Beach BooksPosted on Mon, Feb 22, 2010
With the prospect of warm sun, clear blue waters and a wide beach beckoning, thoughts inevitably turn to relaxing on the soft white sand with a good book – or the latest download on your Kindle if you are so inclined – and before you are due to travel to the Mexican Caribbean you should always stock up on beach reads; you can never have too many!
Perhaps you like Nora Roberts, Philippa Gregory, Ann Tyler, Anita Shreve and Margaret Atwood or always choose the latest James Patterson, David Baldacci or Tom Clancy novels. Whether you bring books by Ian McEwan, A.S. Byatt and Hilary Mantel, decide to reread the classics or are hooked on the escapades of one “traditionally built” lady detective from Botswana, recently the subject of a HBO series, the beach is the place to drift off and set your imagination free. Even if you have your own favorite authors, here are some more ideas.
The Color by Rose Tremain. Gold casts its fatal spell in this tale of 19th-century prospectors in New Zealand.
Random Acts of Heroic Love by Danny Scheinmann. Two stories of love and loss and a journey of discovery.
Pompeii by Robert Harris. A tale of love and adventure in the famous Roman city doomed to destruction by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.
Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson. An American writer travels through the United Kingdom and this is his funny and affectionate look at the island and its people.
Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh. A rich saga of 19th-century India at the time of the Opium Wars. A ship sets sail for Mauritius with a motley crew of sailors, coolies and convicts, including a bankrupt Raja, a widowed opium farmer and a French runaway.
Suite Française by Irene Némirovsky. A moving insight into human frailties, nobility, vanity, courage, love and hope. The story of a group of French citizens fleeing the Nazi invasion and of a community as it endures occupation. Tragically, the author perished in Auschwitz in 1942.
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. A story of remarkable women in the South, a girl’s search for truth and how she finds a family.
If you do happen to run out of books during your vacation, there are two secondhand bookstores in the Cancun area with a good selection of English language titles: Needful Things, Coba Ave., Downtown Cancun and the Alma Libre Bookstore on the main square in Puerto Morelos. Finally, the Royal Resorts all have shelves in the lobby where you can leave the books you have finished and exchange them for others. Why not let us know about some of your favorite beach books?
April 1st, 2010 at 5:56 am
Dear Jeremy: Thank you for writing to Royal Resorts News and posting a comment about our Beach Books post. The book I mentioned is fiction but I believe that it was extremely well researched and I couldn’t put it down! Apparently the author is writing a trilogy and I am anxiously waiting for the second installment.
I am sure that you know that Henry Morgan spent time on the island of Cozumel, but did you know that other pirates found refuge in the Mexican Caribbean and raided ports on the Yucatan Peninsula such as Campeche?
Stay posted for more Beach Reads in the weeks to come.
March 27th, 2010 at 6:07 pm
Thank you for this page, it has books from people I would not have been exposed to before, being in middle USA. I have just finished a book on the privateer Henry Morgan and see a book you list about the Indian Ocean in the 19th Century that might be of kindred sailors, but a world away. How enteresting!
March 1st, 2010 at 1:20 pm
Hello Nancy: Thank you for being the first person to reply to my Beach Reads question and for your recommendations.
March 1st, 2010 at 1:16 pm
Dear Terri: Thank you for writing in and for telling us about your recent beach book, I remember reading “Beach Music” on vacation in Akumal one summer and also enjoyed it. I plan to do regular beach read recommendations and will continue to mention the bookshelves.
February 27th, 2010 at 10:04 am
I’m so glad you have finally advertised the bookshelves in the lobby. I always bring extra books to leave there and always find something good in exchange. Thank you!
Also, just read “Beach Music” by Pat Conroy. Loved it.
February 23rd, 2010 at 4:08 am
“One Hundred Years of Solitude”, “Love in the Time of Cholera” or anything else by Gabriel Garcia Marquez