'T PUT IT DOWN, YET YOU DON'T WANT IT TO END. YOU WILL LOVE IT.
Shell725@aol.com
I really enjoyed Mary Higgins Clarks' "On the Street Where You Live" which takes place in Spring Lake, NJ. I know the area so it was great being able to relate to the places in the story. Nothing like a beach read about the beaches of the Jersey shore!
BigVic005@msn.com
My vote for #1 beach read is Beach Music by Pat Conroy!
JBrown2511@aol.com
The Godfather by Mario Puzo even though it has been more years than I care to admit I still remember the summer I read this book totally mesmerized. Recent years I've read Margaret Atwoods' The Blind Assassin. Also recall reading Colony by Anne Rivers Siddons beside the water one summer when life was particularly difficult and felt like it saved my life being able to escape into that book...I do love summer reading on the beach or by the pool...
Kreckmd1@aol.com
Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels are good beach reading, the last one Money, Money, Money was OK. Michael Connelly's City of Bones and all his others can be read in the sun without a strain on the brain.
dmccormick@actuarialconcepts.com
Best beach-read ever: "Beach Music", Pat Conroy.
JWIsley@aol.com
The best beach book I've read was Sweet, Savage Love by Rosemary Rogers.
gepeters@sdb.k12.wi.us
Best beach read: "Prince of Tides"
Yogakosmo@aol.com
Anything by Alice Hoffman --- her novels are so poetic and her words flow so easily, you can just lose yourself in her stories. Perfect for summertime, lounging-by-the-beach reading.
md1828@hotmail.com
Island Summer Love by Amy Belding Brown was one the best summer books I've read in a long time.
STOCKARB@aol.com
The Winds of War. Herman Wouk.
harrises@bayou.com
I LOVED The Divine Secrets of the yo-yo Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells...I probably got very sunburned because I did not want to put that one down. Over the years I enjoyed John Gresham's The Firm on a beach as well as Pat Conroe's Beach Music. Last weekend I read Big Stone Gap on a pier at a lake and found it to be entertaining. Thanks for letting me share.
CDunning@ymcarockies.org
This really dates me but of all the books I have read during the summer that was absolutely the best read was years ago called THE NUN'S STORY. If you recall they later made a movie with Aubrey Hepburn which I should never have gone to see because it destroyed all my mental images of the characters when I had read the book. It taught me never to see any movie if I had read the book previously. (Except for Harry Potter, that's an exception) and I am 61 years old.
(By the way, they really were beach book reads as I grew up on the New Hampshire coastline and my folks had a cabin at Wells Beach!)
vmmalone@yahoo.com
Susan Isaac's, After All These Years and Rebecca Wells, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.
BigAlvis 41@aol.com
The best beach reads book for me was Ian Fleming's FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE. It was simply my favorite because it was the first book I took to the beach as a newlywed. My wife detested Dr. No but we both loved
From Russia With Love and took turns bringing it to the beach.
MarionK105@aol.com
Without a doubt, it's Close to Shore by Michael Capuzzo. First of all, I'm born and raised in NJ. Second of all, this story takes place in 1916 at the Jersey shore. Third of all, I remember being scared out of my mind by "Jaws" which I think is the fictionalized story of Close to Shore.
Anyway, this is the best story to read when you're at the shore!
CLMTT75@aol.com
Pat Conroy's Beach Music. Not because of the title..........
JMeri9580@aol.com
I'm not ashamed to admit it......although it was many years ago I still remember the guilty pleasure of Valley of the Dolls. I was astonished to see it recently in trade paperback in the literature section of a major bookstore.
PJWE@aol.com
Beach Music.
Padredon@aol.com
About 25 years ago while browsing in a Miami Beach book store I picked up William Zinsser's, On Writing Well. I finished it that day, reread it twice and have kept it on my desk within reach ever since.
robmedcalfjr@earthlink.net
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle.
Butterfly4Shelly@aol.com
The best beach-reads book I have ever read is "Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas" by James Patterson.
Twoguystocool@aol.com
War and Peace. I had started reading it several times then I figured that I was taking it far too seriously and read it over a summer at the beach. It opened the door to Russian literature for me and made me realize that a lot of our teeth-breaking "classics" were, in fact, popular reading when they were first published.
DCCJ1@aol.com
The Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy
martyph@charter.net
An oldie but a goodie: THE OTHER SIDE OF MIDNIGHT by Sidney Sheldon.
jmlwarren@yahoo.ca
Summer Sisters by Judy Blume.
Mystrytx@aol.com
'Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood' by Rebecca Wells.
VBNOLTEP@aol.com
Rosamund Pilcher.
Cuminalong@aol.com
One of my favorite "Beach Reads" was The Poisonwood Bible. The story takes place in Africa and the heat of the beach adds to the enjoyment!!
sandrasc@optonline.net
Such Good Friends by Lois Gould...1970.
bkwmwc@yahoo.com
SILENCE OF THE LAMBS.
mquinlan@commtn.com
Best beach read? Gorky Park by Martin Cruz.
Mjlp@aol.com
Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy. Wonderful! Worth a second and third read.
pnichols@woodruffelectric.com
Wasn't really a "beach" book --- didn't read it at the beach, but rather riding to and from vacation destination to visit relatives --- the trip was about 1000 miles round trip. The Thorn Birds kept me busy all the way there and back.
DJCAN24@aol.com
The best beach books I have ever read are any of the books by Susan Issacs!
wthomas@pvnccdsb.on.ca
I think the best summer read for me was Summer Sister's by Judy Blume. Wonderful book.
gregc2@bellsouth.net
PRINCE OF TIDES by Pat Conroy. I read this while sitting on the beach in Hilton Head, S. C. and the book is at the top of my list of all time favorite reads. Plus, we have returned to Hilton Head and Beaufort, S. C. many times. I love Low Country!!
JFreed@phcs.com
Gloria By Keith Maillard is the best beach book I've read.
