The Beach Read Episode

Summary

Book Riot Podcast - The Beach Read Episode (June 4, 2025) Summary

Hosts: Jeff O’Neill, Erica, and Danica
Episode Title: The Beach Read Episode
Description: In this engaging episode, Jeff O’Neill, along with Erica and Danica, dive into the world of beach reads—exploring what makes a perfect summer reading choice, sharing personal experiences, and recommending standout books ideal for sunny beachside afternoons.

---

1. Introduction to Beach Reads

Jeff kicks off the episode by introducing the theme: identifying the best beach reads of all time. The trio aims to define what constitutes a beach read, share memorable personal experiences with summer reading, and highlight their top book picks from a curated list they contributed to Book Riot’s summer reading feature.

---

2. Defining the Perfect Beach Read

Erica ([06:00]):

A good beach read, to me, is something light and airy, often set during the summer. It feels like a little getaway, something you can easily dip in and out of while enjoying the sun.

Danica ([07:37]):

Beach reads can either be page-turners that grab your attention amidst distractions or something super light and fluffy, typically falling into the romance or thriller genres.

Jeff ([06:55]):

Essentially, a beach read should allow you to relax and enjoy without needing to follow every detail meticulously, making it perfect for a vacation mindset.

---

3. Personal Beach Reading Experiences

Jeff ([08:26]):

One of my best beach reading experiences was tackling "His Dark Materials" during a trip to the Dominican Republic. It was immersive and perfect for getting lost in a different world while on vacation.

Danica ([10:26]):

My perfect beach read was "An Island Princess Starts a Scandal" by Adriana Herrera—a steamy sapphic historical romance that made lounging on the beach with snacks an absolute delight.

Erica ([12:12]):

While I attempted to embrace beach reading, I found the environment too distracting. Instead, I developed a summer tradition of visiting the library, where I enjoyed relaxed reads like slice-of-life manga and graphic novels.

---

4. Top Beach Read Recommendations

Danica’s Pick: "An Island Princess Starts a Scandal" by Adriana Herrera ([20:26]-[21:43])

A historical romance set in 1889 Paris, following Manuela’s journey through the underground queer scene. The book blends steamy romance with rich historical context, making it a captivating summer read.

Erica’s Pick: "One Piece" by Eiichiro Oda ([22:30]-[24:01])

A beloved pirate-themed manga series perfect for the beach setting, offering vibrant storytelling and endless adventure across the seven seas.

Jeff’s Pick: "Sag Harbor" by Colson Whitehead ([28:23]-[32:17])

Explores the summer vacations of a 15-year-old in Sag Harbor, blending coming-of-age themes with racial struggles, set against the backdrop of Long Island’s picturesque shores.

Erica’s Additional Recommendation: "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt ([39:43]-[49:28])

A dark academia novel that combines murder mystery with intellectual narrative, ideal for those seeking an immersive and longer beach read.

Jeff’s Classic Choice: "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald ([37:03]-[38:51])

A quintessential American novel depicting summer parties and the complexities of ambition and love, offering a melodramatic yet engaging plot perfect for beachside reading.

Erica’s Historical Mystery: "The God of the Woods" by Liz Moore ([47:19]-[49:36])

A 500-page historical mystery set in a 1970s summer camp, featuring shifting perspectives and a riveting plot that keeps readers hooked.

---

5. Practical Aspects of Beach Reading

Danica ([44:15]-[46:32]):

Highlighting the practical challenges of beach reading, such as the necessity for snacks, drinks, shade, sunscreen, sunglasses, comfortable seating, and dealing with environmental distractions like sand and sunburns. She humorously predicts the future of beach reads might include waterproof audiobooks for added convenience.

Erica ([46:08]-[47:23]):

Shares her struggles with beach reading, emphasizing the difficulty of focusing amidst distractions and the importance of proper preparation to enjoy reading at the beach.

---

6. Insights and Conclusions

Jeff ([39:43]-[39:28]):

Discusses the history of the term "beach read," noting its origins in the 1990s, and contrasts it with the mid-1800s tradition of seaside poetry reading, highlighting how the modern concept has evolved.

Hosts Reflection:
The hosts emphasize the balance between engaging narratives and practical ease, making sure a beach read complements the leisurely and often distracted environment of the beach.

---

7. Notable Quotes

• Erica ([06:56]):

“It's light, breezy... something that feels like a summer reading project, a little getaway.”

• Danica ([35:12]):

“It's so decadent. Like, you get all of these descriptions of the food and the locales.”

• Jeff ([15:00]):

“There was a time when I could go to the library during the summer and pick whatever I wanted to read...”

---

8. Additional Resources

• Erica: Contributes to the “In Reading Color” newsletter and the Haywire podcast. Find her on BookRiot.com.
• Danica: Hosts the “Our Queer Shelves” and “Read Harder” newsletters, along with her book blog Lesbrary.com.
• Jeff: Manages the BookRiot podcast and contributes to various Book Riot media platforms.

---

9. Closing Thoughts

The episode wraps up with the hosts reflecting on their chaotic yet enjoyable discussion, acknowledging the challenges and joys of selecting the perfect beach read. They encourage listeners to explore their recommendations and find the summer books that best suit their personal reading styles and beach experiences.

---

Conclusion:
"The Beach Read Episode" offers a comprehensive exploration of what makes a great beach read, enriched with personal anecdotes, thoughtful recommendations, and practical advice. Whether you're seeking light romances, immersive adventures, or intellectual mysteries, this episode provides valuable insights to enhance your summer reading experience.

Transcript

[Erica]

This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Knowing you could be saving money for the things you really want is a great feeling. Talk to a State Farm agent today to learn how you can choose to bundle and save with the personal price plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings and.

[Danica]

Eligibility vary by state.

[Erica]

Summer's here and Nordstrom has everything you need for your best dress season ever, from beach days and weddings to weekend getaways in your everyday wardrobe. Discover stylish options under $100 from tons of your favorite brands like Mango Skims, Princess Polly and madewell. It's easy too, with free shipping and free returns in store order pickup and more. Shop today in stores [e-mail] or download the Nordstrom app.

[Jeff O'Neill]

This is the Book Riot Podcast. I'm Jeff o' Neill. Rebecca's not with me today. I've got Erica and Danica with me to talk about. I mean, just the best beach reads of all time. All time. That's what we're doing, the three of us.

[Erica]

Just a little something, you know, we.

[Danica]

Put it together, it's fine.

[Erica]

It's casual.

[Jeff O'Neill]

So we had a big piece feature, what I don't even know what you call Internet units of this magnitude that we put together contributors. We wrote a bunch of blurbs for summer reading season here and we're going to do a couple things. We're going to talk about what we think makes a good beach read, maybe memorable beach reads of our own. And then I think all three of us did multiple blurbs at least for, for this piece so we can, we can highlight some of our own picks there. Let's see, before we get into that, a couple programming notes. We're doing our next live recording of the Book Riot podcast at Pals July 9th. We're doing the best books of the year so far. We're Rebecca's coming out. Vanessa Diaz is going to join us and then Keith Mossman, who is the book buyer extraordinaire at Powell's is going to join us over there. Tickets will be in the show notes there over on First Edition. I'm going to cross post to this feed, I think because people ask me to. I'm doing the 21 Jeff Corr books of June so everyone can listen to that there. And let's do a quick sponsor break and then I'm going to throw it to you, Erica, first to talk about what you think a beach read is, but not yet.

[Mel]

If, like me, you love travel as much as you love books, you're into stories that sweep you away and stay with you like a favorite souvenir. Check out Strong Sense of Place. It's a podcast that explores the world one destination at a time. Think Morocco, Iceland, or New Orleans through five handpicked books that bring each setting vividly to life. You get culture, food, history, and the kind of texture that makes you want to buy a plane ticket on impulse and pack a bag. It's not just about geography, though. It's also about the atmosphere, the kind of storytelling that lets you hear the music from a street corner in Havana or smell the spices in a Thai market without ever having to leave the comfort of your couch. The hosts, Mel and Dave, are a writer photographer duo with great chemistry and a real curiosity about the world. They're in their seventh season now with more than 60 episodes to dig into. So if your idea of a perfect escape is a great story in an unforgettable place, Strong Sense of Place might just be your new favorite. Listen, subscribe wherever you get your podcasts or head to strongsense of place.com.

[April Savage]

Today's episode is brought to you by Kanopy Stream Smarter. Use your library card. So if you're not familiar you need to go ahead and get to the Kanopy app. Streaming services are getting buck wild with their prices, okay, but Kanopy is here for us. So on the Kanopy app you can stream thousands of movies or or TV shows for free. 99 okay. F R E E. And that's thanks to the generous support of your public library. So all you need is a library card to access popular movies and TV shows, read alongs and kids programming on your smart TV, tablet, phone or browser. Visit kanopy.com that's K-A-N-O-P-Y.com to find a library near you and stream Smarter for free today. And just in case you're curious, they have movies like Moonlight, I am not your Negro is a James Baldwin documentary. Ladybird.

[Erica]

They've got some.

[April Savage]

They've got some hit little joints on here.

[Erica]

I'm not mad at it at all.

[April Savage]

All right, check out Kanopy. And thanks again to Kanopy for sponsoring this episode. Today's episode is brought to you by Splash Tide Publishing, llc, publisher of Bleeding Roses by April Savage. The Romans are slaughtered while trying to colonize Dacian territory. This thrusts the elite Axius and famed hero Nestor into a pain, reckoning that their fallen were not killed by humans. They embark on a journey to save their beloved commander Titus and the army who undertake a mission to avenge their fallen. Axius believes the Dacian Queen Vasiliki holds the key to uncovering the truth about the killers, as a plot seeking to undermine Rome from within is discovered. As they confront their worst fears, they realize this bloody war is already spilling into the streets of Rome. But the beasts in Dacia want more than Rome. They want the world. So Dacia has this hidden ancient power that is able to turn humans into pure blood werewolves. And it's had this for centuries. And the Dacian Queen Vasiliki struggles to keep this power from the evil werewolf king Fenrir. So there's ancient Rome, there are werewolves. Go ahead and pick up Bleeding Roses by April Savage for all of that goodness. And thanks again to Splashtide Publishing, LLC for sponsoring this episode.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Okay, now, Erica, what makes a good beach read for you?

[Erica]

A good beach read? First of all, I'm from Tennessee and I've been to the beach like a couple of times, and it was a lake, the river.

[Jeff O'Neill]

What was your body of water that you. Would you go to a body of water and read?

[Erica]

No, I'm black.

[Danica]

We don't do.

[Erica]

We don't do bodies of water.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Okay.

[Erica]

You know, I mean, it sounds nice, like, when I hear beach read, honestly, because I'm just so not beachy. I have nothing against it. It's just the, the ocean, the vast ocean kind of. I have an existential crisis a little bit when I see it, but I, I equate it to summer reading. Summer reading to me is, like, light, airy. It's might be a little. This might be a bit of a basic answer, but I like books that take place during the summer.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yes.

[Erica]

It's like, you know, we're living the same thing and like, light, breezy. I like slice of life manga type of thing. Very low budget, low stakes. But on the other hand, I also like stories that really, like, kind of grab you and make you, like, submit to their world and like, really just are immersive. Because I feel like a lot of times, you know, summer is associated with vacation, so it's like a little getaway.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Maybe a longer stretch of time where you can dive into something too.

[Erica]

Right, Exactly.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Flowers on a Saturday. Danica, do they have summer in Canada? I don't know. I'm still trying to figure this out.

[Danica]

I am as south as you can get in Canada, where you, like, dip below the border a little bit. But so we got, we got summer and it's also funny because as the opposite, I live on an island. So it's just all beach. Like, it's beach every time.

[Erica]

Oh, wow.

[Jeff O'Neill]

So you just call them reeds. They're just reeds.

[Danica]

You're always at the beach. But, yeah, when we were putting together this list, I became more and more aware that I don't know what a beach read is, and I don't know if I really.

[Erica]

Same.

[Danica]

Yeah.

[Jeff O'Neill]

So this is a great podcast. I'm so glad you guys.

[Erica]

Why do we volunteer first?

[Danica]

Because, like, it seems like people either mean it's a page turner, like, it really pulls you in, you can read it even when there's a lot of distractions around you. Or it's something super light, fluffy, fun, which often means, like, it's either romance or it's a really dark thriller, which I don't know if that's coherent.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I think those are demons that like that. So I think that is wild to like a really dark in the summertime because I think I'm like the two of you where I want something pretty breezy, that if I fall asleep during it and I pick it back up and I don't remember what happened. Maybe it matters. It may not matter that I don't remember what the last few chapters were about. So something page turning. So a lot of genre. I think maybe Danica is what you're clueing on. Do a lot of genre that way. I like you, Erica. I like it when it's hot to read something that's on the beach or it's set in the summertime or, you know, someone's wearing big hats and they're sweating a little bit if they're on vacation too, all the better. I enjoy that. Or I think I like to get into something and sink my teeth into something long where, you know, I do have hours again. This used to be a different time of my life when I didn't have kids in a busy job where I had a Saturday and I would just sit outside and read all day. But something where the hours can kind of while by and I enjoy it. A lot of people take on a summer reading project, and I think that's one of the same reasons. So I'm going to have a lot of time. I'm gonna be more motivated to do that. I want to transition, too, to memorable summer reading moments here, beach or otherwise. And a similar one for me is I took down all of his dark materials one vacation. Michelle and I went to the Dominican Republic. I had one giant omnibus Paperback. We're not doing videos. You cannot see my hands doing a big sandwich.

[Erica]

I can see your hands.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Okay. There you go. Erica, are you in the Internet? You are the Internet.

[Erica]

I'm in the Internet.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Not at the beach. Because she's in the beach.

[Erica]

Not at the beach. Too Sc to be.

[Jeff O'Neill]

And it was a really good experience because I just, you know, I pick it up and I made it through the whole thing and I got lost in it for the whole week. My. My subconscious or my internal life was about that story, even as my external life was about drinking too much and all inclusive and getting mouth sores from eating too much pineapple. But I think that's probably my number one summer reading experience.

[Erica]

You were just living my perfect life.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah, you were. Yeah.

[Danica]

I'd like to difference between beach reads, summer reads, and vacation read. Or are those all the same thing?

[Jeff O'Neill]

I think to a first approximation, they're the same. Danica. Yeah, that's my.

[Danica]

Okay. Because I don't think of, like, his dark materials as a beach read. But I could immerse, right? Yeah, yeah.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I mean, because you could easily do that. I don't. I don't know. In a winter time, Christmas time, holiday time.

[Danica]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I think beach read. I mean, we can get to the list here in a second, but I think beach read, it's going to have bright primary colors on the COVID and probably a cartoon figure of someone wearing a hat of some kind. That's a be too.

[Erica]

A hat.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Hats are important.

[Erica]

A hat has to be on.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Erica, I am bald and not black, so I gotta cover that up.

[Erica]

You say as you rub your hat.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I know. All right. I like. I'm just subconsciously, my hands are just trying to protect it as much as humanly possible. Danica, do you have a memorable summer beach vacation read?

[Erica]

Yeah.

[Danica]

Mine was just recently that I decided even though I'm surrounded by beaches, I feel like it's really easy for me to, like, realize the summer has come and gone and I haven't actually done anything summery. So, like, I've tried to make it a point to at least do one, like beach day a year where that. That's the point of the day. And the first year I did it, I read one of my picks, the An Island Princess Starts a Scandal, which is like a very steamy, sapphic historical romance. And it was just like the perfect beach read. Like, just lounging around on the beach, eating snacks, reading this, like, super fun. Yeah, you gotta have snacks.

[Erica]

You did say mouth sore causing pineapple.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah. Drinking Something coconut and chips. Now we're talking. Yeah.

[Danica]

So that. That to me was like the perfect, you know, beach reading and to just kind of dip in and out and like. Okay, now I'm gonna just close my eyes and sunbathe for a while, and then I'm gonna read a chapter, and then I'm gonna jump in the waves and then I'll read a chapter.

[Jeff O'Neill]

So wait, you can get up there. The water here is so cold that I would never. You get in the water up there. What are you doing?

[Erica]

Yeah, of course.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Oh, my gosh.

[Erica]

Really? Is it because you're horrible? Is it because you're Canadian? And y' all are like, it's.

[Jeff O'Neill]

It's.

[Danica]

Summer. It's nice. Yeah.

[Erica]

Okay. Such a foreign world.

[Jeff O'Neill]

See, Eric and I grew up in places where getting into the river or lake in August was actually made you hotter. There was no relief to be had. It's terrible.

[Erica]

And there might be something in the water, right? There might be something in the water. Like a cotton mouth.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah. Something's going to suck your blood and stay on you. No, thank you. I'm staying here.

[Danica]

No, thanks. I'm sorry.

[Erica]

I've seen all types of things.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Erica, how about you? Do you have a memory of a specific reading experience that happened not clearly in the body of water, but adjacent.

[Erica]

Not in the water?

[Danica]

Yeah, yeah.

[Erica]

I. I tried to. I actually tried to do a beach reading thing last year for my birthday. I went to this book. I was like, oh, thanks. People do these things.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Like, let me cosplay the normal person. I know what you're trying to do.

[Erica]

Myself, I was like, beep, boop, beep. Let me read. Beach read.

[Danica]

It did not work out of the Internet.

[Jeff O'Neill]

And then I go back to meat body. Yeah.

[Erica]

It didn't really work for me. I was not. I'm not a beach person. I was trying to adapt to being on the beach. It's hard to walk on it. It was a lot of people. It was pleasant. But I was like, how do people read like this? So it didn't work. But I will say I did have, like, a couple summers ago where I developed this, like, habit or tradition of like, going someday on the weekend to the library during the summer. So that's as close as, like a beach reading because I try to read at the beach. Didn't work.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah.

[Erica]

And that was the time I was reading a lot of, as I said before, kind of like these, like, slice of life manga slash graphic novels. I just found them really relaxing. And it just also felt, Jeff, to Your point of like bright colors on the COVID These, this, this works like the Way of the House Husband was one, which is a really funny, like manga about this guy who's like an ex Yakuza gangster and he turns into a house husband. It's hilarious. And then this graphic novel called Wash Day Diaries and that is just like very bright and colorful. And it follows like, I far forget like four black women who are friends in New York. And it felt like, it felt like reading conversations I had with my friends.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Oh, that's cool.

[Erica]

That was like a really. I read a lot of other graphic novels. Those are just a couple. That was like a really relaxing tradition. And when I think of beach reads slash summer reads slash vacation reads, I think of relaxing. I think of like we said, airy, nice. Like these things have moments where it's like, ooh, got a little hot there. Got a little. Got a little intense. You know what I mean? But it cools down and in the end it's like affirming and calming. So that was my little. That's going to the library.

[Jeff O'Neill]

You know, that's a really. I hadn't thought about that because it's been a while since I didn't have work or school or teaching in the summer. But when I was a kid, really through college, having a day or two to go to the library during the summer where I could pick wherever I wanted to read and you could kind of, you know, get a big stack of stuff, you know, and just try it out. Like, yeah, my daughter is. There's seven days away from being out of school. Work is essentially done for her for the year. We went to Powell's last night to just walk around and start talking about what you wanted to read this summer. It was great. Like the freedom, I guess maybe, maybe that's what we're talking a lot when people talk about summaries. There's a freedom associated succeeded with it in, in so many ways. Did you go to the library, Danica? Do you go to library for stuff when you were a kid to do summer reading?

[Danica]

Oh my God. I. Yeah, I was always. I'm very glad I did. A lot of summer meant a lot of car rides.

[Erica]

Like a lot of.

[Danica]

We moved around a lot and then would drive back home because Canada is.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Just so big and there's nothing there. You just drive so far. It's like six hours to the grocery store.

[Danica]

These like eight hour car rides and I'd have just like a stack. And I'm so glad that I don't get motion sick because I would spend.

[Jeff O'Neill]

That was my curse. I wanted to read. We would drive from Kansas City to Denver essentially to see my grandparents. So it's like 10 hours in the way back of the station wagon and if I so much as looked as a at a book, I would just like spew all over my entire family. It was terrible. So I envy. I envy you greatly there. All right, let's do another quick sponsor break then. We're actually talking about specific books at this point.

[April Savage]

Today's episode is brought to you by RP Teens, publisher of thirteen Days of Summer by Stephanie Kate Strom Calling all Swifties. Calling all Swifties. Swifty Alert. Swifty Alert. This swoony blend of romance, friendship and fandom follows three best friends on a cross country road trip to see Taylor Swift in concert. Along the way, the friends pick up a mysterious and charming guy who is stranded at a restaurant. And is that a James Dean daydream look in his eyes? Questions that need answers? When him and Carson hit it off, Carson gets a crash course in love at first sight. But as attractions grow, so too do tensions among the friends. Will the group make it to the concert with their friendship intact or is there too much bad blood? Now this is the perfect summer read. A can't miss for Taylor Swift fans, but perfect for anyone who feels an emotional connection to music. This coming of age novel is really about the power and possibility of friendships. It will invoke a feeling of summery salty air and freedom. We love a good road trip story in the summer. Make sure to pick up 13 days of summer by Stephanie Kate Strom. And thanks again to RP Teens for sponsoring this episode. Today's episode is brought to you by Sony Pictures Classics. Presenting Jane Austen Wrecked My Life so Jane Austen Wreck My Life is starring Camille Rutherford. It's a new romantic comedy about a Parisian woman who dreams of becoming a successful writer and experiencing true love while attending a Jane Austen writer's residency in England. It is all types of like cozy, bookish rom com y goodness and I think I feel like we need that right now. Jane Austen Wrecked My Life is now playing in select cities and opens nationwide May 30th. For more information and tickets, visit JaneAustinWreckedMyLife.com Again, that's JaneAustinWreckedMyLife dot com thanks again to Sony Pictures Classics for sponsoring this episode.

[Erica]

Today's episode is brought to you by.

[April Savage]

Avon Books, publishers of Along Came Amour by Alexis Daria Romance readers, listen up. The wait is over. Alexis Daria the International best selling author of you Had Me at Hola is back with the epic conclusion to her Primas of Power series. Along Came a More is here. And trust me, it's got everything you need, sis. Got steamy chemistry, family drama, a love story you'll be rooting for from start to finish. So let's get into it. We've got Ava Rodriguez. Her husband crushed her by saying he needed to chase his quote unquote dreams, whatever that means. She just wants to have fun now. But then you get Roman Vasquez. He's magnetic. The they meet at a wedding party, secrets collide, emotions erupt. Next thing you know, we've got sizzling sexy, impossible to Put down romance, which is. Which is what we wanted. Make sure to pick up a long Kamehamoor by Alexis Daria. And thanks again to Avon Books for sponsoring this episode.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I'm not exactly sure how I got assigned my blurbs, to be honest. Does anyone know how we got assigned these? Like, I got a task where Rebecca's like, could you blurb these? I'm like, okay, I read these. I'm sure someone did them. Maybe that was a Vanessa joint. I'm not really sure.

[Erica]

Yeah, I remember signing up for a couple of them myself and I got.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah, so I don't even know. There's a whole bunch of them. We have contributors on here, too. Let's just talk about some. Erica, you want to start, you know, or Danica, just mention the one you did real quick. You talked about the Island Princess, which again, sounds like. Yeah, it's a little checker on a checker. But there's Island Princess and Erica will go to you next.

[Danica]

Yes, it's an Island Princess starts a Scandal by Adriana Herrera, which, like I said, it's a historical romance. It's set in 1889 Paris. And the main character, Manuela, she is about to get married. It is very much a marriage of convenience. She's a lesbian. She doesn't particularly want to get married, but you know that that's the era she's living in. And she decides she's going to go with her two best friends to Paris to have one last debaucherous summer.

[Jeff O'Neill]

She's heard that the existence of previous debauched summers, which is also.

[Erica]

The last one.

[Danica]

And she's kind of heard the stories about, like, the gay side of Paris. And so that's why she's here. And she finds this woman who wants to buy her island. She has been left an island by her, like, grandmother, really tiny little Parcel of land. But it's one that this businesswoman needs for a project and they're kind of negotiating over it. Cora is the other woman, and Manuela says she'll agree, but only if Cora shows her kind of the underground queer scene in Paris.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Oh, okay. All right, sure.

[Danica]

She's like an Anne Lister.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Oh, I twist my arm.

[Danica]

So you can imagine how it goes from there. But it was just such a fun read. And also, yeah, a lot steamier than I expected from a historical romance. When I hear, like 1800s, that's not what I expected.

[Erica]

Oh, they were freaks, Danica. They were freaks. Come on now.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Absinthe and the Moulin Rouge. You know, okay, I've seen all these things.

[Erica]

All of that.

[Jeff O'Neill]

That's like. That was your most. Let's do our more under the radar picks because I think all of us got a crack at some more familiar titles, which we can talk about for sure. Erica, you want to talk about One Piece? Maybe? I guess that's certainly familiar to the. The manga anime crowd, but maybe for the general reader, it's not as familiar.

[Erica]

So One Piece is like super duper perfect for summer slash beach things. It's literally a pirate manga. It takes place in this, like, very fantastical world. It's based around the seven seas, which sounds very piratey and fun, but it makes it. There are like these monsters and there's like this upper world in the clouds you can go to. It follows Monkey D. Luffy, who is this like, really zany, kind of clue. Clueless character. And he's very. He's very sincere and earnest about becoming like the king of the pirates. And so what's interesting about this is like. Well, I was gonna. I was like. That might sound shady, but I was about to say. Let me self edit.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah.

[Erica]

I will say some fans, sometimes, I think certain fans of certain things, they, you know, are maybe less tolerant. Reason I say that.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Okay. Yeah, yeah.

[Erica]

Because this. This story has a big, like, counter culture, like anti authority. And it's. It's very much focuses on found family. He's looking for a pirate crew, so he recruits these people who he thinks will help him get the one piece which would make him king of the pirates. And all the while, they're evading the police, the navy, which is like, you know, the man, the authority figure.

[Jeff O'Neill]

It's water. It's right there. That's. That. That's. That qualifies as beach. The water. The O. Pirates. Yeah. Let's do it.

[Erica]

Yeah. They pass by beaches all the time when they're on the water.

[Jeff O'Neill]

That's just right there. Yeah, it's right there.

[Erica]

So the one. The one thing though is they're always on the water. He has this like, magical ability where he can like stretch really far. It helps him and he in his little battles and stuff. It's a shonen manga, so it's geared towards kind of a younger crowd, but it's still fun. It's one of the most popular manga and its anime adapt. Adaptation is super duper popular. There are many, many volumes of the manga, many episodes. People love it internationally. So if you want to get into manga, if you want to like, sample something that's popular, see what the hubbub is about, I would recommend one piece. I will say one thing that makes it a little spicy, is that his ability to stretch and all that.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Oh, he's saying no more. We can figure it out.

[Erica]

Oh, okay. I have another.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Okay.

[Erica]

I offered. I offered to write a blurb for the Da Vinci Code.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Oh, but Rebecca took it from you.

[Erica]

I. She did. And I. Listen, let me tell you, some competitions over some.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah, there were.

[Erica]

There was. And I only wanted to write it because in this, like, this is a precursor for where I am now in life. When I was like 15, 16, 17, whenever this book came out, I read it because it was just like, as Rebecca mentions in the blurb, it was everywhere. So I read it and I was still living in Tennessee with my mom. My dad lived in New York. So I would email him and call him and just do whatever like when in our communication. So one day I email him, as I would do, and I said all this other stuff. And then I gave him. I gave him a full book review of the Da Vinci Code. And I was like, I read this book. It's really good. But there was too much talk of this and that. I remember like giving him a full. He did not ask for it. It was unsolicited. And he did. And this is a very Nigerian man. I just want to lay that out there. He didn't know what to do with it. He never responded. He responded to everything but the book review. And I'm just like, bro, do you.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Think you lost him at the sex cults? Do you think that. Where did you.

[Erica]

It might have. It might have been okay. He'd probably be like, ah, any guy. I don't know what you're talking. This, that you're talking.

[Danica]

Your mom.

[Erica]

Let me ask your mom, like, what are you into, bro? So I was just like, why did he disregard my book review? Like that. That's, that's. That's kind of wild. So I remember. So talking about the Da Vinci Code, I saw it on the list and I was like, oh, flashback. I have a history with this book.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Listeners of the Book Riot podcast, I'd like to welcome you to the Erica Experience. It's a wonderful journey. Every time. I had no idea where that story is going. And I'm always delighted when the, when the car finally stops moving and we. We get off the ride. Are, Are you into Dan Brown ever since Erica? Have you done the other ones, or has this been your singular Dan Brown experience?

[Erica]

I think around the same time, because I was like, oh, I kind of like it. I think I read one other book. They kind of. All of us are the same.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah.

[Erica]

And that was it for me with Mr. Brown.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Okay. That's a lot of people's experience. You may have heard me. I'm fishing around. Rebecca and I are going to read his new one, which is coming out in the fall, the Secret of Secrets, which just incredible for words. So we're looking for someone to join us. If you're interested, let us know because I might.

[Erica]

I might have to get in on that. And I'll force my father to listen.

[Jeff O'Neill]

To the podcast and he just will just not respond at all.

[Erica]

Will respond to every.

[Danica]

Every question. Is that just a risk of being associated with Book Riot people? You're going to be told a full book synopsis and review. Like, I can't tell you how. Like, most days I'm telling my roommate, like, here's exactly what just happened and what I think about it. Even though you're not interested, you didn't.

[Erica]

Ask me this, but you're. You're getting this. Yeah.

[Jeff O'Neill]

There's also a period of, of, of kids life when they start to read books. And my kids have gone through this. Other kids I've known where they want to tell you about the book they're reading, but they don't know how to differentiate between like, major plot points and really insignificant details. And it just keeps going. Like, there was one time my son was trying to describe a book to me, and it was like one of these 140 page whatever, and I'm like, are the laws of physics suspended here? Like how they're using more words? Yeah, it's like, it's like it just keeps going because they have no. They just flatten out. Every word is equally important. And they just like the color of everyone's hair and want everyone eat and they forget to tell you that Everyone was vampires by the end. You don't know what's happening. It's nuts.

[Erica]

Anyway, in a flashback. Jeff, I feel like this is probably my dad experience and I think you should respond to your children's book reviews.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Oh, I responded.

[Erica]

I've just said.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Oh, did I respond like enough already? That's how I responded.

[Danica]

My dad was.

[Erica]

He didn't say that, but. But I think I probably had that saying.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Silence spoke louder. Danika, were there any books that you did that were on this list that you didn't get to blurb that you wanted to? This is your chance. I didn't think we could sort of settle assignment scores on this pod.

[Danica]

Yeah, I got to blurb all the ones I wanted to and a few that I was strong armed into.

[Jeff O'Neill]

A little bit I'll swing over to. I guess I got sort of the basic DAT or the basic paperback favorites because that's. I'm old. I guess I wasn't getting like One Piece and Island Princess, steamy historical fiction, but I guess the most under read of the ones. And again, it's Colson Whitehead, so it's not that under read. But Sag harbor, which is auto fiction really about this community on Long island called Sag harbor that Whitehead and his family would vacation to in the summers. And so did other sort of. Of upper middle class to upper class black families. And it has a lot of the trappings of like a kind of movie. I feel like Jesse Eisenberg would have starred in 15 years ago, but for black people, which is really interesting. And then you get Whitehead's writing, which really makes it special. I think this is very evocative. It's very cool. You get some of the race struggle stuff there. But it's also just about a 15 year old hanging out with his family who he sort of loves but also couldn't be bothered to talk to. And you have these aimless long days where the most exciting thing you might do is go get ice cream at 4:15 when the place opens or you've got five bucks to go do it. I really like it. So it doesn't. It's not really a genre. It's more of a vibe than a story, but a vibe I'm very much into. So that's Sag harbor by Colson Whitehead. All right, who's up next? Erica, where do you want to go? You did one piece and you, you hermit crabbed yourself into Rebecca's pick. Where else do you want to go, though?

[Erica]

Well, I. I could do Seven Days in June, which Is spicy.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Do it. Why not?

[Erica]

Very steamy.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I like this book. I like this.

[Erica]

Yeah, it gets a little dark though. Like there's some trauma to untangle, you know what I mean? It's very like very concentrated and very like hot. And I don't mean like sexually hot.

[Danica]

Although.

[Erica]

Yes, but like I just. When I think about it, I think of the summer. It takes place during the summer. It's in the title, Seven Days in June. It follows two black authors, Kirk kind of in different lanes. There's Eva, who is like a supernatural romantasy writer. And then there's this literary darling, Shane. And they knew each other way back in the day when they were teenagers. And they had this like wild shout out tlc, crazy, sexy, cool summer where they were just like, you know, all over each other. And something happened back then that separated them and there was some miscommunication because.

[Jeff O'Neill]

No miscommunication in a romance novel.

[Erica]

No third act, right?

[Jeff O'Neill]

No.

[Erica]

So there was a miscommunication back in the day. And they've always kind of like moved around each other. They kind of write about each other, but like secretly they never really got over each other. Well, Ava had a daughter and you know, life lifed for her and they, they, they reconnect as these authors and then they start to kind of untangle all those the things that happened back in the day. And like I said, some trauma gets, you know, trauma gets untangled, trauma's brought into it. People got some raggedy mothers, you know what I mean? And, and that those seven days in June when they were teenagers, they kind of threatened to happen again because things get a little hot, a little caliente, a little spicy. But then. Yeah. So you got to see what happens.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I like about that book and I don't know why it feels like vacation friendly, maybe because you go on vacation for a week, but that the main action happens in like two separate weeks. Like it's very concentrated feels.

[Erica]

That's what I was saying. It's intense. And it again, it does have. When we were talking about, when we were talking about like what qualifies as a summary. Like it literally takes place in the summer. And I think that that concentratedness that you just mentioned, it helps it feel like. I think it's like an average length book, it's like 300ish pages, whatever. But that concentrated timeline makes it feel like a summer read because it's all happening just in this little time. And it kind of really pulls you in because you're like, okay, where are these people about to go. They are kind of a hot mess. I want to see where this goes. Basically, that's Seven Days in June by Tia Williams.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I mean, it's seven days in June. Like, that's. Most of us are in vacation for seven days in June. Danica, you wrote about the pairing, which kind of feels like the very model of a modern book. Riot friendly summer read, because, like, it's like someone put it into a lab and they came up with the pairing. You want to talk about that for a minute?

[Danica]

Yeah, definitely. Yeah. I think it's kind of the ideal summer read, at least for me, because it's another second chance romance story. It's about basically these two main characters. They grew up together, they started dating. They were. Were inseparable until they were about to go on this food and wine tour of Europe, and they had this horrible fight on the plane there, and they broke up and they went separate ways, and they haven't talked to each other since. And it's been, I think, like, five years. And when they broke up and obviously didn't go on this tour, they got a coupon for, like, but they. They couldn't refund it. It was like, you have to go on this tour in the next five years. And this is. Is the very last chance. And they both happened to book it for the same time because they both.

[Erica]

Waited until the very. Just happened to Millennial Core.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Right?

[Erica]

Yes.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Please keep on. Last minute. I'm in the middle seat.

[Danica]

Yeah, I feel very triggered. They kind of, like, make up a little bit. They're, you know, they're trying to be friendly so they don't ruin this whole thing. They're both bisexual. And I think the hook of, like, how this book was marketed is that they make a bet with each other of who can sleep with someone in each city that they visit first, which is obviously, this is very honor system.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Honor system, I would suppose.

[Danica]

Yes. And that's. That's definitely part of the. But it's not really, like, the point of the book. I think it's such a fun reading experience because it's so decadent. Like, you get all of these descriptions of the food and the locales.

[Jeff O'Neill]

That's what I'm talking about. Yeah.

[Danica]

Yeah. It's, like, so beautiful. But also, I read this interview with Casey McQuiston, who called this like they were trying to write a Trojan horse trans story, because in the. It's told in two perspectives. But the first half of the book is from one perspective and the second half is from another, which I Haven't really seen before. Usually they flip back and forth and the. You find out that one of the main characters is non binary, but because you're getting from their perspective, you're not getting their pronouns for the first half of the book. And it isn't until, like, the second half where you get the other character that it comes up. So basically, Casey McQuiston said, like, can I pull some people in to pick up this book who might not have otherwise? And once they're in it, they're like, oh, this is a person I can relate to.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Interesting. Yeah.

[Danica]

Yeah. Which I think is so smart and I think it works so well. But it was very funny that, like, I read. I love this. 5 stars. I read some reviews afterwards, and I was thinking, like, man, I loved this main character. Could totally relate to them. And then I looked at the reviews and they were like, such an unlikable main character. Oh, no.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Oh, no.

[Erica]

Tell us more about yourself, Danica. What are you into? And all those beaches.

[Jeff O'Neill]

You know, that's one of those reader question trophy kind of discussions that I'm completely immune to. Like the. The liking a main character.

[Erica]

Yeah.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Never really even something. I just. That doesn't matter. It doesn't matter to me. Yeah.

[Danica]

But I like to have.

[Erica]

Yeah, it could be fun to have a nasty character like, oh, this. This is. This woman is raggedy and trifling. Like, let me. Let me read more. It's so weird. Like, that's a whole other conversation. Like, why do you need to like main characters kind of.

[Danica]

Yeah. They're not role models.

[Jeff O'Neill]

No.

[Erica]

Yeah, it's. It flattens. I feel like it flattens the market in a way. But anyway, that's.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I'm much more sensitive to a boring main character than an unlikable.

[Danica]

Yeah.

[Jeff O'Neill]

But anyway, that's there. I'm gonna go to this little unknown book called the Great Gatsby. This was maybe an unusual. I know. Finally.

[Erica]

Finally.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I know. So. So my rationale here was. And I haven't done my homework about this, but, like, when did the beach read become a thing? I have no idea. I don't think they were rocking this in, like, 1890 when they're like, let's get in our petticoats and get out to Coney island and do it this way. But there's something about the Great Gratsby. It's again, another Long island pick. It's very summer core, and there's these big parties out on Long island and they're riding their Model T's down the highway. With like. Like, open containers. Like, it should be called the Great open Container, really. The great drinking and driving all over the place. And it's so familiar and it's so sort of a. Almost a moldy chestnut of the 20th century American canon that I think it's almost like, underappreciate how messy and melodramatic it is. Spoiler alert. This ends in a murder suicide because he couldn't get back with the girl he fell in love with when he was. Was a kid. And he becomes like a bootlegging mafia head honcho. Just try to win her back. And they're like this drama and pettiness at these parties. These people are all a mess, and it ends up messily. And it's not very long, and the writing is really beautiful. So it's like you can sit there on the beach, but, like, it has issues, of course, of the day, but at its core, it is like a beach melodrama. So anyway, I think the Great Gatsby, if you haven't tried it, it might be good when you're drinking something out of a pineapple.

[Danica]

At the same time, you. You saying that the beetroot is new reminded me that, like, three years ago we had a post on the state of the beach read that was like, the history of the beach.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I do remember that. Do you remember what they said?

[Danica]

Yeah, it was. Apparently the term beach read was coined in the 1990s, which seems way newer than I would have thought. Like, I know, but, like, the idea of kind of reading by the seaside was, like, mid-1800s, apparently. But they were reading, like, poetry, right?

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah. Right. Yeah. You've got Shelley and Rossetti, like, going out into the beach and, like, writing to the moon and stuff like that. That's not.

[Erica]

Yeah.

[Danica]

Which I think is a little different.

[Jeff O'Neill]

No, that's not what we're talking about. Yeah. Romantic poetry, where you may jump off the cliff after you're done writing about it, is not what we're talking about right here. Where are we gonna. Eric, are you up next? Whose turn is it to go?

[Erica]

I am. I think I have a. I think my last one that I wrote about is one of those. One of those that's on demon time, like you were talking about earlier.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Like, I, you know, I kind of get. Anyway, go for it.

[Erica]

Yeah.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I feel this.

[Erica]

So it's. It's the Secret History by Donna Tartt. If you're a dark academia growl. If you like, you know, like that whole just, you know, collegiate. It's really.

[Mel]

It really.

[Erica]

It really Is like a super fall friendly book, but it works as a beach read, I feel like, because although it's like 500 pages, it's one of those. Over 500. Really. It's one of those books that like pulls you in. So basically the premise is there's this. This guy, he goes to this small liberal arts college and he is studying classics and he kind of gets sucked into this. Well, not sucked into. He wants to join this very like eccentric kind of.

[Jeff O'Neill]

He's ready to be seduced.

[Erica]

He's ready, like, he's. He's primed himself. No one has primed him. He's. He gives himself to this. And they're just like a very intense group that's led by this very eccentric and kind of weird professor. And then they commit a murder. Yeah, but you know that from the beginning. And you know who they killed. The reason the. The question is more so why and how. So like we know from the beginning they killed this guy and they start talking about it. So then like, you know, the next chapter, like the first chapter, we see this person alive and they're all cool, everyone's chummy, we're talking about classics, we're doing this and that. And then it's like, okay, so why did y' all kill him? And so that's the part that, that sucks you in. I think that is it being an intense like murder mystery that's like Paige Turner with beautiful writing. And also if you want to get. If you like classics, if you like reading about that, if you want to feel kind of a little frou frou, let's be real, you're a little frou frou on. You're like, oh, I'm by the beach, I'm reading about classics. This is like such an intellectual, like read. Like, oh, you know, you could do that if you want. You're on vacation, live it up. You know what I mean? So that's a part of this book, that's the quality of this book that I think makes it a summer slash beach.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I agree. I agree with you. I mean, you could. This is a great. One of the great fall books. And again, the dark academia, that was God tier before we even had the term for dark academia, what this is doing. But I think you're right, you really can get lost in it. And because it's long, like you can while away your long weekend in the Catskills or wherever is you're gonna go for a little while too. And that point you made that, that it is elevated. So you get A little more sort of cerebral cortex stimulation than maybe you get from some of these books. Which again, no shade, but they look like if someone said, can you make a bag of Skittles into a book cover? And that's what they.

[Erica]

So as you're. As you're like killing your brain cells, you're also building them back like with the daiquiris.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah, yeah. Sustainable drinking. That's how balance.

[Danica]

We're thinking about the kind of book you want to be seen reading.

[Erica]

Exactly. I said proof. Exactly. And it's also like literally 560 pages. So you're like, I polished that off. This summ.

[Danica]

I have a flight reading. Yeah.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Funny story about this book because Michelle's grandparents, when they were alive, they lived in the hot Springs, Arkansas, which in August, let me tell you, is hot. So mostly we sat around inside watching golf and reading books and napping between barbecue induced comas.

[Erica]

You live my life.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Listen, they were retired. They knew what they were doing.

[Erica]

They knew how to live.

[Jeff O'Neill]

And I had gone through all the books I had brought with me because this was pre Kindle or whatever. And for. For whatever reason they had the secret History in hardcover on their shelf. And I had never heard of it. This is 20 years ago. Yes, I have it still. I know, right? I think it was mostly holding the furniture down. I don't think it actually was. And I read this book and I'm like, what in the hell is this? This is so amazing. And I read it like the course of 48 hours. So like it's like has a summer reading because that's what I did it that way. Way.

[Danica]

It's one of those books that people constantly like this and the Night Circus people.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Oh my God.

[Danica]

Like what's a buck like this? And you're like, yeah, I don't know, man. You're on your own.

[Jeff O'Neill]

The talented mystery Ripley is one I've given before because it's like, yeah, there's a murder in it. It's the summertime. There's a group of friends that you kind of want to be, but also you hate them at the same time. Which I feel like is very secret history core. But that's a great. That's a really fun pick there. What else we want to mention. We can keep going. We can stop. Anything else you want to talk about?

[Danica]

Oh, I wanted to say because Erica, when you mentioned you're unsuccessful beach reading, I want to say I feel like people don't talk about that actually. Be treating requires a lot of preparation. You can't just yeah, Be treat. Well, first of all, as we covered, you need snacks, you need drinks like you need. But also you need shade if you don't have shade reading. And like, usually you're not going to find a patch of shade on the beach because it's a beach. So if you don't bring anything, it's becomes, at least to me, painful to read after, like three minutes.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Well, I'm 47 years old. I need structure. You can't pull up a bare patch of grass or sand. You're like, let's have a great time for six hours. That's not happening.

[Erica]

I need back support. A guy and I tried to read on the beach. A guy came up and he had to help me with my umbrella. And he was just like, you look like you're struggling. He didn't say that. He was very nice about it. And I was on the phone with my friend. I was like, oh, this guy's coming up. He's like, we trying to talk to you. I was like, no, he pities me. He pities me, Isaac. He's helping me with my umbrella. Then he came like, his. His wife and kid came up and like, the kid was like, girl, you are helpless.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I may have let go a string of cusses at a beach chair in Hawaii over spring break that I don't know why they construct them to not fold. Like, just fold. Yeah, that's your whole purpose. I don't care if there's sand and water in you. You're a beach chair. You got to plan for these things like Danica is telling us anyway. Danica, what else do you got to have sunscreen, you got to have sunglasses.

[Danica]

Yeah. Well, this is the thing is that it actually becomes quite like if you want to have a really good beach read.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah.

[Danica]

That's a lot of preparation. And like, if you're at one of those beaches where you have to drag all of your. I don't know where your beaches are, but sometimes you're like, you gotta kind of hike through the woods for a little bit before you get to the beach. If you're trying to haul a cooler and your chairs.

[Erica]

Yeah.

[Danica]

Like, it's. I don't know.

[Jeff O'Neill]

And let's say you had two children with you that are. Are not helpful and get to drag all their crap. Yeah.

[Danica]

Yeah. It takes more work than you would think. And when you can pull it off, it's perfect. And you want to just be trade for like six hours, but it's. Yeah, I feel like it takes more effort than we Give it credit for. Yeah.

[Erica]

That's why I failed. I had some of those things because I was like, a beach. What is a beach? And I was like, oh, I'm going to people today and, you know, read at the beach as one does. And I had some of those things. It was a bit of a trek. I didn't like walking in the sand. It made me walk slower. I know this. That's a basic statement, but again, I'm not a beach girl, so I was like, that's why you need flip flops.

[Danica]

Again, to make sure that your feet don't get too hot. I had to.

[Erica]

I had a lot of pool slides. Yeah. I didn't know that. I was just failing at B. I see. I should have called you in Canada to tell me.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah.

[Erica]

How to beach read. And that's my fault, Danica.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I. I got a printable beach read supply checklist that people can get us. Right.

[Erica]

We have. You're the. You're the. You are. Yeah. I have something. I didn't write this book.

[Danica]

Write this book.

[Erica]

I didn't write the book either. I didn't write the blurb for the book.

[Jeff O'Neill]

You didn't write by Toni Morrison.

[Erica]

I unfortunately, like, oh, my God. A dream. That would be a dream of mine. But I didn't write this blurb. Sharifa did. But it's for. It's on the list. And it is the God of the woods by Liz Moore. Yes, I do write. Write our. In the club newsletter, which is our book club centric newsletter. And I remember I had dubbed it the Book of the Summer because I was seeing it in all these, you know, chosen for all these book clubs last year. And it takes place during the summer. It's been a while since I read it.

[Jeff O'Neill]

It was summer camp. Right.

[Erica]

It's like summer camp in the 70s. And so it kind of goes back and forth with different characters from shows different characters perspectives. Like, a girl goes missing. She's from a very affluent family in this small town. They own the camp. The camp employs, like, a lot of the people in this small town, and they're kind of weirdos. They're kind of like, if we're like, like calling back things, they kind of give me, like, Great Gatsby people, but, like, in the 70s, if that makes sense.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah, yeah. They're very highfalutin and also maybe would kill you for. Or the ring you're wearing or something.

[Erica]

Absolutely would actually kill you and then, like, not talk about it and then just go drink. Yeah. So that's the Family this girl comes from, and she's like a teenager. She disappears. So it's like show some of her perspective. It shows some of her friends perspective who's also, you know, just another girl at the summer camp. It shows one of the detectives perspectives who is this lady detective. And that's not super common back in the 70s. And so it's one of those shifting perspectives, shifting point of view books that I actually like because I feel like I can count on one hand how many times that works for me in a book. But it's done very well here. So this girl goes missing, but the gag is her brother went missing like 10 years.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Oh, you hate to see it.

[Erica]

You hate to see all the kids missing.

[Jeff O'Neill]

What kids?

[Erica]

Kids at. So this book is like 500 pages, but it's again, it takes place during the summer summer camp.

[Danica]

Like.

[Erica]

Like that is so quintessentially, you know, I mean, summer camp is. Well, it's kind of like a bygone thing now. I don't ever really hear too much about summer camp, but takes place during that. It's this really riveting mystery. It's well written, it's well paced. Even, you know, with its 500 pages is. And also it's. It's one of those books that's actually pretty squarely a mystery. I feel like a lot of days, a lot of times these days, I should say, sorry. I feel like mysteries will be like have a little taste of thriller. But this is like just straight up mystery, historical mystery. This is a fun. This was a fun one to read and it was. It was really interesting to peel back the layers. And I. I think I mostly listened to it on audiobook and it was really good. I. I had a good time with it.

[Jeff O'Neill]

It's. It's as good of kind of a sense of place mystery you're going to find. Well, I think one that makes it stand out. And I remember talking to Shinsky about this when it first. First came out is. I don't know how she does it necessarily, but I felt like I knew the layout of the camp extremely well. So when she talked about moving from place to place, I could really follow it. And if I had more time or as a different kind of person that was like interested in teaching writing, I'd like. I'd like to look and see how that happened because it's. It's pretty unusual because it was important to know that this building was like downhill of this other building building and like face the other way and like somehow that all that all made sense here. I was gonna talk. What was I gonna talk about? Oh, the. The future of the beach read. Because I feel like Emily Henry, like, she wrote a book called Beach Read that is about people writing beach reads. And where do we go from there? Like, I don't know where to go. There's nowhere else to go. Like, can you do that? I didn't know you could do this. It seems very. It's on the COVID and it. It is the platonic ideal or stereotype or however you want to do it of what a beach read looks like in this age of the cartoon cutout, commercial romance book cover, which I don't know if we're getting away from, but, like, maybe I'm calling Peak Beach Read for Beach Read by Emily Henry. I'm calling it right now.

[Danica]

Here's my prediction. Beach audiobooks become their own thing. Waterproof earbuds.

[Jeff O'Neill]

That's true. You just lay down. You can lay down and.

[Danica]

And do your swimming listening to your. Your fun.

[Jeff O'Neill]

See, I know they're supposed to be waterproof, Danica.

[Erica]

But I grew.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I was. I grew up in the 1900s, and we didn't take electronics into the world.

[Danica]

This is why I think it's the future. I think it will be coming.

[Erica]

The.

[Danica]

The headphones I can trust in the water that I don't need to have my phone.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Oh, I've got something to add to Danica beach checklist printout for. Especially if you're doing audiobooks and you lay on your stomach, watch out for the bottom of your feet, because the worst burn I ever got was falling asleep on the beach and burned the ever leaven tar out of the bottom of my feet. And that would have made Erica's sand shuffle look like Barishnikov compared to what I was trying to do to get back to the house from the beach with sunburned feet.

[Erica]

That's terrible. Oh, my God.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Anyway, so.

[Erica]

Yeah, I've never had a sunburn. I don't know what that means.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I mean, look, I'm just saying, if you're out there and you've got sunscreen on you lay on your. On your. On your belly for a while. Just do yourself a favor. Just put some. I know it feels weird, but it's gonna be way better than.

[Erica]

Yeah, terrible.

[Jeff O'Neill]

All right, any other beach read thoughts? Anything you want to shout out or observations or recommendations or anything else? That speech. We did a good job. I think we did good work today. We help some. Some people with their.

[Erica]

We have.

[Danica]

I did a list of, like, my Favorite queer beach reads with, like, a few more. And in that one, I talk about how, like, I have this whole formula for a beach read. And yet last time I went to the beach, I ended up reading Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White, which is.

[Erica]

Oh, my thriller, like, so another demon beach read. That's demonic, actually, is that I had.

[Danica]

It on my tablet like, it wasn't even an E reader. I'm squinting at it in direct sunlight. But I was just so in it that I was like, I. I can't read these romance paperbacks. I gotta finish this one. So sometimes the formula doesn't work.

[Jeff O'Neill]

The converse of the Platonica deal, the beach read. Because I don't know if Sharifa picks SULA or she got assigned it. I love sula. I love Toni Morrison. But I think that is a wild pick for a beach read.

[Erica]

Yeah, I thought. I don't know who chose that. I still have not read sula. I have. I. It's a goal of my. A deep goal reading goal of mine to read everything by Toni Morrison. I've already started. I have not read yet reached sula. Yeah, I still was like, now, is that. Is that a beach?

[Jeff O'Neill]

I mean, listen, read what you want, but yeah, not to talk bad on our pal Sharifies.

[Erica]

No shade, no shame.

[Jeff O'Neill]

But I was like, wow. I mean, if you're gonna pick a Morrison, I would pick SULA for your beach reading. I would say that. But because it's Morrison, it's dense and you want to pay attention and so much as the language and so on and so forth. Like, I guess my. My theory of the beach read is it's okay to be distracted in the middle of it and go back because, like, I have the Martian on here, which is told in these journalistic entries. It's super light. Easy to dip it back in out the of. Of Morrison. A lot of times you have to work to even know what's going on. I've got a pina col. I've got to. I've got to wave down the waiter, man, I can't be worried about, like, what is this metaphor doing? And who's actually talking and where am I in time. I think that's a tough one.

[Erica]

Yeah.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Have fun if you want to do that. But it's not what I would pick.

[Danica]

When you're on the beach, like, you're not generally there alone. There are children screaming.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Gotta make sure the children aren't drowning. That's super important.

[Danica]

Playing like, Jeff.

[Erica]

Jeff can't walk.

[Danica]

I'm hopping on the sand, shuffling on his knees.

[Erica]

We're both shuffling. He's crawling, falling back. I'm shuffling. Like, how can we get into Morrison with all these.

[Jeff O'Neill]

You know what this sounds like to listeners? If there's any pickpockets in the audience, I think you've got some marks.

[Erica]

Seriously, it's it to read, like. Well, Sharifa's blurb does talk about friendships. And, like, within the SULA blurb, I will say, maybe I could see this being a beach read for someone who, like. It's like, okay, I want to read a classic. Classic.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah.

[Erica]

By, you know, really, like a American.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I'm gonna use my baby to check something off my list.

[Erica]

Exactly. It's not too long of a book.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Right, Right.

[Erica]

You could also throw the Great Gatsby in there as a beach read. Although I do think the Great Gatsby is more of a beach read than sula. But it's, like, based on what I know about sula, But I could see it from that perspective.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Yeah, that was the only one on the list that I was like, huh, yeah. Wonder. You know, I love Toni Morrison too, but I'm not sure I'm gonna pick it if I'm. I'm at Jones beach or something. Doing that.

[Danica]

Yeah, we're testing the boundaries.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Erica, where can people find you on BR and otherwise?

[Erica]

Yeah, I do the Bipoc L newsletter called In Reading Color in. In the club newsletter. I'm on the Haywire podcast. I'm on Blue Sky. I hop in and hop out at Erica E. You can find me a little. A few places.

[Jeff O'Neill]

I'll put links to all this in the show notes. BookRide.com. listen, Danica, where can people find. Find you?

[Danica]

Yeah, you can find me at the Our Queer Shelves newsletter and the Read Harder newsletter and also my book blog, because, of course, I have to have my own book blog called the Lesbrary L E S B R A R Y dot Com.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Wow. You know what? I just remember, too, that I started my first book blog the week before I went on that coconut vacation where I read his dark material. So I was, like, running to the lobby to, like, update the blog at the same time.

[Erica]

Maybe I. You know, maybe I would have started a book blog if my dad had read that book review.

[Jeff O'Neill]

If you'd gotten any. If he got any.

[Erica]

Exactly. I'm gonna listen to the last few minutes of this podcast, I tell you what.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Were you. Were you texting him? Like, what were the. Was it long?

[Danica]

You.

[Jeff O'Neill]

You sat down with your human hands and you sent emails to your dad about sometimes.

[Erica]

Yeah, Yeah. A book review, Jeff. And other things. It was 2007.

[Jeff O'Neill]

That's what. That's all we had.

[Erica]

I called him also, but he responded to the other things in the email. Gosh darn it.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Wow, that explains a lot.

[Danica]

I think emails feel like penning a letter. Like that email sounds like passenger pigeons.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Like a passenger tablet.

[Erica]

I sent him a pigeon. Pigeon book review. Passenger pigeon book review. And he did not respond. And maybe if I had that, maybe I would have had a book.

[Jeff O'Neill]

Well, the problem was the pigeon died because you reviewed was like 300 pages long. Every blow.

[Erica]

Because I couldn't. I couldn't self edit. Kids cannot do. Yeah.

[Jeff O'Neill]

All right. Speaking of self editing, I think that's our show. Thank you guys so much for joining. This was a. This was a. This was close to the chaotic. We, for some reason, had a sense that we might be a little nutty today, and I certainly enjoyed it. Thanks, you guys, for joining me. Great time.

[Erica]

Thank you.

[Jeff O'Neill]

All right, here we go. New Phineas and Ferb is here.

[Danica]

We're back, baby.

[Jeff O'Neill]

For 104 more days. I know what we're gonna do. Today of summer vacation. I am ready for summer shenanigans. Let's do it.

[Danica]

Oh, yeah.

[Erica]

We're going to bust Fidez and burp once and for all. Are we going to do this again?

[Jeff O'Neill]

New inventions, shenanigans, innators, adventures and songs. Brand new summer vacation. New Phidias and Ferb. Starts June 5th on Disney Channel and next day on Disney plus on DisneyPlus. Disney. Com.