Sex! Vampires! A Swedish Murder Mystery! Our Fave Trashy Summer Reads
Posted by: Ali Jawin
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8:30AM, Monday May 18th 2009
Drop that Aristotle and Dostoevsky immediately. The best part of summer? Cheesy beach books!
You know what sort of books I’m talking about ... those fantastically trashy books that you can’t put down but are ashamed to tell people that you’ve read. Yep, we obsessively read those, too. So stop trudging through War and Peace now and pick up one of these guilty-pleasure beach reads.
- Bought by Anna David: David earned her writing chops covering celebrities and sex for Maxim, Cosmopolitan, and Glamour, before writing her first novel Party Girl. The follow-up contains everything a trashy, page-turning beach read should—sex, glamor, hookers, intrigue, gossip, bitches, and more hookers. The story follows a L.A. magazine writer doing a story on high-class call girls and ends up in a moral quandry herself. [Amazon]
- The White Tiger: A Novel by Aravind Adiga: I was totally convinced this was a trashy read. Turns out this novel won the prestigious Man Booker prize in 2008. The book was way too much fun for it to have such legit literary street cred, but whatever. The point is that this fabulous novel is a series of letters written in India by the lower caste Balram to the Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China. Sounds far fetched and ridiculous, and the book is both. The letters tell the tale of Balram’s humble beginnings in rural India, his high falutin’ days as a chauffeur in Delhi, to his final ... as if we would give away the ending! [$17, Amazon]
- Twilight by Stephanie Meyer: I am praying that my boyfriend never reads this post, or this book, lest he discover that I am secretly in love with a 17-year-old vampire named Edward Cullen. I really didn’t want to like this book, or the other three in this series, for that matter; I disdainfully referred to Twilight as “that tweener book where vampires go to high school.” Now, I defy any girl not to immediately melt into a pile of goo the second he steps onto the page. You will fly through page after page, soaking up every steamy moment with this blood-sucking hottie. [$6, Amazon]
- The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson: A Swedish murder mystery! No joke. Think Agatha Christie goes to Sweden, but luckily for us non-Swedish speakers the book is translated into English. This mystery has the excitement factor of solving a crime and the humor of, well, Sweden. Not that there’s anything funny about Sweden as a country, but the constant mentions of herring, Ikea and other very Swedish things are unintentionally hysterical for an American audience. [$10, Amazon]
- Angels and Demons by Dan Brown: So, the coming attractions for the movie version of this novel look lame, but don’t let this put you off. By the same author as The Da Vinci Code, this novel is an action-packed thriller that makes you wish you were the female Indiana Jones. The plot is highly improbable: A dashing and brilliant American professor meets an equally stunning and genius European babe, and they run around Rome trying to prevent a madman from blowing up the Vatican and the Pope while solving age old mysteries. Not exactly a book highlighting the dreary struggles of everyday life, but, hey, that’s not what a summer read is about. [$11, Amazon]
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wawmama
wrote on May 18 2009 @ 08:47 am: [report]
Actually, I would either recommend “Vampires live large” or “Don’t talk back to you’re vampire” for a more gothic beach read.
Emi
wrote on May 18 2009 @ 09:02 am: [report]
Thanks for the suggestions! I actually caved and read Twilight to see what the hype is about. I liked it, but luckily I didn’t crush on any vampires. :p
Ginger
wrote on May 18 2009 @ 09:17 am: [report]
While I think that Twilight belongs on this list more than any other recommended reading list, I am still never going to cave in to those books. I have far too much disdain for them.
Besides, I’ve been too well known to take hefty (and often depressing) pieces of literature with me on summer outings. I can’t stop now.
doridori
wrote on May 18 2009 @ 09:33 am: [report]
I loved the Twilight series, read them way before they got all the hype and movie deal. I refuse to see the movie though.
Don’t forget the Southern Vampire Series by Charlene Harris, it’s the novels that the HBO Show True Blood is based on. (The books are much better, in my opinion.)
There are lost of awesomely trashy novels just ready and ripe for the beach picking… summer reads are always my favorite.
wawmama
wrote on May 18 2009 @ 10:12 am: [report]
I love Charlene Harris’s stuff. I been trying to read more thought provoking books, but I find myself still reading “Fluffy and occasionally trashy”. Ha!
writergirl
wrote on May 18 2009 @ 11:24 am: [report]
Twilight was like a train wreck….you didn’t want to look, but you couldn’t help yourself. I thought the story interesting, but OMG…LONG. Meyer is *so* verbose. I did plow through them though and was glad when I finished.
I LOVE the Charlaine Harris novels.
Don’t forget the Stephanie Plum Series by Janet Evanovich. An oldy but goody I just got hooked on—number fifteen is being released next month and I am trying to get through the other fourteen before it hits the shelves.
Ginger
wrote on May 18 2009 @ 01:03 pm: [report]
I can’t believe I forgot this (hearing about Stephanie Plum reminded me) but the Anita Blake series by Laurel K Hamilton is nothing but a guilty pleasure. That’s even the name of the first book.
The series starts of badass, then takes a turn towards smut, and there are vampires, werewolves, and all manner of creatures.
doridori
wrote on May 18 2009 @ 02:50 pm: [report]
@Writergirl- I will read any thing by Janet Evanovich!
@Ginger- I love Laurell K, but you’re right, the Anita Blake series started off totally awesome… not to much sex, awesome plots and some where along the way, she just dropped the plot and it became all about the sex. I keep buying and reading her books, hoping that she’ll find her mojo back.
I also like L.A. Banks, and Tananarive Due… Tananarive’s books have a tendency to scared the crap out of me though… you won’t get scared if the book isn’t well written.
cougiex
wrote on May 18 2009 @ 08:26 pm: [report]
Lol…. totally read War and Peace two summers ago. Tolstoy = good author.
But not at the beach… it was sweeping, selling popcorn, and cleaning bathrooms for me. And either on break or at home escaping into the drama…
sam04
wrote on May 18 2009 @ 08:32 pm: [report]
For chick lit, Marian Keyes is great. She’s an Irish author that I adore. Watermelon is my favourite.
musu
wrote on May 28 2009 @ 01:26 pm: [report]
I LOVED “The White Tiger” and it is totally a beach read. I couldn’t put it down. Better have lots of that sun screen with you because this is a total page turner and you are not going to want to move. There will be no even tanning with this book. Usually, those Man Booker prizes go to books that you need to read sitting with perfect posture, a very serious expression, and if possible, a very posh accent spoken without moving your lower jaw—hard work!