No Beaching for Me! by Deb Danielle Younge-Ullman

I’m not a beach girl–at least, not a lying-on-the-beach girl. Due to being horribly pale, prone to heat rashes, freckles and sunburns that, unlike other people’s sunburns which turn into tans, simply peel away, leaving me back where I started, I have a hard time enjoying the beach. It’s like being Cinderella at the ball, but without the fun part of going to the dance in the glass slippers and pretty dress, meeting the prince and so-on. Too much work and too much turning into a pumpkin, all around.

But I do love to walk on the beach, swim in the ocean and sit under an umbrella overlooking the beach and I certainly love to be on any kind of vacation that involves water and long spans of time where I am free to read a book. (Insert hysterical laughter here over the idea that I will have any span of time to read anything between now and, say, Halloween!)

So, without further redheaded griping (or pre-release lunatic asides), here are a few books I think would be great to read, even if you’re just sitting on a balcony in the city with your feet cooling in a kiddie pool.

Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay and A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving–I group these together because The Oppressor and I read both aloud to each other (with more than occasional cheating by reading ahead while the other was napping or swimming) on our honeymoon and there were definitely beaches involved, despite my usual non-beachiness.

Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series–perfect, perfect beach reading. Beware of becoming so entranced that you start demanding your mate grow his hair long and call you “Sasanach” in a Scottish accent.

Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels–more serious, lyrical beach reading and probably not what most people would think of as beach reading, but gorgeous nonetheless and gorgeous in a way that will make you appreciate wherever you are.

Anything by Jodi Picoult–again, not light, but always compelling.

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd–fabulous book and it has a summery feel.

Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver–another fav and a good book for summer.

Those are some of my classic summer favorites, but I’ve also got a massive to-be-read pile and I’m looking forward to:

Amy MacKinnon’s Tethered, Kristy Kiernan’s Matters of Faith, Tish Cohen’s Inside Out Girl, Kate Veitch’s Without A Backward Glance, and Deb Gail’s Cancer is a Bitch.

And it goes without saying that ALL the deb books are excellent for summer reading!

Happy Reading!

Deb Danielle

13 Replies to “No Beaching for Me! by Deb Danielle Younge-Ullman”

  1. Pingback: drquality.com » Blog Archive » No Beaching for Me! by Deb Danielle Younge-Ullman

  2. And don’t forget Falling Under, which is starting to show up in bookstores!!! YAY!!!

    (I couldn’t get into Tigana, but the Summer Tree Trilogy still ranks up there amongst my favs). GGK Rocks!

  3. I met with a book club last night and told them to read Falling Under next! (But I told them about all the Deb books, of course.)

    So many books to investigate!!! And it turns out I have a few of these on my shelves already–Prodigal Summer, for example. I can’t believe I haven’t read that one yet!

  5. Thanks Tracy for nominating us! How thoughtful of you!!!
    Danielle, you and that gorgeous porcelain skin, no wonder you keep it out of the sun!
    You crack me up and I think it’s so romantic that you and the Oppressor read aloud to each other from your books on your honeymoon. Sweet…

  6. A Prayer for Owen Meany is one of my all time FAVs and I feel your pain on the sun burn thing. I never lay out- otherwise layers of flesh will be burned away vampire style.

    e

  7. Thanks everyone! I will respond in detail later, but I just found out that the Toronto Eaton Center has Falling Under in stock (and are not holding them back until Tuesday) and I am off to see the book in the store for the very first time!!!!!!

  10. Whew! I’ll post photos somewhere as soon as I find my uploader thingy. Signing has been accomplished and the book is nicely placed on the main floor on the Toronto Reads table. And The Oppressor convinced someone to buy it, which was so cute. I wasn’t too much of an grinning dweeb, I hope.

    Back to the blogging business at hand:

    Joanne: I love the Summer Tree trilogy too.

    Jess: I bet we’d have fun raiding each other’s book shelves!

    Tracy: You’re a total doll–thank you! (And we love your site too, btw.)

    Jenny: Thanks. The honey moon was very relaxing and it was so much fun to read books that way! Can’t believe it was almost 6 years ago.

    Eileen: I guess you and I are the delicate flower debs, lol.

    Keetha: I adore John Irving’s work.

    Larramie: I didn’t take a Sharpie, but they had one. I now realize I need to go pen shopping! It completely beat a day at the beach.

Comments are closed.