Zibby Mag

The Webby Award-winning literary lifestyle destination.

Four Essential Beach Reads and Bags to Start Your Summer

Tuesday, May 30, 2023

We don’t know about you, but Memorial Day Weekend had us dreaming about all the long days, warm nights, and cold drinks to come over the next three months. That’s why our editors rounded up four of the best beach reads of the season—and the perfect beach bags to tote them around in.

This summer you can find us soaking up the sunshine with Elin Hilderbrand’s newest novel in our hands. The Five-Star Weekend is a celebration of female friendship, delicious food, and, of course, summers on Nantucket.

Buy the book, $30 HERE

Buy the bag, $108 HERE

In Emma Rosenblum’s debut novel Bad Summer People, the discovery of a dead body in the exclusive summer beach town of Salcombe unravels a deeply buried web of long-held secrets. This book has everything you want in a summer read: an idyllic beach town setting, rich people behaving badly, and murderous intrigue—you won’t be able to put this one down!

Buy the book, $28.99 HERE

Buy the bag, $39 HERE

Carley Fortune’s Every Summer After was an instant classic, and we couldn’t wait to get our hands on her most recent book, Meet Me at the Lake. It’s a different set of characters, but it has the same captivating Canadian lake setting and a childhood love story you can’t help but root for.

Buy the book, $26.04 HERE

Buy the bag, $177 HERE

From the bestselling author of the memoir Wild Game, Adrienne Brodeur brings us the perfect summer read. Set in Cape Cod in the summer of 2016, Little Monsters is an engrossing, richly painted family story full of drama and scintillating secrets.

Buy the book, $26.04 HERE

Buy the bag, $380 HERE