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Confessions Press
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The Debutante Ball
The Best Beach Reads
by Lisa Daily
I live eight minutes from the beach, and it is my favorite place in the whole world.
I keep a sun hat, beach chair, towel and a small umbrella in the back of my car at all times, just in case I have a spare hour (or half hour) for a little midday getaway.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays I take my laptop down and work with my toes in the sand. And at least once every couple of weeks I try squeeze in a few hours to take a book down to the shore, drag my little chair as close to the water as I can get, stick my feet in the gulf and my nose in a book.
Here’s what I’ve read lately:
Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict by Laurie Viera Rigler (www.janeaustenaddict.com)
After nursing a broken engagement with Jane Austen novels and Absolut, Courtney Stone wakes up and finds herself not in her Los Angeles bedroom or even in her own body, but inside the bedchamber of a woman in Regency England. Not only is Courtney stuck in another woman’s life, she is forced to pretend she actually is that woman; and despite knowing nothing about her, she manages to fool even the most astute observer. But not even her level of Austen mania has prepared Courtney for the chamber pots and filthy coaching inns of nineteenth-century England, let alone the realities of being a single woman who must fend off suffocating chaperones, condom-less seducers, and marriages of convenience.
Now, I’m generally not a fan of time travel books, or books set in Regency England, but I could not put this book down. I was so hooked after my three hours at the beach that I snuck in a page at the two stoplights on the way home. In the pick-up line at my daughter’s camp. And plied my children with cookies and DVDs so I could finish it that afternoon. I love, love, loved this book.
Here’s what else I’ve read this summer:
Chasing Harry Winston by Lauren Weisberger. I loved The Devil Wears Prada and had such high hopes for this book. It was enjoyable and fun with some laugh out loud moments.
Remember Me by Sophie Kinsella
This is a truly funny book from one of my favorite beach authors — Lexi Smart wakes up in a hospital bed to discover her life is not as it was. She’s attractive, accomplished and married to the perfect man. She’s also hated by her friends and employees, and not sure if she even likes the guy she’ll be spending the rest of her life with.
What’s in my beach bag now: The Beach House by Jane Green, Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner, with space left over for Mia King’s upcoming book Sweet Life and Kristy Kiernan’s Matters of Faith
And, if you’re looking for a good beach book yourself, look no further than the books of my fellow debs. Worth an afternoon in the sun, every one.
Deb Lisa
Fifteen Minutes of Shame by Lisa Daily