American Fashion Travel: Designers on the Go

Here's what sure to be the hottest hostess gift of the season: the new American Fashion Travel: Designers on the Go book from Assouline. The book features designers talking about their favorite vacation destinations including photos and sketches. That's Keren Craig, Marchesa designer's spread, below.

The book, co-published by the Council of Fashion Designers of America, also features vacation picks from Donna Karan, Diane Von Furstenberg and Philip Lim.

American Fashion Travel: Designers on the Go is available for pre-order at Assouline.com.

Beach Books 2011—Part 2

Here's Part 2 of our annual beach books list. Let us know if we missed anything!

Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel by Jeanette Walls
The author of the stunning Glass Castles is back, this time telling her grandmother's story. It involves such feats as marrying and leaving a bigamist, selling hooch during prohibition, becoming a rodeo rider and other tales that will nearly make you fall off your lounge chair.

The Social Climber's Handbook: A Novel Molly Jong-Fast
If you're a Jackie Collins or Plum Sykes fan, then this is the book for you. The book about an upper eastside housewife who becomes unhinged after the financial meltdown of 2008 is the must-read of the glamaratti.

Summer and the City: A Carrie Diaries Novel by Candace Bushnell
For all the die hard Sex and the City fans comes the lastest installment of the prequel to SATC when Carrie spends a summer in the city with Samantha. Carries first date is at La Grenouille, a fancy French place which makes us guess her date is a bit older. Guess she started that pattern early!

Bossypants by Tina Fey
While we don't have a new Chelsea Handler book to look forward to this summer, we do have this tome from Tina Fey. We're guessing it features less sex and more food, but is just as funny.

Missed yesterday's? Read Part 1 of Beach Books 2011.

Beach Books 2011

No trip to the beach or pool is complete without a juicy read. Here are our selects for best beach books 2011:

If You Were Here: A Novel by Jen Lancaster. The author of the hilarious Bitter is the New Black and My Fair Lazy tries her hand at fiction in a story that will delight any Gen Xers' heart. The narrator, Mia and her husband, Mac, move from downtown Chicago to suburb Abington Cambs, the setting of many John Hughes' films. The couple settles in Jake Ryan's house from Sixteen Candles, with hilarious results. 

If You Were Here: A Novel by Abraham Verghese
At 688 pages, this sweeping novel centers around a nun and a British doctor she saves and transverses the globe from India, Ethiopia and New York City. It would be perfect for a long plane ride or when you want to feel smart.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
If you haven't read this triology, do yourself a favor and buy all of them now. Yes, the book is for young adults, but we don't know anyone who after reading The Hunger Games hasn't devoured Catching Fire and Mocking Jay within two weeks. They're more addictive than crack.

A Paris Wife by Paula McLain, the best historical fiction we've read in ages, which describes Hemingway and his first wife, Hadley Richardson, and their years in Paris.

Check back tomorrow for Part Two of our Best Beach Books 2011.

The Michelin Red Guide and More Great Paris Reads

Michelin has published its 100th guide on France. This hefty tome, full of the best hotels and restaurants in France, is a necessary reference if you're headed on a dream trip any time soon. For our trip to Paris last fall, we borrowed stacks of books from the library beforehand. Planning a big trip is almost as much fun as being there. Whether you're a Lonely Planet kind of traveler or a Frommer/Fodor's girl, it's helpful to scan through a bunch of books to find all a city has to offer.

Looking for some fun inspiration? We've read a couple of great Paris centered historical fiction books lately: A Paris Wife by Paula McLain tells the story of Hadley Richardson, Hemingway's first wife and their years in Paris, and Madame Tussaud by Michelle Moran which gives an insider's look into the French Revolution. It does a great job of bringing to life historical figures like Marie Antoinette, Thomas Jefferson, and Robespierre. Happy travels!

Conde Nast Traveler Where Are You Now Book

Regular readers of Condé Nast Traveler are surely familiar with the sometimes maddening feature, "Where Are You Now?" A gorgeous single photo is spread across two pages and readers are given a few hints about the location and invited to guess where the photo was taken. There's typically a fabulous prize, like a 3-night stay at a Ritz Carlton.

Now you can test your mettle on the Where Are You Now book from Assouline.  It features 100 photos to inspire your future travels. Available on Assouline.

Concierge Confidential

We've always recommended the hotel concierge as a fantastic resource on your vacation. They can tell you where there best steakhouse is and how to get a table or where the best clubs are in town and how to get your name on a list. New York concierge Michael Fazio divulges plenty of tricks of his trade in his new book Concierge Confidential. Fazio spent years working at the New York InterContinental where he learned how to score the best tickets and reservations in town, filled a tub with hot fudge for a romantically inclined guest (don't try this at home!) and some other NC-17 rated requests. Included are insider tips and entertaining stories he's gathered through years working with the rich and famous. Available on Amazon.com