Next week I am heading to the beach for a few weeks! This our annual trek seeking a break from the cold wet winter. I always take a lot of books with me and these are a few of the ones I have chosen this year!

January 6 Report: Findings from the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.     I know this seems weird, but I find that reading this kind of report in a beach chair near the surf and feeling the wind and sun is a nice balance to the horrific, anxiety evoking things I am reading. I read the 9/11 Commission Report, all 1000 some pages, on the beach and I think it was the beautiful surroundings that helped me read it all the way through.

The Age of Vice by Kapor Deepti. A car accident at 3 am in Delhi. Five people are dead. The car is a Mercedes, a rich man’s car but only a traumatized servant remains at the scene.  Reviewers call this “sensational,” “dazzling,” huge epic, immersive and absorbing!” Sounds exciting, right?

Two Nights in Lisbon by Chris Pavone. This is the fourth book in the Travelers series, and each one seems to get better! Reviewers call it a “riveting thriller”  so it will be interesting to see what Pavone has in store for us this time! 

Anthem by Noah Hawley. This is a novel about a contagious social media meme that is affecting American youth, and a desperate quest to try and stop the madness. I thought this sounded intriguing and I have really like Hawley’s’ previous books.

To Paradise by Hanya Yanagihara. I loved Yanagihara’s previous book, A Little Life. Her new book is also long (700 pages) so reading it at the beach seems like a perfect opportunity! This time she is exploring the instinct to protect the ones we love and the grief and pain we feel when we cannot. Divided into three parts, this theme is explored from a town house in Washington Square Park in different time periods. In 1893, a scion of a wealthy family chooses to marry a poor music teacher rather than someone of his own class. In 1993 Yangiahra explores the AIDS epidemic and in 2093 she explores a world riven by plague and a totaltitarian regime. I look forward to reading this!

In addition I have some other lighter “beach” books which are easy to read to balance out some of the heavier ones listed here, so I am looking forward to some great reading ahead of me!

I will see you again in a few weeks when I can tell you all about what I read!