June 19, 2018

Books to Read By the Pool

Today's Top Ten Tuesday topic is Books to Read By the Pool.

I feel like I need to unpack this a little bit. Firstly, I haven't spent any time by a pool in years. About 4 years ago, we bought a membership to a neighborhood pool a few miles from my house because my daughter wanted to swim a lot. This meant I had to accompany her. This particular pool had no shade. None. It was miserable for me, the pale one. I still have overgrown freckles from that summer. Needless to say, the pool is not one of my favorite places to read.

Secondly, I think there is an expectation about what kind of book one should read by the pool. I figure a pool book is like a bikini body. If you have a body and you put it in a bikini, you have a bikini body. If you have a book and you read it by the pool, you have a pool book. That being said, it is difficult to focus on a book while you are also trying to watch a child play in the water, swat bugs, and try not to think about the fact that your skin is crisping up like bacon. So while I am all for taking deep, philosophical books to the pool to impress the other moms, if you actually plan to read the book, you might want to take something that requires less concentration. Such as the following that I would take to a pool if I were so inclined to do that this summer.

Date with Darcy

A Date With Darcy by Tiffany Schmidt - This is about a teenage girl who transfers to a high school where all your bookish fantasies come true. This seems appropriately mindless for a pool read.

Undead Girl Gang

Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson - Mila's best friend Riley and two mean girls from school die mysteriously. Everyone says it was a suicide pact, but Mila won't believe it. So she raises the girls from the dead to find out who killed them. YA fiction seems like it is perfect for the pool, yes?

My Lady's Choosing

My Lady's Choosing by Kitty Curran - This is a choose your own adventure romance novel. You could read this multiple times at the pool and get a different story every time. Of course, then the other mom's would think you couldn't finish a romance novel in 3 weeks so you must be slow.

Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions

Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions by Mario Giordano and John Brownjohn - Auntie Poldi retires to Sicily on her sixtieth birthday to live out the rest of her days relaxing in the sun. But of course, she gets mixed up in a murder investigation. Of course. Sounds like a fun romp to read at the pool, pretending you're in Sicily.

We're Going to Need More Wine

We're Going to Need More Wine by Gabrielle Union - Gabrielle Union was in several of my favorite movies from the 90's. This book is her memoir about being a black girl in Hollywood and all the terrible things that happened to her at the hands of men in power. Hopefully, it also talks about good things. But I feel like celebrity tell-all memoirs are great poolside reading.

Seven Husbands

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid - This is a different kind of tell-all in that it's fictional. Evelyn Hugo is an Elizabeth Taylor type actress who decides to tell her story to a biographer after many decades in Hollywood. Celebrity scandal is even better for pool reading when it's fictional.

Eligible

Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld - This is a modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice. I can't believe I haven't read it yet, either! I'm saving it. I'm weird.

China Rich Girlfriend

China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan - This is the sequel to Crazy Rich Asians that I loved a couple of years ago. It was light and fun. Also, these people are obscenely rich.

Still Life

Still Life by Louise Penny - This is the first in a mystery series set in Canada that is hella long (the series is) and I've heard amazing things about. It's pretty short and not terribly thrillery or gory, so perfect for the divided attention required at the pool.

There were some more books that I thought about adding to this list, but most of them were fat. There's nothing worse than trying to wrangle a fat book at the pool. Even if it is the funniest, most ridiculous book on the planet, it's not pool material if it's over 400 pages.

What would you read at the pool?