Is there a more ideal place than the beach to take a book that’s easy to get involved with? Nothing like feeling the sun on your shoulders and listening to the roar of waves while the pages before you draw you in with laughs or strong feelings or criminal excitement or meditative bliss. From family stories to absurdist comedy to true crime, and from a bright and fizzy memoir to a darker but still absorbing celebrity one, here are 10 accessible reads tied to California that are worth taking to the ocean—or anywhere on vacation.•
BUG HOLLOW, BY MICHELLE HUNEVEN
READ OUR REVIEW • BUY THE BOOK
TYPEWRITER BEACH, BY MEG WAITE CLAYTON
READ OUR REVIEW • BUY THE BOOK
JOYRIDE: A MEMOIR, BY SUSAN ORLEAN
READ OUR REVIEW • BUY THE BOOK
DR. NO, BY PERCIVAL EVERETT
READ OUR REVIEW • BUY THE BOOK
CROWN CITY, BY NAOMI HIRAHARA
READ OUR REVIEW • BUY THE BOOK
A KILLING IN CANNABIS: A TRUE STORY OF LOVE, MURDER AND CALIFORNIA WEED, BY SCOTT EDEN
COUNTRY PEOPLE, BY DANIEL MASON
AFLAME: LEARNING FROM SILENCE, BY PICO IYER
READ OUR REVIEW • BUY THE BOOK
THE SEVENTH VEIL OF SALOME, BY SILVIA MORENO-GARCIA
FAMESICK: A MEMOIR, BY LENA DUNHAM
Anita Felicelli is Alta Journal ’s books editor and the author of How We Know Our Time Travelers, Chimerica, and Love Songs for a Lost Continent.
