I took a quick peek at the Amazon new releases in romance, which are, land sakes, updated hourly. Candy and I should quit our jobs and update this site hourly, don’t you think? No, wait, Amazon uses a computer for part of that updating. Ok, never mind.
Does anyone else buy books just for vacation reading, or is that just me? I used to LOVE summer book shopping, though I read so fast that what I bought didn’t last me too long. And I learned the hard way NEVER to buy a hardback for vacation reading, because two years later I STILL have not picked up Nora Roberts’ Northern Lights because oh holy God that book is HEAVY in hardback. No way is that going in the luggage!
Next month, Hubby, Freebird, and I are going on vacation to Montana, to go hike and look at the pretty scenery that’s not a metropolis, and eat and hike and read while watching the moose go by (I can dream, right?). So I’m starting to check out the new releases to see what’s on the bookshelves now.
The list is heavy with vampires and some mantitty, but before I wade in, I want to ask: what are your summer reading purchases? What books are you saving for vacation, or bringing along in your beach bag?
ooo vacation books..
thats when i’d buy harlequin fluffy books..i wouldnt care if i was distracted by other things and had to put it down.. easily picked up later and no big deal if i lost it. vacation isnt the time to tackle a new Outlander (gabaldon) 950 page book!
the old comedy series harlequin had was my favorite vacation book.. and for the life of me i cant remember the name of the comedy series books..and i at one time had everyone ever published..i was pissed when they were discontinued . (or revamped into something else)
I’m looking forward to reading the new Mysteria antho with PC Cast, Gena Showalter, Susan Grant, & MaryJanice Davidson. I’d also rec Kresley Cole’s A Hunger Like No Other, or Marjorie M. Liu’s Dirk & Steele series, if you haven’t read them yet.
I’m also looking forward to reading Mysteria. I usually tend to pick up lighter stuff for summer like series romances or poetry. Even though I work all through summer now and take my vacations in the fall I feel like I still have that “It’s summer so relax” mentality.
Vacation books—yum! I love picking out summer reading—reminds me of going to the library as a child and feeling like a kid in a candy store not being able to decide what to read first.
I actually just made a special trip to the local UBS and picked up Nicole Jordan’s new book to take along on a long anniversary weekend, and have been cruising through my TBR pile to find a second book to take along “just in case”.
I don’t like to pick my vacation books too far in advance because they sit on my shelf crying “read me, read me” and I usually wind up reading them well in advance of hitting the road. 🙂
My vacation books are always paperbacks & never library books—that way I don’t have to worry if something (like sand or high tide) happens.
Oh yeah – I rarely bring library books to the beach. I was reading Roberts’ “Rising Tides” and the tide did exactly that – had to pay to replace the book.
I don’t buy vacation books, but I do buy airplane books. It’s usually romance and sci-fi, which occasional bouts of murder mystery . . . NOTHING that I must concentrate too hard on (screaming babies!), and nothing in hardback.
My last trip I took: Dead Witch Walking by Kim Harrison, Dragon’s Lair Sharon Kay Penman, and Metro Girl by Janet Evanovich.
Hey! USAToday had a column recently on new book with a sidebar on Great Summer Reads… you know where this is going, right? Shameless self promotion. Here it is: Tied to the Tracks was at the top of the list.
She said bashfully.
I usually save the chick-lit for summer reading. This summer, I’ve got Candy Halliday’s MR. DESTINY in the bag. Also a few issues of Readers Digest.
Beach books this summer:
Black Powder War, Naomi Novik
Tall Dark & Dead, Tate Holloway (?)
Lord Perfect, Loretta Chase
Broken, Kelley Armstrong
Charmed Thirds, Megan McCafferty
I took Outlander on vacation to Hawaii last winter. The flight there gave me a large chunk of time to get through most of it, and then I finished it by the pool the first day. It was a used trade paper back that I bought for spare change, so I could leave it in the hotel without feeling like a spendthrift. 🙂 I probably would never have read the entire book otherwise; I attempted to read it before the vacation and kept getting bored. Lack of other reading material while in the air kept me focused on it 😉
Where in Montana?
We did three years in Great Falls at Malmstrom AFB…it was like being stuck in an episode of Northern Exposure, but I sort of liked it.
Beats the hell out of Florida.
After living here in a perpetual movie called Botox Barbie Does Jimmy Buffet, I’d move back there.
I almost never try a new author for a vacation/airplane book, because I only have room to pack a few books, and usually only one in my carryon (I have a toddler, so most of our carryon luggage is for her feeding and amusement). Sticking with tried-and-true authors reduces the odds that I’ll hate my book and be reduced to paging through SkyMall on the interminable Seattle-Atlanta flights to visit my family.
I never pick my travel reading until the night before my flight, though. I decide how many books I can take and what I’m in the mood for, then raid my TBR shelf.
In the past, I actually used to save my more “serious” reading for vacations. Usually I’m so easily distracted, I find it difficult to really delve into something complex and meaty, so I really like those long stretches on a plane or on a chaise by the beach to get into something good. But now that my main travel accesory is a 1 year old boy, I think my vacation reading will tend more towards Moo Baa La La La and Brown Bear Brown Bear, What do You See? Sigh. I’ll be lucky if I make it through my issue of Us Weekly.
I am on a major Judith McNaught kick at the moment. I love reading six books in a row by the same author. Their personal formula for success begins to take shape – and that shape is often quite buxom. (Though, frankly, it really only takes one book to find the formula so long as you’re not downing a bottle of Jack at the same time.) Hey, I’m on page 322, so the hero is about to make a disturbing (though misinformed) discovery about the heroine and his jaw will begin to twitch. Tensely. But that’s OK, because in 57 pages it will all be resolved, they’ll have some hot bear rug sex, and two pages later the epilogue will describe their precocious children. (To be fair, JM is not much for the bear skin rugs.)
Ahem. To answer your question: JM for me this month!
Moo Baa La La La is one of my favorite children’s books ever!
I generally read a book about some sort of monster shark eating bunches of people if I can find one.
If not, I fall back on Lolita. I only read that on the beach. The ocean helps to wash the dirty feeling off of me after I’ve read it.
Janet Evanovich’s new Stephanie Plum is coming out in time for my vacation (normally I don’t do hardback for vacation either but this is an exception).
Sofie Metropolis by Tori Carrington
Lucky’s Lady by Tami Hoag (its older I know, but I love it and need a new copy)
and Kim Harrison’s latest (Fistful of Charms)
Oh man, Montana? My grandparents live in Montana, and many’s the summer I spent reading the crappiest of crappy romances because that’s all I could get ahold of in Grandma’s basement or the used book stores.
Sorry, I had to share that flashback. I’m not going on vacation this year, so I have nothing to offer there…
Janet Evanovich is great for vacation; so is MaryJanice Davidson. If you’re willing to read young adult, Ann Brashares is good. Christina Skye has a pretty decent Navy SEALs series (the Code Name books). Harlan Coben is good; his standalones are pretty intense, but the Myron Bolitar series is funny and twisty (I’ve never guessed an ending yet.)
The beach is right outside my door… okay, that means nothing. I just wanted to brag ‘cause I’m an asshole.
After finals, I plan to read everything Anne Stuart has ever written, even the Harlequins. None of them are light, happy readings, but there you are.
I am looking forward to Laurell K. Hamilton’s Danse Macabre ‘cause I’m a masochist. Afterwards, I plan on slitting my wrists and jumping off a cliff.
I read the so-called beach reads all year around. But in terms of summer releases that I am looking forward to:
“On the Way to the Wedding,” by Julia Quinn
Nora Roberts (I don’t know what exactly she has coming out, but she always seems to be releasing something every six months, so we’re due).
“Black Powder War” by Naomi Novik (which I plan to buy tomorrow!).
“Just One of Those Flings” by Candice Hern (I always liked her NAL Regencies, and of late her longer books have been great reads).
My summer TBR pile is getting bigger! I’ve also arranged with some of my online buds to start a book swap! So now there is a new book coming in the mail every week!
So this is my list so far!
Definately Dead by Charlain Harris
Revenge of the Middle aged Woman by Elizabeth Buchan
The Good Wife Strikes back by EB too
Julie and Julia By Julie Powell
The Barbed Rose by Gail Dayton
McCarthy’s Bar by Peete McCarthy
oh yeah and I’m getting The Time Traveler’s Wife soon from my book swap bud soon!
Ooooh. I love Anne Stuart. I’d really like to get my hands on a copy of Ritual Sins and Heat Lightning because they are two I haven’t read. But I can’t find them anywhere. *pout*
Re: Anne Stuart – have you tried PaperbackSwap? They have at least one copy available of each of those books.
http://www.paperbackswap.com
(It’s free; all you need to do is post some of your own books to swap. You only pay for postage on books you send out.)
I can’t even count how many books I’ve gotten from there; probably saved at least $300 in the last year on not-quite-new-release titles. I just wait a few weeks after something comes out, and someone will have bought, read, and posted it for swapping.
I’m not affiliated with them in any way; I just find it a great resource for free books.
Well, I keep telling people my books are great beach books—pirates, smugglers, Florida settings, romance.
Maybe you’ll want to pack a copy of Captain Sinister’s Lady in your beachbag?
Darlene, no stranger to shameless self promotion.
PS—I was making a baked blintz for tonight and I thought “Hey! SB Sarah’s birthday is coming up!”
If I missed it, belated good wishes. If it’s coming up, happy birthday.[g]
My vacation reading:
Dark Need by Lynn Viehl
Master of Wolves by Angela Knight
Megan’s Mark by Lora Leigh
Grave Sight by Charlaine Harris
Kitty Goes to Washington by Carrie Vaughn
A Fistful of Charms by Kim Harrison
Whispers of the Night by Lydia Joyce
All Wrapped Up by Angela Knight, Ann Jacobs, Dakota Cassidy, Kate Hill
Mysteria by MaryJanice Davidson, Susan Grant, P.C. Cast, Gena Showalter
Hidden Warrior by Lynn Flewelling
The Oracle’s Queen by Lynn Flewelling
Just looking at this list gets my brain salivating. Thankfully, many of these books aren’t out until shortly before I leave so there is less chance I’ll blow my book wad before I even get to New Hampshire.
Oh, and I’ll be reading Midnight Desire by Emma Holly as soon as I get back.
I never go anywhere on vacation so I guess I have a couch bag. But when I do leave town I throw about 15 books from across the fiction board in my bag and hope something sounds good when I get there. Otherwise there are a bunch of USBs I can hit when I visit my family. I just buy books and they sit until I feel like reading them.
I think I may actually read A Breath of Snow and Ashes since school’s out. I’ve only had it since the release date. I also have some Lunas as well.
I am also on a major Anne Stuart glom. It all started after I read Nightfall…Now, I have about 10 of her series titles and 5 or 6 of her single titles to dig into, including Ritual Sins and Heat Lighting! LOL
“I want to ask: what are your summer reading purchases? What books are you saving for vacation, or bringing along in your beach bag?”
“Wicked” by Gregory Maguire
“In America” by Susan Sontag
Lighter fare-the first 4 books in the Undead series by Mary Janice Dvidson
Paul Levine’s book 2 in his “Solomon vs. Lord series.
It is a mix of genres and I love to do my reading this way.
🙂
Summer reading…
Firebird Deception by Cate Dermody (C.E. Murphy)
Bring It On by Laura Ann Gilman
A Fist Full of Charms by Kim Harrison
Kitty goes to Washington by Carrie Vaughn
Crazy Love by Tara Jenzen
May read the new offerings by Cherry Adair and Laurell K. Hamilton to see if their writing is improving. And probably the new Elizabeth Lowell even though she is becoming kinda cookie-cutter.
If I run short, will probably re-read Rob Thurman and Amy Lane…and Gail Dayton.
OK, because she has so may recommendations here, may slip in an Ann Stuart also.
Given that it’s not holidays here and in fact it’s bloody freezing with sleet in the air, I’m plowing through my TBR pile. I not going to buy any books between now and when I leave for the US in July (yeah sure). At the moment I’m reading Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters, I’ve got a whole pile of Alison Kent books she sent me as part of a comp (bless her!) Isolde Martyn’s The Lady and the Unicorn, Phillip Roth’s The Plot Against America; Phillip Pullman’s the Subtle Knife; finish of Best New Erotica 2004 and Mitzi Szereto’s anthology of travel erotica; and dip into some category romance. And read some stories at the Erotica Readers and Writers Association where my story Angel will be in the Treasure Chest from June (I think). Another piece of shamless self promotion!
Or shameless. I don’t think it’s a sham.
My vacation reads will just be a random assortment from my TBR pile, but there’ll be a lot: 2 per day. I won’t read all of them, but I ran out of books on vacation once. [cue inner drama queen]As god is my witness, I’ll never go bookless again! [/drama queen]
What is it about blintzes that makes you think about my birthday, Darlene? I do love me some blintzes, though. And my b-day is indeed coming up. You were right!
How have I lived this long without that site?
Thank you Esther you are a goddess among women :kiss:
I just finished my undergrad in anthropology (it only took me 20 years!) and I’ll be heading to grad school next year. I read really dry textbooks about archaeology and human skeletal biology like they are candy. However, as soon as class is out for the summer I begin to read anything light and fluffy as an antidote to my incredible dorkyness.
My vacation reading really depends on where I’m going and when. I like to pick up the 99 cent specials at the used book store. I like mysteries, especially Tony Hillerman. But *cry* I have read almost everything he has ever written.
We usually go to the beach for a couple of days in August and I save up any and all pirate stuff – fiction and nonfiction. God, I love pirates!! Can’t wait for Jack Sparrow!!!
The Honey Thief, Elizabeth Graver
Housekeeping, Marilynne Robinson
How to be Alone, Jonathan Franzen
Dead Until Dark, Charlaine Harris
Democracy in America, Tocqueville (finally & sworn to finish)
Prince of Cups, Gayle Feyerer
Bad Behavior, Mary Gaitskill
Cruddy, Lynda Barry
The March, E.L. Doctorow
Six Carla Kellys
I thought I’d give Elizabeth Vaughan a try. Now that I’ve just finished Loretta Chase’s recent re-release Captives of the Night, I feel compelled to re-read The Lion’s Daughter, as I’m mad for Ismal!
I may get around to Sarah Dunant’s In The Company Of The Courtesan as well.
Hey, we’re doing Montana again this year, too, but in August. If you get up that way, I highly recommend Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier Nat’l Park. The mountain goats and prairie dogs are not-to-be-missed.
My list:
Lynn Viehl’s backlist, in all her various incarnations
Mysteria
The new Jacqueline Carey (title escapes me…Kushiel’s Scion, maybe?)
Between that and ferrying the spawn to various activities, I should have myself a time.
Rebyj – I’ve got to disagree. I’ve got the second of the Outlanders waiting. Hopefully this ‘Brenna’ will be as fun to read as her parents. Otherwise – a whole back of Quinn’s Bridgertons, some Sheridan Le Fanu stories (Green tea and Carmilla, particularly), The Series of Unfortunate Events vols. 4-11, and The Picture of Dorian Gray (again.)
And I’m most excited about Bill Willingham’s graphic novel Fables, of which the seventh is coming out soon. Fly with the speed of angels, Borders online! Fly to me!
Also the United States of Europe and Pynchon’s V – I’ve meant to read it for some time.
I don’t typically plan my summer reading in advance, but this year a friend and I are reading books from the NYRB classics and comparing impressions. I randomly go through and pick whatever catches my fancy, we get it, we read. 🙂
Besides this I have a spot saved for the latest Kleypas, of course. And I’m eyeing the new Emma Holly although the plot sounds so ordinary that I just don’t know if I want it in trade.