Speaking of Beach Reads, This One Comes with a Towel!

I first wrote about Ann Brashares first book for grownups, The Last Summer (of You and Me), last year. As a big fan of Brashares' Traveling Pants series, I was so excited to read her first foray into more grown-up fare. And I wasn't disappointed. The Last Summer is now out in paperback and I have five copies to give away along with five special Last Summer beach towels! I'll choose five random winners from everyone who posts a comment on their favorite summer read of all time - the one you've never forgotten.

My favorite summer read would have to be The Thorn Birds, which I found in a house I was renting with some friends and realized I had never read. I almost devoured it in full that weekend, and was guilted into leaving it behind in the house by a super ethical friend. That Monday I scoured NYC looking for another used copy (somehow, I had to continue reading an old musty hardcover edition, new wasn't going to cut it).

I'm looking forward to hearing about all of your favorites! And for fellow Traveling Pants fans, the second movie comes out on August 6th. Check out the trailer below.

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Comments

[Darby Lohrding]

Oh my, my favorite summer read of all time has got to be "The Accidental Tourist" by Anne Tyler. I read this book while traveling across country by car with my family. It was one of those "are we almost there" trips and while the rest of the family was close to tears, from boredom I was laughing away the miles! Of course everyone had to read the book once I was finished. That book made that trip a lot of fun and definitely one to remember!

[Stephanie]

I got a copy of The Last Summer (of You and Me) from the publisher, so count me out of the drawing. I just wanted to comment that I too LOVED The Thornbirds and even watched the TV miniseries on DVD recently. As for summer reads, I remember reading Pat Conroy's Beach Music on vacation and loving every minute of it!

[Julie E.]

My favorite summer read was Armistead Maupin's "The Night Listener." I don't remember if it actually came out in the summer, but that's when I read it, and it was totally gripping and suspenseful. A perfect summer read, and it remains one of my favorite books of all time.
Come to think of it, I also began Maupin's "Tales of the City" series in the summer, and those books are also perfect beach reads--fun and fast, but you also really care about the characters.

[Rebekah]

My favorite summer read was Forever by Judy Blume. I was in High School and babysitting for a neighbor and I found it on her bookshelf. I just remember it transporting me into the world of teen love, sex and heartbreak.

[Gina Agne]

My favorite summer read of all time is the Big Stone Gap Series by Adriana Trigiani. I read all three books one after the other on the beach in the Outer Banks. I also spent another summer reading every one of Anita Shreve's books. I love Fortune's Rock and Sea Glass.

[Lisa C]

I read Gone With The Wind by Margarette Mitchell when I was 15 years old. I remember thinking I could actually make it through this long book and realized how much I didn't want it to end.

[Ti]

I was only 11 or so but I picked up a copy of Rebecca, by Daphne Du Maurier and I was immediately swept away to another time and place. For me, that is what summer reading is about.. it has to take you somewhere and it has to stay with you afterward. I absolutely loved it.

[Jenn]

I would love to receive a copy of this book. It's been on my TBR shelf forever and I haven't gotten around to getting it.

Favorite summer book..hmm...that's difficult. Typically I pick challenging books to read over the summer, or books that make me think. I'd have to say that my favorite summer book was East of Eden by John Steinbeck (my book club is rereading this to celebrate our 5th anniversary).

[Paula]

I re-read An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser almost every summer, but I think my favorite memory of a summer read was "A Prayer for Owen Meany" by John Irving...which I devoured over two days on a Maine beach along with many a clam and lobster roll...

[Melanie]

I'm getting ready to start my favorite summer re-read - Pride and Prejudice. I recently read The Darcy's Give a Ball by Elizabeth Newark which was cute. And I'm currently reading Darcy's Story by Janet Aylmer. So it's P&P immersion for me.

[Carley]

I just discovered your site a few weeks ago and have been enjoying it almost daily ever since! I'm so excited about this giveaway! I would have to say my favorite summer read was East of Eden by John Steinbeck. It took me a little while to get into it, but then I couldn't put it down!

[Janet Reckert]

My favorite summer read was A woman of Substance by Barbara Taylor Bradford - I was 16 and my mom lent it to me for a long car ride to the beach. 25 years later I still remember Emma Hart as one of my favorite characters.

Janet

[Kristen]

My favorite summer read was Summer Sisters by Judy Blume. It was the summer after my freshman year in college and, after a year of assigned reading, I needed something a little more girly and fun. I stayed up all night reading it!

[Kate]

Gone with the Wind, which I see was someone else's fav as well. I think I was 12, and it was one of the first "grown up" books I ever tackled. I remember lying in bed at my grandparent's house late at night with a sunburn and finishing it, then talking about it with my aunt the next day. (I also read Rebeca that summer, on Cape Cod. I believe my copy came from a sale of used books at the Hyannis library.)

[Amanda]

The summer after I graduated high school and moved from Alaska back to Colorado I read Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude. It was my first "adult" book that I read that I didn't have to read for school and I was completely blown away. I still want to go back and re-read the book. It was the perfect book for long stretches of ferries and highways encountered between Alaska and Colorado.

[Kiki]

Oh, I love The Thorn Birds--my copy is an old used paperback copy I did take from a summer rental somewhere long ago, just love it! Guess I'm not as nice as your friend, maybe if I'd had someone there to stop me back thern...I may have been all of 18, if that!

Personally, I love reading Gone With the Wind at the pool. It may not be everyone's idea of a typical summer read, but somehow, living in Alabama, I can just feel the summer heat just like those poor folks could back then, before air conditioning! A few years ago we read it for one of my book groups, and held a themed discussion: I wore a long black dress (my "widow's weeds"!) and we all drank mint juleps. Pretty strong stuff!!!

[Trav]

On summer I re-read all the Little House on the Praire books because they were always my favorite, and I wanted to re-live my love for Laura Ingalls. I also picked up many of A. Manatte Ansay novels, and read Vinegar Hill for the first time, and quickly had to read something uplifting after that novel, even though it's one of my favorites.

[Kim]

My favorite summer read is The Secret Life of Bees. I love that book! I also think it's important for summer reads to take place during warm weather. Who could read about snow on the beach?!

[Dawn]

My favorite summer read is The Big House: A Century in the Life of an American Summer Home by George Howe Colt. While it is a bit of a mouthful when you include the subtitle, the book itself is a gem. The author reminisces about spending summers with his extended family at their house on Wings Neck, just north of Cape Cod. Aside from the obvious summer theme, the book brings back memories of spending summers of my childhood in New Hampshire with my grandparents (and whichever cousin or friend was around that week!)

[Darlene]

I already have The Last Summer so you can count me out of that but I did want to comment on my favorite summer read. I'd have to say it's East of Eden. I read it the first time with my book club and that was 5 yrs ago. We are re-reading it this month for our anniversary and it's as good as ever and our book club is as strong as ever!