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Beach Bag 2009

Summer Reading

Beach Bag 2009

Whether your "beach" is on sand, your backyard deck or a grassy meadow in the country, the summer months mean it's time for "beach reading." Bookreporter.com has been celebrating the lazy days of summer reading with our Fifth Annual Bookreporter.com Beach Bag of Books feature and contests.

During select weeks from May 22nd through September 4th, a different title or collection of titles was featured with a contest prize --- a beach bag stocked with the featured book(s) and summertime essentials. Five FABULOUS beach bags were given away each week, as well as five copies of the featured book(s) to additional winners.

Although the contest period is over, please be sure to check out the titles on the left of this page for some great reading suggestions as the summer winds down.

The Late, Lamented Molly Marx by Sally Koslow -

Ever wonder who would attend your funeral? Newly deceased Molly Marx gets to see that and more as she tries to decipher her past mistakes in life and the mysterious circumstances surrounding her death.

The Ex-Mrs. Hedgefund by Jill Kargman -

Seemingly sheltered from the threats of economic collapse and the risk of downsizing from new Roger Viviers to consignment Manolos, the Hedge Fund men and their wives occupy a world of boundless excess and secluded luxury, a step above the already outrageous wealth of the Upper East Side.

Mercury in Retrograde by Paula Froelich - Fiction

MERCURY IN RETROGRADE is truly a summer read. It’s romantic, funny, fairly self-explanatory, a perfectly frothy concoction, a Cosmopolitan, if you will (to borrow the favorite drink of Manhattan's most famous career-driven heroines), that will find its way from one beachcomber to another throughout the hot, humid months.

Chosen To Die by Lisa Jackson - Romantic Suspense

In the canyons and forests of Montana’s Bitterroot Mountains, Detective Regan Pescoli is hunting a depraved serial killer. All her energy is focused on his capture, on saving the women he torments. At least it was until her ex-husband insisted he was taking full custody of their children. In a fit of rage, intent on barging into his home and taking back the kids, Regan is attacked during a growing storm and finds herself under the control of the very sadist she is seeking. The hunter has become the hunted.

The Unit by Ninni Holmqvist - Dystopian Fiction

One day in early spring, Dorrit Weger is checked into the Second Reserve Bank Unit for biological material. She is promised a nicely furnished apartment inside the Unit, where she will make new friends, enjoy the state-of-the-art recreation facilities, and live the remaining days of her life in comfort with people who are just like her. Here, women over the age of fifty and men over sixty --- single, childless, and without jobs in progressive industries --- are sequestered for their final years; they are considered outsiders.

Summer House by Nancy Thayer - Fiction

From the New York Times bestselling author of MOON SHELL BEACH --- a moving new novel about an unexpectedly magical summer for three generations of women.

Driftwood Summer by Patti Callahan Henry - Fiction

Three sisters --- responsible Riley, vivacious Maisy, and fun-loving Adalee --- reunite to save the family’s beach-community bookstore. But summer also marks the return of Mack Logan, whose choice of Maisy over Riley years ago destroyed the special closeness between the sisters…

Diamondhead by Patrick Robinson - Thriller

When Navy SEAL Mack Bedford’s fellow officers are brutally killed by Iraqi insurgents using a cruel, new, anti-tank Diamondhead missile, Mack avenges their murders by gunning down the then unarmed attackers, ultimately getting himself court-martialed and kicked out of the Navy in the process. 

The Compass by Tammy Kling and John Spencer Ellis - Fiction

THE COMPASS is a life transformation novel that will guide you on a journey of self-discovery. At the core of THE COMPASS are specific lessons about belief systems and understanding who you really are in order to live out your destiny. Jonathan, the main character, escapes his suburban life after a tragedy that alters his plans for the future.

Domestic Affairs by Eileen Goudge - Romance

From the New York Times bestselling author of WOMAN IN RED comes an intimate story of friendship lost and regained, old loves rekindled, and a baptism by fire that ultimately leads to the redemption of three very special women.

The Shimmer by David Morrell - Thriller


A police pursuit kicks Sergeant Jack Redding of the Florida Highway Patrol and his trainee, Julie Karras, into a shoot-out that ends with one girl dead and another in cuffs, and the driver of the SUV fleeing into the Intracoastal Waterway. Redding stays on the hunt, driven by the trace memory that he knows that running woman --- and he does, because his grandfather, a cop in Jacksonville, was hunting the same woman in 1957. Redding and his partner, Pandora Jansson, chase a seductive serial killer who can ride The Shimmer across decades. The stakes turn brutal when Jack, whose wife and child died in a crash the previous Christmas Eve, faces a terrible choice: help his grandfather catch the killer, or change time itself and try to save his wife and child.

Summer Blowout by Claire Cook - Chick Lit

A good makeup artist never panics. Bella Shaughnessy knows this. She’s the resident makeup maven in a family of Boston Irish hair salon owners; she has an artful solution to almost every problem. But Bella feels bruised beyond the reach of even the best concealer when her half-sister runs off with her husband. What could she come up with to cover a hurt like that?

The Wildwater Walking Club by Claire Cook - Women's Fiction

Just put one foot in front of the other. Sounds simple, doesn't it? But when Noreen Kelly takes a buyout from her job of 18 years and gets dumped by her boyfriend in one fell swoop, she finds it hard to know what that next step is-never mind take it.

The Richest Season by Maryann McFadden - Women's Fiction

When lonely corporate wife Joanna Harrison runs away to Pawleys Island, she has no idea what happens next. But as a new life takes root, thanks to a passionate fisherman and a commitment to save endangered turtles, demands from her old life may force her to return.

Loose Girl by Kerry Cohen - Memoir

LOOSE GIRL is Kerry Cohen’s captivating memoir about her descent into promiscuity and how she gradually found her way toward real intimacy. The story of addiction --- not just to sex, but to male attention --- LOOSE GIRL is also the story of a young girl who came to believe that boys and men could give her life meaning.

Jennifer Johnson Is Sick of Being Single by Heather McElhatton - Chick Lit

Everyone around Jennifer Johnson is getting married, while she's still single and stuck writing ad copy about men's dress socks. Launched on a humiliating and hilarious quest to find Prince Charming at any cost --- including agonizing online dates, diet-clinic cults, drag-queen fights, and a debilitating addiction to Cinnabon icing, JENNIFER JOHNSON is a cautionary tale about getting what you want - and how that may be the worst thing to happen to you.

Do Dead People Walk Their Dogs? by Concetta Bertoldi - Nonfiction

Concetta Bertoldi has been communicating with the "Other Side" since childhood. In her previous book, the bestselling DO DEAD PEOPLE WATCH YOU SHOWER?, she addressed questions about the afterlife that ranged from the poignant to the provocative. Now she returns with DO DEAD PEOPLE WALK THEIR DOGS?, a second volume of intriguing observations about our beloved deceased.

The Condition by Jennifer Haigh - Fiction

The year is 1976, and the family --- Frank McKotch, an eminent scientist; his pedigreed wife, Paulette; and their three beautiful children --- has embarked on its annual vacation at the Captain’s House, the grand old family retreat on Cape Cod. One day on the beach, Frank is struck by an image he cannot forget: his thirteen-year-old daughter, Gwen, strangely infantile in her child-sized bikini, standing a full head shorter than her younger cousin Charlotte. At the moment he knows a truth that he can never again unknown --- something is terribly wrong with his only daughter. The McKotch family will never be the same.

The Seamstress by Frances de Pontes Peebles - Fiction

As seamstresses, the young sisters Emília and Luzia dos Santos know how to cut, how to mend, and how to conceal. These are useful skills in the lawless backcountry of Brazil, where ruthless land barons called “colonels” feud with bands of outlaw cangaceiros, trapping innocent residents in the cross fire. Emília, whose knowledge of the world comes from fashion magazines and romance novels, dreams of falling in love with a gentleman and escaping to a big city. Luzia also longs to escape their little town, where residents view her with suspicion and pity. Scarred by a childhood accident that left her with a deformed arm, the quick-tempered Luzia finds her escape in sewing and in secret prayers to the saints she believes once saved her life.