Must-Read Fiction: 7 Books to Add to Your Beach Bag

Elin Hiderbrand, dubbed  "the queen of beach reads" by New York Magazine, is back with another fantastic page-turner about a Nantucket author who dies in an accident and is given one final summer to watch the events surrounding her life. When novelist Vivian Howe is killed in a hit-and-run car accident while jogging near her home on Nantucket, she ascends to the Beyond. There she is told she can watch her family below for one last summer, and even use a few "nudges" to affect outcomes. Meanwhile, the sheriff is closing in on the person responsible for Vivian's death and it may unearth a secret from her past.

And here's another great addition to your list of books to read this summer. This is a sizzling tale about a Hollywood heartthrob, his co-star ex-wife, and a film set on an isolated island that will stir up long-held secrets. Cole Power and his ex-wife, Stella Rivers, have agreed to star in a surefire blockbuster being filmed on the Caribbean island of St. Genesius. But the strom brewing off the coast isn't the only tempest that threatens to upend the production.

And you should definitely add this thrilling Western adventure to your beach reads! It's about a Chinese American assassin, Ming Tsu, who was raised by the notorious crime boss to be a deadly killer. When Ming's wife is kidnapped and he's conscripted into service for the California Railroad, it doesn't take long for him to escape and be headed to rescue his love and exact his revenge. Along the way he'll be joined by a clairvoyant prophet and a troupe of circus performers with supernatural powers.

This was a Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick! It's an excellent novel about legacy, identity, race, and wanting the best for your family. When a North Carolina school draws students from the largely Black east side of town into predominantly white high schools on the west, it sets off a chain of events for two students, Gee and Noelle, that will effect them and their families for decades.

And this is an emotionally powerful novel about a weekend that changes the lives of two strangers. Driving home on a rainy night in October, recently divorced therapist Tallie Clark sees a man standing on the edge of a bridge. She stops and convinces him to get in her car and join her for a cup of coffee at home. His name is Emmett, and as he slowly opens up to Tallie over the weekend about his circumstances, she realizes that they both have some healing to do.

In the fabulous follow-up to the amazing speculative novel Hollow Kingdom, foul-mouthed crow S.T. is facing new adventures as he begins to make his way through a world ravaged by an apocalypse. Armed with a love of Cheetos, a filthy vocabulary, and a renewed faith in nature, and featuring a whole new cast of animal characters, readers follow along as S.T. sets off to see if he can save what is left of humanity.

And this is one of the most celebrated novels of the last year. It was one of the New York Times 10 Best Books of the Year, one of Barack Obama's favorite books of 2020, and a finalist for the 2021 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction. It's a powerful story about a father and son, trying to make sense of life and understand what it is to call a place home, in a post 9/11 world. Akhtar attempts to make sense of it all through the lens of a story about one family, from America, to Europe, to Afghanistan.