A few months ago, I asked my book guru and friend, Libby, to write a post with her tips on how to make time for reading. Her post was the kick in the butt I needed to put my tech devices and food magazines down to sink my teeth into tangible books again. Many of my coworkers also seemed to be on the same page (ha, pun intended) and we began swapping books, which helped motivate one other to stay on our reading kick.

Summer is also a great time to dig into books of all genres to help get through long journeys to much awaited vacations or to cozy up in the sunshine next to your destination of choice. I mean, what’s better than getting lost in a juicy novel with the ocean crashing in the background?

Whatever your plans are for the summer, line up your reading itinerary with this month’s edition of beach reads:

Tiny Beautiful Things, Cheryl Strayed
“Before many people knew her as the best selling author of Wild, Cheryl Strayed was the anonymous voice behind an online advice columnist, endearingly titled Dear Sugar. The book contains a selection of those columns, or as Strayed puts it, a collection of “intimate exchanges between strangers.” Dear Sugar is filled with personal, in-depth essays that cover every facet of life you could imagine, some hitting closer to home than others, but all worth savoring. Each entry is beautifully written, and Strayed is insightful and compassionate, having a way with words that makes you want to highlight paragraphs on each page and turn back to re-read. Regardless of who you are or where you are in life, Tiny Beautiful Things is profoundly hopeful, sad, humorous, moving, and a true treasure on the bookshelf.”
– Marisa Plescia, East Coast book fanatic

Brain on Fire, Susannah Cahalan
“Imagine being a happy, healthy and “normal” 24 year-old and the next moment, you’re strapped to a hospital bed, showing intense signs of mental illness. For Cahalan, this was her life for a month – pure madness – as her body deteriorated at a rapid rate, for reasons unknown to her doctors. After a last minute diagnosis that saved her life, Cahalan recovered, but the worst part? She couldn’t remember much of the past month. A journalist at heart, Cahalan dives into a deep investigation to piece together her horrific month  and find answers to what was lost. An intense page turner until the very end, Cahalan writes a beautiful memoir, bringing light to a dark and unknown illness. Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness is a haunting and compelling story of a young girl’s journey to recapture her identity after being diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disorder.”
-Brooke Bonime, Co-worker and reading partner in crime

The Light We Lost, Jill Santopolo
The Light We Lost is an emotional rollercoaster of a book and will hook you from the get-go. An exploration of love, loss, and the power of first love, this beautiful and devastating story will make you explore the life choices you’ve made in the pursuit of love and accomplishing your dreams… and the resulting consequences. Jill Santopolo did a masterful job weaving together her debut adult novel that hit on every emotion and left me absolutely gutted with the unexpected ending. If The Light We Lost is any indication of what Santopolo has up her sleeve, I’ll be the first to hit the preorder button for her future novels.

What’s on your summer reading list? Please share in the comments section below!