PowellsBooks.Blog
Authors, readers, critics, media − and booksellers.

You know what this one is about: a murderous great white shark preys upon Amity, a cozy resort town, while the heroic but flawed police chief tries to stop it. It’s lurid, suspenseful, melodramatic, and really scary. But if real sharks are more your jam, check out the absolutely terrifying Close to Shore by Michael Capuzzo.

Another bestseller turned blockbuster film, Beaches is a sappy, glorious tearjerker about female friendship in all its fierce love and competition. The comedy’s a little more profane than in the movie, but, you know, the beach is salty too…

Yes, yes, this was also made into a star-studded film. But Garland’s debut novel about a borderline sociopathic American backpacker who stumbles into a cult-like community on a hidden, idyllic beach in Thailand isn’t just a fast-paced, creepy thriller; The Beach is a clever, nauseating exposé of privileged youth culture and ennui in the mid-90s.

Who doesn’t love a good shipwreck tale? This is one of the first, and despite having been written in 1719, it reads quickly and is filled with exciting plot twists involving cannibals, escaped prisoners, and eyebrow-raising resourcefulness. That said there is nothing PC about Robinson Crusoe — scruples-free slavery, Anglo superiority, patriarchal attitudes, and Christian evangelism abound. If you want a subversive take on the story that privileges minority voices, check out J. M. Coetzee’s brilliant Foe.

Craving some domestic melodrama? You can’t go wrong with Conroy’s 1986 bestseller, which is set partly in the coastal South Carolina lowcountry. A traumatized man goes to New York City to help his sister’s therapist uncover the root causes of her suicide attempts, ends up excavating his own demons, and falling in love with the therapist. Plus, you can cap off your reading with the 1991 Barbara Streisand-Nick Nolte film, which features Nolte rocking the weeping Babs like a baby.

Inspector Hercule Poirot investigates the seaside murder of a beautiful young bride. Was it a crime of passion… or something more sinister? If you haven’t read this Christie classic, get ready to be charmed and thrilled in equal measure.

Imagine that you’re a dreamy young woman married to a very rich, older widower with a secret. Throw in a magnificent mansion, a creepy housekeeper, and two shipwrecks, and you’ve got Rebecca, Du Maurier’s fantastically atmospheric psychological thriller.

A desert planet isn’t quite the same thing as a beach, but Herbert was inspired by the Oregon Dunes near Florence, and Dune possesses all of the qualities of a great vacation read: feuding nobility, palace intrigue, space travel, and giant sandworms. A must for science fiction fans.

Lush, humid, sensual: Wide Sargasso Sea is basically a Caribbean dream in book form, at least until the heroine, Antoinette Cosway, becomes the involuntary bride of Mr. Rochester (yes, that Mr. Rochester, but before he mellows out into the only half-sadistic megalomaniac Jane falls for). Antoinette is Rhys’s scathing take on Brontë’s madwoman in the attic; her exploration of slavery and exoticism, within Jamaican society and 19th-century marriage, is riveting.

Some like it hot, and if that describes you, Broder’s new novel about a love addict who falls for a merman on Venice Beach will make you giggle, blush, and impress you with her ability to turn Chordata erotica into a meditation on modern love. The Pisces is an excellent counterbalance to Jaws: first, terrify yourself out of ever swimming again, and then, tempt yourself back into the water.

In this magical middle reader, a young girl discovers a village from the past that only appears when a thick fog rolls in off the sea. It’s kind of like Brigadoon, but with more historical realism and no kilts.

A fictional retelling of a true story about a Native girl who was left alone on her ancestral island for 18 years after her community moved away, this modern classic was an elementary school obsession for some of us. Karana survives by learning how to forage, hunt, and make shelters, skills she both learned and observed in her village; for company, she befriends a wild dog and an otter. The novel isn’t without tremendous sadness (it features nongraphic depictions of violence, death, and abandonment), but it’s also really exciting to follow Karana as she builds a fascinating life for herself. For adult readers, who may want more historical context and criticism, check out The Complete Reader’s Edition.

For advanced middle grade and high school readers, Pratchett’s Nation has so many things to recommend it: Pratchett’s characteristic humor, strong male and female main characters, adventure galore, danger galore, and themes of science, religion, and colonial power dynamics. When Mau and Daphne, teenagers from radically different backgrounds, meet on a beach in the wake of a terrible tsunami, they form an alliance to create a new nation of survivors. Nation gives readers a lot to think about and discuss (summer book club, anyone?), but if you just want to avoid your parents and bury yourself in a book, it’s great for that too.