For as long as I can remember I’ve loved to read. It provides an escape into another world, far away from your own. There is literally nothing better than sunny day on the beach and a good book. This list changes all the time as I read more or course, but here it is for now ; )
- Harry Potter – Kinda goes without saying. The first book came out when I was 12 and I grew up reading them. I have a deathly hallows tattoo on my wrist so I’m guessing the number 1 spot is never gunna change 😋
- The Millennium Series – the trilogy consists of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson. They’re pretty intense crime thrillers set in Sweden surrounding Lisbeth Salander. They were amazing. Like can’t put it down yell “shut up!” out loud while reading on the beach good. The constant mind blowing 🤯 twists in every book never tire and are always on point. I cannot recommend this series enough! And don’t judge it by the movie. Because, as usual, the film didn’t do the first book justice. It was honestly really good, but the book is just so much better.
- Eat Pray Love – an autobiographical novel written by Elizabeth Gilbert about her post divorce midlife crisis and how she decides to spend a year traveling the world. I mean, you can’t get more chick flick than that but what can I say 🤷♀️😂. But it was SUCH a good book. The movie was awful and they changed the ending. The book was amazing.
- Summer Sisters – an oldie but goodie. Judy Blume novel about 2 best friends that summer in Martha’s Vineyard every year. I read it growing up like all girls do with most Judy Blume books and it’s my favorite because it’s set in my backyard. (I’m from the north shore of Massachusetts.)
- Into The Wild – Christopher McCandless graduates from college, donates all his money to charity, burns his cash and IDs, abandons his car, changes his name to Alexander Supertramp, and hits the pavement to travel the country on his way to his great Alaskan adventure. It is non-fiction and a 100% true story of his travels. You can hike up to see where he spent his last days in Magic Bus in Denali State Park in Alaska
- Fight Club – If I have to explain the plot of this to you I’m not sure we can be friends 😋. Plus I don’t think I can explain it without giving away the ginormous twist. This is also like the one and only time that I thought the movie did the book justice. Or it could’ve been that Brad Pitt was in it at the peak of his hotness and got naked?? 🤷♀️😍👏
- Rule of the Bone – teenage boy runs away from home in upstate NY and has several unfortunate misadventures before winding up living in Jamaica with a rasta Shaman and bumps into his long lost dad. Such a good read.
- Big Little Lies – 5 mom’s in SoCal and a murder. You don’t know who’s dead. You don’t know who killed them. You don’t know why. All you know is that there’s been a murder. I mean, the book was amazing. The TV show was equally as amazing. I kinda guessed the twist, but I still yelled out loud “no way!” more than once while reading. It was so, so good.
- The Beach – Traveling buddies in their 20s take an amazing adventure to this hidden, off the grid independent community on a secret beach on an island in Thailand. Such a good read. Super good movie too, with early Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead.
- The Hunger Games – In a dystopian society the government holds an annual gladiator-style competition where they force each district (there’s 12) to sacrifice 2 teens, a boy and a girl, to enter into the games and fight to the death until there’s only one standing. Enter Katniss Everdeen, who volunteers in her sister’s place and changes the games forever. It’s a really famous trilogy by itself that we all read before the equally as successful movies came out.
PS – Game of Thrones would 100% be on here but I’m ashamed to admit that I never read the GOT books. I know I know!
Mama Bear Inc 