Recommended 'Beach Reads'?

[BabsterA]

Our October Getaway cruise is after the 'summer reading' season, but I'm stockpiling new reads in a collection on my iPad for reading while listening to the wake furl out to the horizon. I have the new Dorothy Benton Frank waiting for me as well as books by Wendy Wax, Maeve Binchy, and Elin Hilerbrand.

 

Does anyone have recommendations for 'must read'? I prefer light reading, books with shore settings, but also enjoy biographies, who dunnits, courtroom novels (Grisham).

[riddle]

Look into Moriarty (L). The settings are in Australia and the writing is refreshing. The latest is Big Little Lies, a bit of a mystery but on a different scale than I normally read. It is light but fun. She has about 5 others I have read and liked them all. Check google for her other titles if you are interested.

[garnet115]

Look into Moriarty (L). The settings are in Australia and the writing is refreshing. The latest is Big Little Lies, a bit of a mystery but on a different scale than I normally read. It is light but fun. She has about 5 others I have read and liked them all. Check google for her other titles if you are interested.

 

You beat me to it! I was about to make the same recommendation. I think that both Big Little Lies and The Husband's Secret would fall into the quasi-mystery beachy read category. I love her books.

[zubee23]

Katia Lief's series of books featuring Karin Schaeffer as the main character. I read "Money Kill" first and then worked my way backwards to the first (The Domino Killer - short story).

 

My last cruise in November 2013, I read Donna Tartt's "The Goldfinch" and Jhumpa Lahiri's "The Lowland."

 

"Skinny Dip" by Carl Hiassen is a classic. Part of the plot is based on a cruise ship!

 

Karen Olson has a series of murder mysteries featuring two main characters that are fun. Annie Seymour (news reporter) series is based in New Haven, CT. Brett Kavanaugh (tatoo artist) series is Las Vegas based.

 

Recently read Rowling/Galbraith's "The Silkworm" and King's "Mr. Mercedes" - both page turners. I preferred Rowling/Galbraith's "The Cuckoo's Calling" but that's just me!

 

Have fun! Happy reading!

[youngestof9]

Ask a cruise question forum has a few threads on this topic - This has some great suggestions.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1357885

[thespiritmovesme]

....as they all take place on one of the Hawaii Islands-thus they are especially great reads for a cruise, especially on the POA if anyone has that on their to-do list.

Any Carl Hiassen as previously mentioned.

[FuninWB]

You may like any of the Nancy Thayer novels about Nantucket.

[jbitzer]

I just read the invention of wings by sue mink Kidd and still life with bread crumbs by Anna quindlen. Both were excellent reads

 

 

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[MaryL31]

I was going to say anything by Elin Hildebrand but you already knew that! :)

[BabsterA]

Thank you all for the suggestions! I'll be hitting the iTunes bookstore in a big way!

[sonntags]

Check out Harlan coben novels if you like John Grisham :) soo good. All of them

[VickiD59]

Try as I might, I can never read more than a handful of pages before the gentle rocking motion, and the sound of the wake, lull me into wanting a nap :)

[Tralfie]

I"m currently reading Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl and if it wasn't SO amazingly good, I'd keep it for my cruise in September. But I started it and can't put it down. Just a stunningly well written book.

 

If you like Nora Roberts (I'm not a big romance reader, but I like her supernatural-bent trilogies) I'd recommend either the Three Sisters Island trilogy (witches) or, for straight-forward, non-supernatural stuff, The Villa.

 

Biography wise, if you happen to be a soap fan, Not Young, Still Restless, the autobiography of Jeanne Cooper (who played Katherine on Young & Restless) is a fantastic read.

 

Another REALLY fun read is Early Bird, a book by Rodney Rothman, which is about a 30-year old who moves into a retirement home to see what it'll be like. REALLY funny book.

 

And for a "Get outta my head! Those are MY pet peeves!" read, you could always pick up MY book, Crimes Against Civility! LOL

 

Can't wait to see what others recommend... always looking for good books!

 

Richard/Tralfie

[Barb Nahoumi]

I just read the invention of wings by sue mink Kidd and still life with bread crumbs by Anna quindlen. Both were excellent reads

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

I'm reading "Invention of Wings," now. Great read which I can hardly put down.

[NancyL2]

You may like any of the Nancy Thayer novels about Nantucket.

 

Thank you for this recommendation. I just downloaded one of her books to read now. And have another one on hold for my cruise. :)

[Barb Nahoumi]

Our October Getaway cruise is after the 'summer reading' season, but I'm stockpiling new reads in a collection on my iPad for reading while listening to the wake furl out to the horizon. I have the new Dorothy Benton Frank waiting for me as well as books by Wendy Wax, Maeve Binchy, and Elin Hilerbrand.

 

Does anyone have recommendations for 'must read'? I prefer light reading, books with shore settings, but also enjoy biographies, who dunnits, courtroom novels (Grisham).

 

My favorite Grisham was "The Confession."

[jenesaisquoi]

Since you mentioned shore settings and who dunnitts, I thought you might enjoy a book I recently read called Saving Grace by Pamela Fagan Hutchins. I got it as a free download on my Kindle from Amazon, but it will probably be available to you on your iPad, as well, through your iTunes bookstore. It's still free on Amazon as of today if there is some way for you to download it from there. I thought it was an interesting, light read. Here's the summary of the book:

 

"Katie Connell is a high-strung attorney whose sloppy drinking habits and stunted love life collide hilariously during a doomed celebrity case in Dallas. She flees Texas for the Caribbean and escapes professional humiliation, a broken heart, and a wicked Bloody Mary habit, but ends up trading one set of problems for another when she begins to investigate the suspicious deaths of her parents on the island of St. Marcos. She’s bewitched by the voodoo spirit of an abandoned house in the rainforest and discovers that she’s as much a danger to herself as the island’s bad guys are."

 

There are other books in the Katie & Annalise series if you like that one.

[Schmoopy]

I second The Husband's Secret, although it's not a "shore" setting and it's kind of predictable. But it's till one of those can't-put-it-down books.

 

Thank you to whoever recommended Gone Girl. I'm going to put it on my Kindle today and read it on our cruise later this week!

[sjbdtz]

Just to keep this on an NCL vein, on a cruise several years ago, I became friends with an author who writes action/suspense stories (military / scientific genre).

 

I know he continues to cruise on NCL, so that's an added bonus.

 

 

His pen-name is James Rollins, and he's a really genuine type of guy (despite the fake name).

 

I realize this isn't the genre OP asked for, but in case others are looking for other genres....

 

 

Here's his website & title list: http://www.jamesrollins.com/

 

 

Stephen

 

 

.

[SissasMomE]

Just to keep this on an NCL vein, on a cruise several years ago, I became friends with an author who writes action/suspense stories (military / scientific genre).

 

I know he continues to cruise on NCL, so that's an added bonus.

 

 

His pen-name is James Rollins, and he's a really genuine type of guy (despite the fake name).

 

I realize this isn't the genre OP asked for, but in case others are looking for other genres....

 

 

Here's his website & title list: http://www.jamesrollins.com/

 

 

Stephen

 

 

.

 

I started reading his books a while back on your recommendation - they are very good.

 

I started a series called Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. Good series.

[realtrip]

How about : Killer cruise by Laura Levine. It's a laugh out loud murder mystery.

I love Janet Evanovich, easy reading and funny.

I liked the invention of wings and Gone girl too!

[52marv]

I've loved all of these books:

 

The Uncommon Reader: A Novella by Alan Bennett

 

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy

 

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

 

The Hundred-Foot Journey: A Novel by Richard C Morais (The movie starring Helen Mirrin comes out this week)

 

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand Hardcover by Helen Simonson

 

84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

 

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

 

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

 

Mister Owita's Guide to Gardening: How I Learned the Unexpected Joy of a Green Thumb and an Open Heart by Carol Wall

 

Maisie Dobbs (Book 1) by Jacqueline Winspear

 

Moonraker's Bride by Madeleine Brent

 

Daddy-Long-Legs and Dear Enemy by Jean Webster

[Pamster]

For a beachy, mystery read, believe it or not, Anthony Bourdaine (the chef) has a couple of mysteries set in the Caribbean. Gone Bamboo and Bone in the Throat. The Bobby Gold Stories is also his.

 

While not beachy, the Janet Evanovich series about the New Jersey bonds-woman is an easy read and FUNNY.

 

Nora Roberts writing as J.D. Robb is one of my favorite mystery series, a NYPD detective in the future (around 2050 I think), is very enjoyable.

 

I picked up "Cruising Panama's Canal: Experience the sights, sounds and thrills of cruise travel, told with the wit and charm of travel memoir writers Al & Sunny Lockwood" for $5 on Amazon for our Panama Canal cruise. It's definitely cruisey, being the account of their Panama Canal cruise. I've only read a little bit, and it's an easy read.

[mablinki]

I just finished reading "The Last Original Wife" by Dorthea Benton Franks.

 

This is a light, entertaining and amusing book which I could have seen myself reading on a cruise. Unfortunately, I had to read it from home!

[MagnoliaBlossom]

I read a lot of free and 1.99 books through BookBub, so it can be a pretty eclectic mix.

 

Fannie Flaggs "the all girl filling station last reunion" (or something like that). Was very informational about the role of female pilots in WW II and their poor treatment afterward. But that is woven through the great story.

 

A silly mystery, romance series set in Mudbug, Louisiana by Jana DeLeon. The series is entitled The Ghost in Law series and it is pretty funny. Easy beach reading with a few twists.

 

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak was excellent. Another WWII setting.

 

And my all-time most favoritest book is The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follette. There are also two sequels although each is set a generation or two apart. Best books ever.