06/07/2016
Whether you are strolling across the dune solo with a beach bag in tow, or carting loads of gear over with the whole family, one thing you are not going to want to forget when you head to Hatteras Island is a good read. Even if you’re more of a splash in the waves type, at some point during your glorious day of fun in the sun, it’s good to take a break to hydrate, grab a bite to eat and reapply your sunscreen. Even if it’s just for a small bit, reading on the beach can be so relaxing. In the event you don’t have a stack of must-reads that you’ve been meaning to get to, we’ve prepared an up-to-date reading list of top-sellers and critically-acclaimed books for your next trip to Hatteras Island!
TOP 10 SUMMER BEACH READS
1. The Longest Night: A Novel by Andria Williams (2016)
Set in the late 1950’s, this historical novel revolves around an actual little-known nuclear plant accident, an army base and a series of love triangles.
2. The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories by Marina Keegan (2015)
This posthumous treasure trove of essays and stories was left behind by the Yale magna cum laude graduate after a fatal car crash took her life 5 days after graduation. Well published by establishments such as The New York Times and The New Yorker and commemorated by her peers on social media, Ms. Keegan broaches the universal struggle with self-doubt that we all face as we try to emerge ourselves into the world.
3. Bird Box: A Novel by Josh Malerman (2015)
A horror thriller compared to those of Hitchcock himself, Bird Box is the gripping tale of the unraveling world during apocalyptic times when “something” is outside, and once you see it, that “something” will send you into a tirade of gritty violence and an ultimately ferocious suicide. Follow the path of Malorie and her children as she tries to get them to safety, blindfolded, on a 20-mile boat trip down river, with nothing but her children’s trained ears and her own experience trying to stay alive during horrific times when no one is safe.
4. Eligible: A modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice by Curtis Sittenfeld (2016)
Liz is a magazine writer. Jane is a yoga instructor. Mr. Darcy, Dr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, is a neurosurgeon, who at first glance is not nearly as charming as his dear friend and new-in-town doctor, Chip Bingley. Follow Jane Austen’s world-famous storyline as it is inserted into the days of cross-fit and soy lattes.
5. In A Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware (2015)
Soon to be a Reese Witherspoon box office hit with the likes of “Gone Girl” and “Wild”, this book turned up-and-coming major motion picture has received accolades from everyone from NPR to the New York Times. A psychological thriller, the plot thickens when Leonora wakes up in a hospital with no recollection of how she got there from a simple bachelorette weekend in the English countryside. What should be a fun girl’s trip turns into a sinister weekend drudging up old secrets and deep-rooted heart-ache.
6. The Widow: A Novel by Fiona Barton (2016)
A rollercoaster of a read up there with “Gone Girl” and “The Girl on the Train”, this psychological thriller tells of a widowed woman who during her marriage molded herself into the faithful wife who stood by her man during accusations of a crime committed; however, her husband died last week. After years of secret keeping, people want her version of the truth, and one thing she’s discovered is that the truth can be whatever she makes it.
7. Maestra: A Novel by L.S. Hilton (2016)
Judith Rashleigh is fierce, vindictive, sly and deadly. With both an eye and taste for glamour, she goes through hell and high water to rise above her middle-class roots into the upper echelon of both the art-world and society. What started as working one’s way up the social ladder quickly turns into dangerously doing what she must to get where she knows she belongs once she has been wronged. She won’t back down, but she will slay.
8. Girls on Fire: A Novel by Robin Wasserman (2016)
“Wild Things” meets “Mean Girls” meets “The Craft”, this is a 90’s storyline Neve Campbell was born to star in on the big screen. The death of a popular high school basketball star rattles a small town after he goes out into the woods on Halloween and is found three days later with a bullet in his head and a gun in his hand. With rumors of witch craft and satanic worship whirling around, everyone is on edge. In the wake of all of this, Dex, a loner, meets Lacey, a grunge era bad influence and a toxic relationship quickly evolves with various twists in this tale of love and violence.
9. American Housewife: Stories by Helen Ellis (2016)
12 stories of the lethal American housewife: outfitted in lipstick and heels while draped in pearls, they’re the perfect hosts who can kill an outsider with the flash of their white picket fence smiles. Living by strict societal rules, passive-aggressive is their first language and they will feast on the blood of anyone who challenges them.
10. Second Life by S.J. Watson (2015)
Julia’s life is a fragile existence that teeters on the edge of alcoholism and a troubled past filled with drugs and an upbringing she’d like to forget. After finally settling into a cozy life with her childhood friend and current husband, Hugh, in addition to her nephew/adopted son, she finds out that her sister has been brutally murdered. In a quest to discover the truth about her sister’s passing, she falls into a sultry spiral that goes quickly wrong.
