Aaaah…the beach. Last week I got a chance to hang out in LBI with the girls, Amy, Lauri and baby Fin. Oh how I wish I were still there. The weather was perfect, even if I did have to sit under the umbrella with Fin to keep my super pale skin from burning. :-) I wish I were still there.

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to share some of my current favorite beach reads. My nightstand is always piled high with books that I’m working my way through and I’m always on the hunt for more to add to the stack. Some of them are rather nerdy, like Eats, Shoots and Leaves (although I did love this one and highly recommend it if you are interested in grammar (I said it was nerdy!)) and a few are travel books for trips that I’m planning (We just started planning a trip to New Zealand. Yay, yay, yay!). Some of the others that I recently read and went to the top of my list of current favorites:

*The Psychopath Test: A Journey through the Madness Industry by Jon Ronson: I was a psychology major in college and learning more about how the mind works is something that I’ve always been interested in. The author isn’t a psychologist himself, so it’s more of a journalist’s approach to the subject, but still incredibly interesting. Even though it’s about psychopaths, the tone was light and funny and I couldn’t put it down. If you’re anything like me, you’ll start analyzing everyone you meet to determine who may be a hidden psychopath.

*A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan: Okay, full disclosure, this book probably doesn’t belong in the light, fluffy, beach read category. The subject matter is the passage of time and (from the back cover) an “exhilarating novel of self-destruction and redemption.” I loved the way each chapter was written from a different character’s perspective, almost a short story on its own. I found that I was turning the pages, anxious to learn more about the lead characters and where the story would take them. This book will definitely leave you thinking.

*The Help by Kathryn Stockett: This one has been a best seller for a while now and is even being made into a movie. It was also a favorite among the members of my book club. Taking place in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960s, it addresses race issues in the south during that time period from the perspective of three women. These characters were written so well that I felt like they were real people and wondered what happened to them after the book ended. This is the truest, page-turniest-beach read.

If you know of any good books, please do share. I’ll need more for my next trip to the beach. :-)

Since yesterday was Father’s Day…I’ll end with this photo from a session I’m working on now. It makes me smile.

Happy Monday!