I’ll give almost any genre or author a try normally, but when I’m on vacation (beach or otherwise) I’m less adventurous in my reading. I think it’s because vacation time is so precious I don’t want to risk wasting it on something I won’t enjoy enough to finish. And since many of my vacations are outdoorsy, chances are there might not be a bookstore nearby to supply a more satisfying read.

So I usually stick to favorite authors.

For my next vacation, I’ll make an effort to catch up on Amanda’s and Diane’s backlists, though these ladies are so prolific it’s a challenge (albeit a worthy one!) to keep up. The pile will also include books by some of the following authors: Jo Beverley, Judith Ivory, Laura Kinsale, Mary Jo Putney, Jean Ross Ewing aka Julia Ross.

But I have a confession to make. While the pile (constrained only by luggage space) may have some weightier stories, there also have to be what I think of as quintessential beach reads: pageturners with plenty of humor.

That’s why I almost always vacation with something by Loretta Chase. In recent years, I’ve romped through a few of her two-in-one Regency reissues. Her long historicals are also fantastic, of course. But I guess most of you know that already!

Here are a few other books I’ve read recently that are great beach reads.

BET ME by Jennifer Crusie–great characters, dialogue and what the hero does with a chocolate Krispy Kreme is just…well, believe me when I say it’s good. Very good.

DISAPPEARING NIGHTLY by Laura Resnick. It’s not a romance though it has a romantic thread that ends in a kiss. Really, it’s Chick Lit meets Ghostbusters. Kooky stuff, but I devoured pages as if they were potato chips. If I were allowing myself to eat potato chips during swimsuit season, that is. Which I don’t. Mostly.

So anyway, here are just a few more authors and titles you might want to consider trying this summer. Along with, of course, anything by the Riskies. 🙂

Elena
LADY DEARING’S MASQUERADE, RT Reviewers’ Choice for Best Regency of 2005
www.elenagreene.com

I admit I’m not much of a beachgoer — I lived for over a year in Santa Barbara and never made it to the beach. There’s just something in the combination of sand in one’s clothes, and salt on one’s sunburn, that puts me off. But this whole idea of beach reading is beginning to appeal to me, because it has now occurred to me that:

1) If you read instead of going in the water, you have no salt problems.
2) If you read in the shade, you have no sunburn problems.
3) If you read, you stay in one place, so you have no sand problems!

(Is this what adulthood is all about?)

So, here are my beach reads — the books that I would read on the beach this week, if I were on the beach. (Actually, as it’s been over a hundred degrees fahrenheit here for days now, the beach is sounding better and better…)

My first book would be Firebirds Rising, an anthology of original fantasy and science fiction stories that includes entries by Diana Wynne Jones, Tanith Lee, Emma Bull, Tamora Pierce, Patricia McKillip, and many more. I just finished reading its predecessor, Firebirds (both edited by Sharyn November), and had a great time. It’s also a handy way to sample new authors, and move those I love most to the top of my to-be-read pile! (In the interest of full disclosure, I will reveal that after reading Firebirds, I moved books by Nancy Farmer and Megan Whalen Turner to the top of my pile. I have, of course, already read everything by the inimitable Diana Wynne Jones.) 🙂

For my next book, I’ll pick a Regency romance. I confess I haven’t yet read Myretta Robens’ Just Say Yes, which on Saturday will be up for best Regency Romance in the prestigious Rita Awards (competing with our own Diane Gaston’s A Reputable Rake, Jenna Mindel’s Miss Whitlow’s Turn, and Jeanne Savery’s The House Party.) I just love the cover. The book promises to be sparkling and witty, so I’m really looking forward to it. (I also like more serious Regencies, of course! Like my own My Lady Gamester, which is also up for an award — the Booksellers’ Best Award — which will be awarded this Wednesday. Yep, tomorrow. Competing against three wonderful novels. Including one by our own Diane Gaston. So I’m not exactly holding my breath. Which is good, because if I held my breath till then, I’d have soon have no more breath to hold.)

I am very excited that World Con is going to be in Southern California this year. (World Con is short for the World Science Fiction Convention — held every year somewhere in the world. For more info, see www.laconiv.org.) I’ve never attended a World Con before, and I can’t wait for this one! As an attendee, I will be able to vote for this year’s Hugo Awards — so I’m busy reading the current slate of nominees. Next up for me is Accelerando by Charles Stross. I love science fiction — it can be so intelligent, so clear-eyed, so imaginative and brain-stretching that I don’t know any other type of fiction like it.

Believe it or not, I haven’t yet read the new Jennifer Crusie. Her latest, a collaboration with Bob Mayer entitled Don’t Look Down, has been sitting for a while now on my to-be-read shelf. (Actually, it’s a to-be-read bookcase. Though now that I think of it, I’ve never read a bookcase in my life. Which I guess is pretty obvious. Or it would be a has-been-read bookcase.)

I have loved Jennifer Crusie’s funny romances ever since Strange Bedpersons and What the Lady Wants first came out. (That’s an example of subtle boasting. If you look carefully, you’ll see I am claiming to be one of her early fans, not one of her more recent, read-the-reissue-of-her-early-Harlequins-with-covers-that-pretend-these-are-single-title-releases fans. And while we’re on the subject, let me just casually mention I was a fan of Diana Wynne Jones even before Charmed Life came out. Um. Hmm. I hope I haven’t just ruined the illusion that I am incredibly young and therefore a prodigy.)

Which brings us to today’s questions:

1) Have you read any of these books? If so, what did you think?
2) Do you read on the beach? Is sand truly not a problem?
3) Do you have a to-be-read pile? Shelf? Bookcase? House? If so, do you find that certain things just stay there forever?
4) Are there any authors who you pride yourself on being an early fan of? Who?

Keep cool!

Cara
Cara King — www.caraking.com
MY LADY GAMESTER — Booksellers’ Best Finalist for Best Regency of 2005!

Amanda, Megan, Janet and I are bound for the RWA Conference this week, not exactly a “day at the beach,” but a lot of fun in its own way. Still, it did get us thinking about vacations, especially beach vacations. Instead of proceeding through our hectic lives or the hectic conference, we imagined going to the beach and sitting under a beach umbrella, listening to the waves and READING!

What books, we asked ourselves, would we pack?

In each of our blogs this week, we are going to tell you!
Starting with me.

Traveling to Atlanta today, Monday July 24, I will worry only about what book to take on the airplane. (That’s not all I’ll worry about. At the conference I’ll discover if The Mysterious Miss M wins Best Regency in The Bookseller’s Best or The National Reader’s Choice Awards. And if A Reputable Rake wins the RITA for Best Regency. Yipes!)On my return flight, I’ll likely pick one book among the many freebies we’re bound to receive.

But if I were going to the beach? I scoured my To-Be-Read piles and selected the books I’d most want to read if I could spend this week sitting under a beach umbrella. My choices are confined to friends’ books. I don’t even dare to consider widening the book pool to include all the possibilities.

Regency Books:
Lady Midnight by Amanda McCabe – “our” Amanda. I’ve had the book for ages and it is on the top of my pile and is a Booksellers Best finalist for Best Historical.
The Naked Marquis by Sally MacKenzie – I enjoyed her Naked Duke and want more!
Love is in the Heir by Kathryn Caskie – her conclusion to the Featherton sister series
To Love a Thief by Julie Ann Long – her RITA finalist for Short Historical

Others: (these are all by my pals in the Wet Noodle Posse, who are way too prolific for me to keep up)
A Rogue in a Kilt by Sandy Blair – I loved her debut, A Man in a Kilt
Run for the Money by Stephanie Feagan – Again, I loved Show Her the Money, up for Best First Book in the RITAs.
Learning Curve by Terry McLaughlin – a Harlequin Superromance I peeked into and can’t wait to finish
The Runaway Daughter by Anna DeStefano – ditto
The Mancini Marriage Bargain by Trish Morey – one of those delicious Harlequin Presents
Oh, there are so many more I could list! I could not possibly get through all of these on my beach week, but these are the ones I would pack.
(speaking of packing……did I remember everything?)

Cheers!
Diane