Our Picks for Best Summer Beach Reads

Last week we got in a heated debate on Twitter with our friends at All About The Pretty, The Beauty of Life and Mischo Beauty over Lauren Weisberger’s literary skills or lack thereof. Suffice it to say, neither we or Beauty of Life will be reading Chasing Harry Winston. (And heated is a bit of an exaggeration. It wasn't quite as passionate as a debate between, say, a Barack and a Hillary supporter.)

What will make our list of summer beach reads?


Married Lovers by Jackie Collins. Lucky is the reason we dated around in our 20s. We’ve read all her books and count a signed copy of last year's Drop Dead Beautiful as one of our most cherished possessions. As Al Roker says every year, "If it's Jackie Collin's, it must be summer!"


Are You There Vodka? It’s Me Chelsea by Chelsea Handler. Love the spoof on everyone’s favorite tween read. Her first book My Horizontal Life practically made us pee in our pants (see the chapter on a romance with a cruiseship performer). Speaking of wetting our pants…


When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris. We break out into hysterical laughter when we picture David picking apples or working as an elf at Macy’s. Our friend Michelle (an author herself!) picked this up when we were with her last weekend. Here’s hoping she’ll loan us her copy when she’s done!


Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner. Jennifer has such a sweet way of writing—we always end up laughing through our tears with her novels (she also wrote In Her Shoes, among others). Word of warning-she does write a lot about food. Her books always make us hungry!



Celebutante by Amanda Goldberg. We picked it up because we loved the cover (Bubble-holics unite!) and bought it because Michael Kors wrote one of the reviews on the back: “Stylish intrigue, glamorous machinations and such juicy fun. No one but Hollywood insiders like Amanda Goldberg and Ruthanna Hopper could tell the tale so perfectly.” Love Michael’s shoes so much—he must have good literary taste!


If you’re looking for a more serious read:

Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one of the most beautiful moving books we’ve read in years. It tells the heatbreaking story of two twins and the men that love them throughout the civil wars in Nigeria in the late 1960s.