Beach Reads vs. Beach Blanket Books

It's Revenge Travel Summer! Whether you're preparing to brave the chaos of overwhelmed airports or the dreaded FOMO, take solace in a thick, relaxing stack of books. Why not make #RevengeReadingSummer a thing? Where my introverts at!?! Whether you're jet-setting or hammock-swinging at home this year, many personality types can get behind a nice beach read, like a glossy magazine or a featherweight paperback. But sometimes the mood calls for a big, thick beach blanket corner weight book. When is the last time you sunk deep into the pages of a heavy hardcover saga?

One of my old favorites is Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides, which features plenty of coastal content--a Mediterranean Sea escape, a journey across the Atlantic, a settlement by the Great Lakes, and an odyssey to the San Francisco Bay. Although it's a little bit of a struggle to hold it as I lounge, I trust that it won't fly away in the wind, lull me into a sunburned sleep, or run out of tales to tell too soon.

Beach reads are cool, but have you ever traveled with a novel that doubles as boat ballast? Have you anchored your beach bag with a grand volume that holds the capacity to swallow up paper tickets and receipts and pieces of beach grass used as bookmarks, like a sentient but lazy scrapbook? 

Some books are in between, fitting more easily into a light rattan tote but offering more thrills than a magazine or summer paperback, including, of course, my own two novels The Grove of Thorismud and Leirah and the Wild Man. Both feature hot, fiery medieval Midsummer Night festival scenes that will get you stoked for your next beach bonfire. If you enjoy folk horror spiced with sexy times, you may enjoy spreading open these dark but smoldering stories at the seaside. 

An excerpt from The Grove of Thorismud:

King Gustav came up behind his wife and grabbed her hips and buried his face in her curls. He looked like a son of Bacchus, his eyes smudged with black kohl, wearing a big crown of leaves and stripped to the waist, his body as sun-browned and muscled and hairy as Thorismud's had been. He kneaded Bellynda's squirming body and growled into her hair, "My goddess, I'm going inside now, and you know how much I'd like you to join me. I can't stand to be tantalized by all this flesh." He nipped her earlobe, and as he did so, his kohl-smudged eye, blue as the heart of a lamp flame, met Rosemary's for the span of a single heartbeat.

An excerpt from Leirah and the Wild Man:

Rahimah smiles. "It's Midsummer Night! There's magic in the fires, don't you know? You can take any lover you like, and nothing will come of it."

Koudinet nods in agreement.

My doubts are not appeased. I look downhill. The crowd is noisier now. It looks like Satan's birthday down there.

Koudinet laughs. "Look at you, Leirah! Have you never taken a Midsummer lover?"

I shake my head, both embarrassed and outraged. Who do they think I am?

She leans forward. "A mermaid must be knowledgeable about men. Go forth and pluck one from the meadow."

I look at Rahimah, but she presses herself against Koudinet's side and kisses her neck and pushes me away. "Go on, Leirah," she says. "Make it a night to remember."

Easy for them to say. They are taking their pleasure with each other and skipping men altogether. But it becomes awkward for me to stand here as their passions rise, so I walk toward the chaos below, trying to decide whether to run and tell Tata everything... or not.

What will you read on your #HotRelaxSummer? May I recommend...