Sunshine State Books 2019-2020 and Reading Level

Summer is in full swing and there's nothing like heading to the beach — or the park — sitting by the water, contemplating the view, grabbing a good book and only immersing ourselves in it. That'south why we're throwing out some ideas for the perfect summertime novels.

Nosotros are adhering to "beach reads" rules though: almost of the titles hither are either total folio-turners or grant some instant gratification — or both. And all of them volition transport yous to faraway places or the kind of setting you'd bask spending a vacation at, either because of when they were written or where they are set.

"The Talented Mr. Ripley" by Patricia Highsmith (1955)

The oldest volume on this list is the get-go one in a serial of five psychological thrillers that Patricia Highsmith wrote about her infamous Tom Ripley graphic symbol. Even if he'southward a sociopath with more than murderous tendencies, the reader can't avert being on Ripley's side while reading Highsmith's engrossing novels.

The whole series is set up in Europe with the first book taking its protagonist and the reader to San Remo, Rome, Palermo and Venice. Plus, there's a constant longing for a trip to Greece.

This Australian archetype is fix in 1900 and features a group of boarders from an all-girls school in Victoria as they take a day trip to the nearby geological formation Hanging Rock. There are plenty of descriptions of proper picnic attire, the beauty of the landscape and the relationships that bond this group of teenagers and their teachers.

And while Joan Lindsay'south writing manner and the setting for this novel may have you drawing some parallels with other classic coming-of-age novels written by and starring women, the ending of Picnic at Hanging Rock could simply have been written in the 1960s.

"Los mares del Sur" (Southern Seas) by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán (1979)

Let me the hometown reference with this Castilian novel gear up in Barcelona in 1979. Written by the Galician-Catalan author Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, Southern Seasis the most famous of his novels starring the private detective Pepe Carvalho. He's a gourmet who'due south as obsessed with food, literature and the city of Barcelona.

As well a methodical description of the city in the late 1970s, the volume also includes references to a trip to the Southern Seas that never was.

"Norwegian Wood" by Haruki Murakami (1987)

Written by Japanese writer Haruki Murakami, this coming-of-age novel follows the story of Toru Watanabe, a college pupil who is obsessed with American literature. He's trying to figure out his life in Tokyo in the 1960s and ends up in relationships with 2 women who couldn't be more dissimilar: there's Naoko, the former girlfriend of his best friend, and Midori, one of his classmates.

The story takes the reader from the bustling streets of Tokyo to the peaceful quietness of a rehab center lost in the mountains nearby Kyoto.

"Get Shorty" by Elmore Leonard (1990)

Small-time Miami loan shark Chili Palmer travels to Las Vegas, hoping to get a debt paid, and ends up in Los Angeles, where he learns near the motion-picture show-making business and how to become a producer. Set in Hollywood in 1990, this California classic masterfully blends suspense, thrills, sense of humor and fifty-fifty the slightest hint of a Western.

This story is so quintessentially Hollywood that there's a 1995 movie adaptation starring John Travolta and a 2022 Television set show with Chris O'Dowd, simply y'all should definitely start with the Elmore Leonard novel.

"Death at La Fenice" by Donna Leon (1992)

American novelist Donna Leon has been calling Venice domicile for years. Her first book in the mystery series that stars the Venetian police force detective Guido Brunetti follows the investigation of a music conductor's death after he's poisoned during the pause of a Verdi opera at La Felice.

Leon has been steadily publishing 1 new Commissario Guido Brunetti installment a year for decades. Then if you dearest the Venitian setting, crime stories and the abiding descriptions of all the delicious foods (and drinks) that Brunetti ingests on a daily basis, this could definitely be the series for you.

"Call Me past Your Name" by André Aciman (2007)

Chances are we'll never get to see Luca Guadagnino'southward sequel to his Phone call Me by Your Name motion picture adaptation. And while André Aciman'due south follow-up novel, Discover Me, may leave hardcore fans of Elio and Oliver a lilliputian bit underwhelmed, there's cypher similar going dorsum to the original textile.

Set against the backdrop of the Italian Riviera, this coming-of-age story follows the precocious Elio as he falls in love with Oliver, a graduate student and Elio's parents' guest for the summer. This iconic summer read perfectly captures the feeling of longing for someone and it features plentiful, engaging conversations, early on morning swims, leisurely bike rides, a furtive relationship and a passionate trip to Rome.

"Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2013)

Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie sets this story — that deals with clearing, race and the feeling of belonging — in Lagos, London and New Jersey. Her protagonist is Ifemelu, a young Nigerian woman who moves to the United states of america to further her studies.

Americanahmakes for a smashing read not but equally an engaging and entertaining novel just besides as a study about race in America from the perspective of a not-American Black person. The novel also packs a complex love story between Ifemelu and Obinze, who moves to London and has to live there equally an undocumented immigrant.

"Big Petty Lies" past Liane Moriarty (2014)

I don't intendance if you've already seen the star-packed HBO miniseries and know non only who the killer of this story is merely also the identity of the person who dies and whose investigation propels the whole plot, Liane Moriarty'southward soapy thriller still very much deserves a read.

On the one hand, instead of the rugged coast of Northern California, the novel Big Little Lies is set in the suburban Northern Beaches of Sydney. On the other hand, the book jams plenty humor and precipitous barrack — especially when information technology comes to the inclusion of dialogue from the police interrogations amidst the many parents who take their kids to the same schoolhouse every bit our protagonists — that you'll discover plenty nuggets of new material to more justify the read.

"The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo" by Taylor Jenkins Reid (2017)

Taylor Jenkins Reid's historical fiction bestseller is set betwixt the publishing world of present-day New York and the classic Hollywood of the 1950s, 1960s and onward. When the relatively unknown journalist Monique Grant is tasked with writing a profile on the legendary actress Evelyn Hugo, she tin't believe her career-changing luck.

The novel guides the reader through a series of interviews between Monique and Evelyn in which the former star tells her origin story and the reasons backside her many marriages throughout the years.

"Less" by Andrew Sean Greer (2017)

Andrew Sean Greer's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel stars Arthur Less as a novelist with a dwindling career and a broken heart. As if all of that wasn't enough already, Less is on the brink of turning 50. When his former long-time boyfriend invites Less to his wedding, our hapless protagonist decides to embark on a series of back-to-back international trips with a "ramshackle itinerary" to avoid the much-dreaded consequence.

Greer's fun and never-tranquillity novel takes the reader and its protagonist from the foggy shores of San Francisco to New York Urban center, Mexico City, Turin, Paris, Berlin, Kingdom of morocco, India and Nippon.

"Agent Running in the Field" by John le Carré (2019)

The concluding published novel of late spymaster John le Carré is a return to some of his career-defining themes in the world of international espionage, which he describes with precision — and without a glimpse of glamour or spectacle.

The novel stars Nat, a reluctant-to-exist-out-of-the-field agent in his belatedly forties, who has had a long career developing sources in Russian federation. Nat'southward back in London and somehow can't avoid getting himself involved in yet some other surveillance plot. The book is gear up in 2022 and there's constant churr among its characters regarding Brexit and the Trump administration. Le Carré favors none of those.

Even if you lot don't like international thrillers featuring double agents that much — who doesn't though? — Agent Running in the Field is yet worth a read if only to appreciate Le Carré's succinct yet masterfully rich and descriptive prose.

"Embankment Read" by Emily Henry (2020)

Let's add Beach Readto this list of beach reads because Emily Henry's romance novel truly does its title justice. Set in a small Michigan boondocks, the novel tells the story of bestselling romance writer Jan and acclaimed fiction writer Gus. They end up being neighbors and living side-by-side in lakefront cottages.

1 thing leads to another and they end up making a deal: by the end of the summer he'll exist the one to pen a romance book and she'll write a dark and bleak i. They both need to teach the other everything they need to know to exist able to produce something in a genre they're not used to working in. Of form, besides all the procrastinating and writing, there's also time for love.

"The Vanishing Half" past Brit Bennett (2020)

Last year'southward revelatory novel The Vanishing Half tackles the subject of passing when it comes to racial identity. The Brit Bennett-penned historical novel, which is already being developed into a limited series by HBO, tells the story of two identical twin sisters from a modest town in rural Louisiana where the majority Black population is and then light-skinned that 1 of the sisters passes equally a white adult female for nigh of her life subsequently fleeing town.

The activeness encompasses several decades starting in the 1950s and weaves together the life of the assimilated sister — who's leading a double life in New Orleans first and and so Los Angeles — with that of the other 1, who is forced to render dwelling.

"Velvet Was the Night" by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (2021)

Let's close this list with an August release from one of 2020's bestselling authors. Subsequently her Mexican Gothicwas chosen as All-time Horror novel concluding twelvemonth by the Goodreads users, author Silvia Moreno-Garcia returns with Velvet Was the Nighttime.

The Mexican Canadian author sets the activeness in 1970s United mexican states City and writes about Maite, a secretarial assistant obsessed with romance stories and her beautiful neighbor Leonora. When the object of her fixation disappears, Maite starts looking for her — but she isn't the only one.

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