Now that you’ve planned your vacation and can’t wait to see the sun, the sea, the waves… Ah, the image is good but not complete. Add just a few books into your beach bag to enjoy your vacations! Check BooksRun’s special list of the best summer beach reads for 2024. We’ve selected the best books with beachy vibes that can keep you company while you’re chilling near the sea.
Last year, we published our list of 10 Best Summer Reads for 2023. We hope you liked it and maybe even read some of the books we recommended. You’re welcome to check it now. This year is no different. If you need some easy literature to make your summer vacation perfect, we have some good books to read on the beach that we can recommend in 2024 as well.
Beach Reading Lists
So, if you’re looking for beach reads, you’ve come to the right place (or post). Today, we’ll give you a few tips.
In the traditional understanding, it’s some sort of light reading—romance novels and stories about carefree vacations, with the occasional addition of suspense thrillers and brilliant investigations—the list isn’t exhaustive.
At BooksRun, we suggest you try some books that might not be directly categorized as “books with beachy vibes.” While we agree that—given the origin and the conception of the genre from the vacation culture—a summer read should not be upsetting or too complex, it might not necessarily always be a hot romance novel, either. Therefore, we did our best to compile the most appealing and diverse list of summer reads for 2024, with our suggested books not limited to the worlds that describe vacation hotspots and luxury resorts.
While you’ll be enjoying your seaside idyll and basking in the sun, you can use any of our picks to make the experience even more fun with a top summer bestseller, wonder about the relationship between geography and happiness, learn how clouds and waves are formed, discover the world of birds, or try to understand how to live a life as a sociopath.
If, for some reason, you have to stay at home, you can still use our beach reading lists to enjoy the escapism of a perfect summer romance, get lost in a thrilling summer investigation, or appreciate the subtle but cutting humor of a psychological thriller-slash-coming-of-age story.
This Summer Will Be Different
We’ll start our list with perfect summer reading material and a romance, This Summer Will Be Different. Get ready to be transported to Prince Edward Island. In the story, we have Lucy, who finds herself falling in love with Felix. Felix, as it happens, is none other than the brother of her best friend, Bridget. Ok, now Lucy’s annual visits to the Island won’t ever be the same. After all, she violated the most important rule set by Bridget: “Don’t fall in love with my brother.” Which is exactly what Lucy seems to have done. And since the best friend’s brother is so off-limits, she tries to live her life in Toronto, run her floral shop, grow, and try to stand on her feet. However, the story hasn’t been written to just end up like this, right? One of the books with beachy vibes for sure, this story has everything: beautiful setting, wind, sand, steamy romance, and whatnot.
The Geography of Bliss
by Eric Weiner
Next on our list is The Geography of Bliss, which is a very curious research on happiness. That’s right, you’ve read it right: the author travels to different countries and explores different cultures to understand which nation is the happiest. To be honest, only after reading this book, we learned that there’s the World Database of Happiness (whether they “gather all the research findings on happiness in the sense of life-satisfaction“), that Bhutan calculates Gross National Happiness, and that some of the richest countries are not exactly the happiest. Oh, well, this is probably not the beach read you’ve expected, but this part travelogue, part memoir will fit perfectly into your beach bag. It’s witty and insightful, and it’ll take you to so many different places and make you evaluate your own level of happiness—but not in a sad way, we swear.
The Cloudspotter’s Guide
Ok, we think it’s just a perfect fit for your beach vacation. Seriously. Now that you have all the time in the world to gaze into the distance, why not look at the sky? Have you ever wondered where clouds come from or why they look the way they do? We have a book that will give you all the answers: The Cloudspotter’s Guide. The author—the founder of the Cloud Appreciation Society and a lifelong sky watcher—will guide you through all the aspects of a cloud tour. After reading the book, you’ll be able to differentiate сumulus clouds from stratus or the high cirrus ones in an instant and—with a bit of effort and patience—from their subtypes and variations. Surely, your beach days may pass cloudlessly; however, we’re positive you’ll get invaluable knowledge that will help you predict the weather (to some extent). You’ll also learn plenty of interesting facts about clouds in art and culture. At the very least, you’ll know what a Morning Glory is, and that’s already a start to becoming a true cloudspotter.
The Wavewatcher’s Companion
If you’re not that into clouds, we have another suggestion. The same author has a no less fascinating book about waves. Let Wavewatcher’s Companion be your manual since you’re probably sitting near the sea anyway. You’ll learn where the waves come from and what drives them. From ocean waves rolling into the shore, the author proceeds to all sorts of waves that play a role in our lives, though we may not see or feel them. Ok, you know about light and sound waves and have definitely heard about sonar or shock waves, but there are so many more. Together with the author, you can study them all and have fun in the process (as opposed to your physics class, probably). So, again, the book isn’t your typical romance novel, but in our opinion, it’s one of the most fitting summer reads in 2024.
Birding With Benefits
Birding With Benefits is featured in many beach reading lists this summer, and in our opinion, it’s something you can try. Ok, we probably should be honest with you here: it’s a love story, but there are plenty of pages devoted to bird-watching. And we’ve become quite impartial to the topic recently, so we couldn’t ignore the combination of a romantic comedy and a study of birds. Meet Celeste: she has recently divorced, and her daughter is soon to leave for college, so Celeste is open to adventure. When her friend asks her to help a friend out, Celeste decides that being a fake girlfriend is just the sort of adventure she is ok with, so she agrees. Yet, it appears that John doesn’t need a girlfriend but a partner for Tucson’s biggest bird-watching contest (a six-week one). Ok, here come the birds, and also, the “birding with benefits” start to develop. We liked the book immensely because it gives just the adequate amount of birding detail not to become boring and also because it’s about two mature characters trying to establish a relationship. It feels realistic and refreshing.
Dandelion Wine
by Ray Bradbury
We couldn’t but mention Dandelion Wine. To us, it’s just the most “summerish” of stories and an absolutely charming and unusual read. Douglas Spaulding is twelve; he has a younger brother and a magical, even timeless, summer ahead. If we could describe the book in a few words, they would be dandelions, green apple trees, the porch, dandelion wine, the sounds of summer, and tennis shoes… because “Somehow the people who made tennis shoes knew what boys needed and wanted. They put marshmallows and coiled springs in the soles and they wove the rest out of grasses bleached and fired in the wilderness. Somewhere deep in the soft loam of the shoes the thin hard sinews of the buck deer were hidden. The people that made the shoes must have watched a lot of winds blow the trees and a lot of rivers going down to the lakes. Whatever it was, it was in the shoes, and it was summer.” Is there a way to describe summer so beautifully and feasibly? It’s one of the books we sometimes re-read, but the story and the language never fail to amaze us.
Love, Theoretically
We didn’t ignore romance novels while compiling our list of summer beach reads for 2024, so here comes Love, Theoretically. So, this is the third book we think you might like, and it’s a rivals-to-lovers romance. What is more, it’s a STEM-set novel featuring two physicists falling in love. So, we’re positive that you’ll be charmed by Elsie (an adjunct professor with a Ph.D. in theoretical physics/a fake girlfriend for hire in her free time/a people-pleaser who doesn’t know how to say “no”) and Jack (sulky unbearable experimental physicist/the head of the physics department at MIT), the chemistry between them, and their witty banter. Apart from the steamy and romantic part (it’s a slow burn, though), we do like the book because it also raises the topic of discrimination in such a complex field as physics but also highlights the place of a female scientist in it (and how hard it is to fight for it). While STEM romances have been popular for a while, this work by Ali Hazelwood might make you laugh out loud in a way you haven’t done in a while.
Sociopath: A Memoir
by Patric Gagne
Ok, we promised not to add any upsetting or overly complex summer reads; however, if you’re in the mood for something quite honest and a bit disturbing, check Sociopath: A Memoir. Patric Gagne has always lacked empathy, has never felt fear or guilt, and has always gotten herself in trouble because of her antisocial behavior. It’s been so since her childhood; when she grew up, she was diagnosed as a sociopath—a condition strongly stigmatized in our society. And then all the bits and pieces fell into place for the author. She’s eventually got a PhD in clinical psychology, and the book is her memoir, with recollections of her childhood, reflections on the challenges she has been facing while trying to connect with other people and the world, her journey towards self-discovery, and her appeal to society to try and look at people like her just a tiny bit more leniently. Not exactly a relaxing beach read, but we couldn’t resist adding something thought-provoking. After all, things that make us question our views or encourage us to try and understand how other people feel and see the world are the things worth reading.
Every Time I Go On Vacation Someone Dies
Now, let’s move on to something more fast-paced. For lovers of a good mystery, we recommend Every Time I Go On Vacation Someone Dies. Set in Italy, the story might make your personal top summer beach reads of 2024. It’s a vacation mystery and an investigation where the main character is an author. Eleanor Dash, who wrote several successful books, is on a book tour in Italy. She’s planning to kill off Connor Smith, her main character, who also happens to be her ex. However, in the meantime, someone decides to kill Connor (the person) for real. Ok, he may not be a saint because he keeps blackmailing Eleanor and demanding a certain percentage of her royalties. But that’s hardly a justifiable reason to finish him off, right? We recommend this page-turner that will keep you confused about where exactly you are at the moment. Ah, at the beach, right.
Mina’s Matchbox
by Yoko Ogawa, translated by Stephen B. Snyder
We didn’t do it on purpose, but Mina’s Matchbox is the story of another twelve-year-old. This time, it’s a girl. Her name is Tomoko, and she has been sent to live with her aunt’s family in Ashiya after her father died and while her mother studies dressmaking in Tokyo. If Dandelion Wine feels sweet, sunny, and floral as if shot on analog film, this book feels like a good candidate for adaptation by Wes Anderson. The new house is peculiar, and a younger cousin Mina—who has a pet pygmy hippopotamus, Pochiko—is obsessed with her numerous matchboxes. Her aunt loves hunting for typographical errors. She has a German husband. There’s also German grandmother Rosa, cook Yoneda-san, and gardener Kobayashi-sa. All of them live in an enormous Western-style house. Apart from the unusual setting, you will also see a few important events from the bigger world, such as the Munich massacre in 1972, through the eyes of Tomoko. According to some reviewers, it’s “literary fiction at it’s finest.”
The English Understand Wool
by Helen DeWitt
Another fascinating pick among our beach reads for 2024 is The English Understand Wool. It’s a really good thriller; at the same time, it’s a critique of the publishing industry. Marguerite is 17 years old, lives in Marrakech, and travels a lot with her “exigeante” maman, who teaches her to always act in good taste and that the worst thing in life is mauvais ton (or bad taste, roughly translated). It should be avoided at all costs. So, Marguerite was brought up accordingly. She can speak several languages, plays the piano, is an excellent Bridge partner, knows how to comport herself in society, how to manage servants, and so much more. She travels to the Outer Hebrides for weavers of tweed that will be made into cloth in London later (after all, the English do understand wool). She buys linen in Ireland and orders it to be sewn in Paris. Hers is the lifestyle of the exceptional 1% that can be referred to as “old money.” But then, it turns out that her maman isn’t her mother at all, and Marguerite is, in fact, an orphan with a many-million-dollar trust fund. When maman disappears, Marguerite goes to New York and decides to write and publish the story. This is where the clash with the publishing industry happens, and she has her good taste to rely on. The story is just 60 pages, so you can finish it between your swims while sipping your cocktail.
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
The last book on our today’s list is Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, which left us thoroughly impressed, even if it’s not strictly a summer read. It was one of the most emotional and hilarious books we’ve recently encountered. 29-year-old Eleanor Oliphant survived a childhood trauma; her face is badly scarred, and she is incredibly smart and dreadfully straightforward, but social skills don’t come easily to her. She managed to create an almost normal life where she goes to the dreary office on weekdays and drinks (a lot) on the weekends. It almost works. She’s fine, or she thinks she is. Until a stupid romantic crush on a local musician (and a realization that her life is utterly, profoundly miserable) pushes her to the edge. Luckily, one of the guys from the IT department (and a few others) is there to see her for who she really is—not a freak—and help her get out of the shell. Eleanor’s vulnerability is painful, so the dark humor in the book probably serves to counterbalance the complex topics. It might be stupid of us, but we were absolutely positive at first that the exchanges between Eleanor and her mom were real. We can’t recommend the book enough.
The History of the Concept
By the way, did you know that the concept of beach reads was invented in the Victorian era? It made its way into the lives of well-to-do, middle- and working-class Americans as they started to actively practice and enjoy summer travels. The publishers (and the authors) of that period saw a great opportunity in this travel trend. It appeared that with the right approach, a slow season could be turned into a very profitable one. They just needed to make people love these light and easy romance books set in vacation spots, and they succeeded.
It didn’t take long for the phenomenon to become an ongoing seasonal publishing tradition, so nowadays, authors continue writing new stories, and all publishers, bookstores, and book-related resources continue posting beach reading lists every year. If you’d like to read more about the history of summer reads, check Books For Idle Hours: Nineteenth-Century Publishing and the Rise of Summer Reading for more details.
Final Thoughts
And if you liked our suggestions but are looking for something else to read this summer at the beach, you can also check out our other expertly curated book lists for more inspiration: Most-Anticipated Books Coming out in 2024 and 10 Best Books of All Time. You can also check our top lists from the previous summers: 10 Best Summer Reads for 2023 and Top Summer 2022 Reads for Each Reading Level, as well as the post about The Best Places in the U.S. to Relax and Read a Book—especially if you’re not going to the beach this summer.
