The Perfect Read for Every Kind of Summer Vacation

Ocean Cruise: This Is Your Life, Harriet Chance by Jonathan Evison
Jonathan Evison’s latest in a string of warm, funny, thoughtful novels will be the perfect accompaniment to a cruise ship vacation. Harriet Chance is 78 when her husband of 55 years passes away, and she decides to take the trip she’s always wanted, an ocean cruise to Alaska. Along the way she’s forced to reevaluate the twists and turns her life has taken, as her estranged daughter turns up on the cruise and Evison switches between present-day Harriet and Harriet of the past, narrating episodes from her life in a breathless This is Your Life–type voice.

Camping Trip: For A Little While by Rick Bass
If you plan to spend your vacation inhaling the smells of woodsmoke and pine needles at a campsite or in a national park, Rick Bass is your man. His new story collection is an essential greatest hits anthology for a Montana writer who has had a slew of hits. Bass often sets his sensitive and beautiful tales and novellas in the wilderness, but even those set near Houston keep the characters’ connections and interactions with their environment at the forefront.

Road Trip: Mongrels by Stephen Graham Jones
So you don’t read books about werewolves? That’s what I thought before I picked up Stephen Graham Jones’ Mongrels and devoured it—not literally, though I was checking myself for fangs after reading it. This novel tells the story of a young man growing up in a werewolf family, watching for signs that he’ll transform just like his truck-driving, strawberry-wine-cooler-swilling Uncle Darren, and his nurturing yet occasionally bloodthirsty Aunt Libby. Werewolves tend to wear out their welcome wherever they land, which is why the narrator and his family move from Texas to North Carolina to Florida to Arkansas and beyond in this wry literary coming-of-age tale (with a dash of horror) that will suit your next road trip perfectly.

Beach Trip: Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld
The classic beach read is brainless and entertaining, but I always like my books to have a little more substance, and to be well-written, even when I read them near crashing ocean waves. Eligible, Curtis Sittenfeld’s new reimagining of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, strikes the perfect balance of entertainment and insight. In Sittenfeld’s telling, Jane and Elizabeth Bennet are single sisters pushing 40, giving their contemporary husband quests more urgency. Their little sisters are jobless vulgarians addicted to Crossfit, and Mr. Bingley is an unattached doctor who appeared on a The Bachelor–esque reality show. Sittenfeld’s wit and astute social observations keep the pages turning.

Vacation with People You’d Rather Avoid: The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson
If you find yourself in the unfortunate situation of a forced vacation with people whose company you don’t precisely enjoy, Jon Ronson’s The Psychopath Test will cheer you. Ronson writes his books as a charming hybrid of science, journalism, memoir, and humor, bringing readers along on his journey of discovery. In The Psychopath Test, Ronson trains in one researcher’s method for recognizing psychopaths, and then ventures out into the world, visiting residents of mental institutions, a ruthless, wealthy CEO, and a Haitian war criminal to test his new skills. This book is hilarious, disturbing, and diverting, and just might give you some ammunition to spot psychopaths and avoid them…at least once the vacation is over!