Five beach reads that make you think
Rebecca Richards
With summer now in full swing, finding the perfect beach read can feel like just another thing on the to-do list. It should be lighthearted, readable, and, ideally, make you look good on social media. Rather than reaching for the latest Colleen Hoover or that biography you keep meaning to read, consider one of the following books, which are just as good of an escape from the daily doldrums.
The list features fiction with a dash of detection and athletic prowess, essays that are as insightful as they are humorous (and short enough to read between naps), and only one book that leans academic in nature. Each selection helped me to think a little more deeply about what it means to be human without feeling like a chore.
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Every book on this list made it easy to find meaning while watching the waves, or in my case, a rooftop pool. We all start somewhere.
One Man’s Meat by E.B. White
The author of Charlotte’s Web, The Trumpet of the Swan, and Stuart Little was also an essayist for The New Yorker. His gentle approach in his books for children is just as strong in the essays for adults.
One Man’s Meat is a collection of some of these essays, written from 1938-1942, another time of global instability and uncertainty. White wrote these essays shortly after leaving New York City to start a farm in Maine. White’s observations are still startlingly relevant today.
He writes, “When I was a child people simply looked about them and were moderately happy; today they peer beyond the seven seas, bury themselves waist deep in tidings, and by and large what they see and hear makes them unutterably sad.”
Before the reader dismisses his descriptions of the “simple life” as an old man’s nostalgia for a time gone by, White’s ability to draw out meaning is akin to Mister Rogers’s, albeit without the puppets. He invites your attention toward the life happening right next to you — to notice the playful elements of the everyday, then draws connections to finding your identity in the broader events of the world with a dry and unexpected humor.
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
Richard Osman’s debut novel, The Thursday Murder Club, is a fascinating look into the lives of several residents in a retirement community who are drawn together by solving cold cases on Thursdays, until a real-life murder occurs on their grounds. The mystery runs through the book, but as a device to reveal the characters rather than the focus of the plot.
Osman’s true gift is in how he treats his characters, letting them unfold slowly, which feels far more real than our frenzied efforts to become our best selves through TikTok therapy. The characters in the novel, and in subsequent books, hold on to their identities tightly, becoming fuller versions of themselves, and through their interactions, ask the reader to consider accepting both the foibles and strengths of others with curiosity rather than judgment.
Once A Runner by John L. Parker, Jr.
I’m someone who runs regularly but resents it, so this is an unusual choice for a summer read. However, Once A Runner offers an intriguing look into the life of an endurance athlete.
While fictional, the book draws on the human experience of the deep satisfaction with overcoming difficulty.
The story follows Quentin Cassidy, an undergraduate who drops out of college after his pranks land him in trouble with his university. A fellow student, a former Olympic gold medalist, offers to train Cassidy, who ends up racing the best miler in the world. Ultimately, Cassidy’s story is one of a person being pushed to the pinnacle of human accomplishment, and a reminder that excellence takes more courage and discipline than innate talent.
The Eyre Affair: A Thursday Next Novel by Jasper Fforde
The Eyre Affair is Norton Joster’s Phantom Tollbooth for adults. It not only reminds you of what you may have forgotten from English class but is also a cultural commentary of a world forgetting to read.
Set in an alternate reality of England in 1985, the novel is rife with time travel, inside jokes, and sharp insights into the questionable foundations of a national power. In it, Thursday Next is a literary detective tasked with taking down a powerful criminal named Acheron Hades. Their chase entails diving in and out of the fictional worlds of Jane Eyre and Martin Chuzzlewit, which affects events not only in the books but also in reality.
With observations such as “The real world is a book in bad need of an editor,” The Eyre Affair is one of those rare books that the reader can take as seriously or as lightly as one wants and is thoroughly fun either way.
Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life by Zena Hitz
Lost in Thought by Zena Hitz recounts the author’s personal journey from a Socratic liberal arts education and rapid academic success to her decision to step away from academia and then her reentry. Yet, the message of the book is broader, pointing readers to the value of an intellectual life amid daily concerns.
Hitz draws on the past experiences of thinkers such as Augustine and Gramsci, where being shut away from the world resulted in great accomplishments, a timely reminder for the book’s release in 2020. The intellectual life, understood as literary as well as scientific or philosophical inquiry, allows a temporary refuge from reality and helps us rediscover our shared humanity.
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She writes that to “read and inquire as a free adult is to take on the awesome responsibility of allowing oneself to be changed.” It also requires us to overcome our love of surface-level thinking. The most purely academic of these recommendations, Lost in Thought is still written in an accessible style.
Rebecca Richards is the associate director of the Fund for Academic Renewal, the philanthropic advisory service of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni.