By Anne Gerlach, Adult Services Librarian, Montgomery County Public Libraries, White Oak Library
Can you really have summer without a trip to the beach? Frankly, I’d rather not find out!
There’s nothing like the surf, sand and salty breezes to calm the mind and lift the spirits — and with all that’s going on these days, giving ourselves time to relax and recharge is more important than ever. If you’re not dunking in the ocean, searching for seashells or building sandcastles, you may be sunning out with a summer reading list. Don’t have one? Here are a few suggestions to get you started.
Highland Beach on the Chesapeake Bay: Maryland’s First African American Incorporated Town
by Jack E. Nelson, Raymond L. Langston and Margo Dean Pinson
In this part archive, part community family album, the personality and history of this landmark location is revealed via photographs, maps and documents, with narratives woven throughout. Learn how these 48 acres, purchased in 1858 by the Brashears (a free black couple becoming property owners during the slave era), grew from corn and tobacco fields to a vacation community for black intellectuals and others of influence, and then the burgeoning municipality it became by the 21st century. A chronological outline opens as a table of contents. Each following timeframe describes the national environment and its effect in the area, listing the community leaders. Discover bathing suit trends, entertainment, noteworthy events and quirky anecdotes like “the ghost path” and “beach whistle” signals. It concludes with the authors’ biographies, a general index and a name index. The personal feeling this labor of love imbues will make you feel like a neighbor by the end of it.
Does This Beach Make Me Look Fat?
by Lisa Scottoline and Francesca Serritella
This mother-daughter memoir is poignant, witty and hilarious! Lay out your beach towel and take a laugh down memory lane with them.
Sunshine Beach
by Wendy Wax
Dreaming of owning a spot in the sand? Reconsider! In addition to elbow grease and paint coats, this fixer-upper needs clues to solve a murder!
Reunion Beach
by Elin Hilderbrand, Andriana Trigiani, Patti Callahan, Mary Alice Monroe and more
No commitment level for reading a book-length story? Try reading in bits with this collection of short stories inspired by Dorothea Benton Frank.
