295: Books for Your Beach Bag

Which books are going in your beach bag this summer? In today’s episode, we’re sharing a few great picks for your next vacation—or just your next relaxing afternoon in the sun. From fast-paced thrillers and twisty YA mysteries to a heartfelt rom-com set in the world of podcasting, we’ve got something for everyone.

We're heading into a summer break for Unabridged soon and wanted to make sure we'd shared some fun picks for summer before we pause.

For our beach bag picks, Ashley recommends Lucy Foley’s The Guest List, a compulsively readable thriller set on a remote island during a glamorous wedding weekend. Jen shares Back After This by Linda Holmes, a thoughtful, feel-good rom-com about podcasting, heartbreak, and second chances.

We wrap up with a Lit Chat question: What’s a book or series you think is overrated?

Bookish Check-in

Ashley - Ashley C. Ford’s Somebody’s Daughter (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)

Jen - Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé’s Where Sleeping Girls Lie (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)

Our Beach Bag Recommendations

Ashley - Lucy Foley’s The Guest List (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)

Jen - Linda Holmes’s Back After This (Bookshop.org | Libro.fm)

Lit Chat Game

Listen in to hear our thoughts!

#shownotes

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Full Transcript

[00:00:34] Jen: Hi everyone, and welcome to Unabridged. Today, we are recording episode 2 95 Books for your Beach Bag.

[00:00:41] Before we do our main discussion, we're going to do our bookish check-in. Ashley, what are you reading?

[00:00:47] Ashley: I had just started this one and I'm listening. Thanks to Libro.fm. This is Ashley C Ford's Somebody's Daughter. This is a memoir and she is reading it on the audio version, and I am just absolutely loving it so far.

[00:01:02] I find it really powerful. The premise is that her father has been in prison her entire life, basically. He was not imprisoned at the time that she was born, but she really doesn't have any memories of him. So from her very early toddlerdom, and then she, at the beginning of the memoir, is coming to terms with him.

[00:01:24] He has been incarcerated and he's going to be released. And then pretty quickly she goes back from that moment and then is unpacking her early childhood. So again, I haven't gotten through very much, but so far I have a great sense of a kid who is loved and who has a community around her and yet who also has some really hard circumstances and who is trying very hard to do the right thing all the time.

[00:01:52] And so we see her as a young child trying to figure out the world. And also starting to recognize that there are things you don't say or that you should keep to yourself to either stay out of trouble or like keep the peace and those kinds of things. And so a lot of what she's doing in the beginning, she's a great storyteller and she is just framing the world for

[00:02:16] little Ashley in the story who is experiencing her childhood and figuring out her role in it. And I've just gotten to kind of a powerful moment right here at the beginning where she sees a photo of the man who is her father and does not recognize him. And so her grandmother is explaining who he is and

[00:02:36] telling stories about him and she's kind of coming to see him for the first time as a young child. And then, like I said, in the very beginning, you have a premise of them corresponding with each other, some and this awareness that he's going to be released. And so I am loving it. I had heard great things about this one and really wanted to come back to the story, and I'm also really enjoying that

[00:02:58] she's reading it. This is gonna sound judgy, but sometimes when authors read their own work, I'm like, please let someone else read this. But she is a great narrator and I'm really loving hearing her tell the story. So again, that's Ashley C Ford's Somebody's Daughter.

[00:03:12] Jen: Yeah, I really loved that book. It's funny, it's been a while since I read it and I just hadn't thought about it. And then as soon as I saw that on our episode notes, I just got all of these visceral memories of different parts of that book. It really did stick with me. It's so well told, and she's, so, I just appreciate her reflection, that looking back, she, she's so great at really interrogating the moments from her past.

[00:03:39] Ashley: Yeah, very quotable too. Like I, it is striking to me in the audio, I'm wanting to write lots of quotes down. 'cause I think she just really has such a beautiful way of capturing moments. And again, even from a child's perspective, I think she does a really good job of kind of being in that space of what it felt like as a young child. What about you, Jen? What is one of the books you're reading?

[00:04:01] Jen: So I just finished this one this morning, but I wanna go ahead and talk about it. It is Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé's Where Sleeping Girls Lie. And this is my second book by the author. I learned from the note at the end that she was actually in college when she sold these books to a university in England, but she sold these books to her publisher.

[00:04:25] So she was quite young. She talks in the end note about and in her acknowledgements about the process of writing this. A lot of it was during Covid, and anyway, I thought all that was fascinating. But the book itself focuses on the protagonist Sade, whose mother died when she was much younger, and since her death, her father was incredibly controlling.

[00:04:50] She was homeschooled. She was rarely allowed to leave her home. She really had no friends outside of, outside of the home. And he unexpectedly dies and she ends up going to this boarding school. And so she really does not know what to expect because again, she's been very isolated, but she is excited about the possibility of making some friends and of gaining some independence and of seeing what it's like to live amongst other people.

[00:05:21] When she first goes to the school called Alfred Nobel Academy, she arrives, and immediately, one of the adults in charge gives her a really hard time because she's like a month late for her coming in for her classes. She doesn't have her uniform. All of these hidden rules that everyone else seems to know because a lot of them have gone to this school, their whole careers, their whole educational careers, she just is not aware of, and so immediately she's feeling like she's on the outside of things.

[00:05:57] But the school does do a good job. They assign her a roommate who is also like a guide through the school. Her name is Elizabeth and Sade really likes her. And there's also, Elizabeth's best friend is Baz, and he seems really great, pretty quirky. So even though she had kind of a rough start, s Sade is starting to feel

[00:06:18] as if maybe something positive can come out of this. There's a little bit of surrealism at the beginning. We know that there's something in her past, other than the death of both of her parents, that has traumatized her, but that is not revealed until later. But there's just this sort of pervading feeling of moments of disorientation.

[00:06:40] But, Sade gets used to the campus. She's there the first night. She goes to bed in her room. Elizabeth's already asleep when she gets there. She wakes up the next morning and Elizabeth is gone. And she thinks that's weird, but she goes about her day, she starts her new classes and she goes back to her room after the end of her classes, and Elizabeth still isn't there.

[00:07:04] Baz contacts her and he has not heard from her, and they eventually realize that Elizabeth has gone missing, and no one has any idea where she is. And so Sade and Bass decide that they are going to start trying to find her, and that is sort of what starts the rest of the plot unfurling. There's a lot about power and this sort of generational wealth that is very prominent at

[00:07:38] the Academy, and Sade quickly starts realizing that there is something simmering under the surface. There are things happening that nobody is talking about, but that everyone sort of knows about, and that that might play into Elizabeth's disappearance. But that all of course, is peeled back as the book evolves.

[00:07:58] So I found it to be very captivating. I was really interested in it until the end. I did feel like it was a little bit more of a mature book than the previous book, ACE of Spades, which I enjoyed, but I felt like this one held together a little better. And overall, yeah, I think it was really a powerful read.

[00:08:19] So that is for Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé's Where Sleeping Girls Lie.

[00:08:25] Ashley: Oh, Jen, that sounds really interesting. Yeah, Ace of Spades was a riveting read, and so I am interesting to get back to

[00:08:35] Jen: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, I think you would enjoy this one. It raises some great questions. There are, if you are a sensitive reader, you may wanna Google some trigger warnings. But yeah, that was really

[00:08:44] Ashley: I did. I saw the cover, you shared it on Instagram and I saw the cover and I was like, Hmm. And it's beautiful. It is a gorgeous cover. And it also was pretty disturbing. It was basically kind of a decapitated person's head, I mean. It's artistic, but it is, there is a feeling there of the body being detached from the head and I'm like, oh, hmm, well that is a, that is an image for you.

[00:09:07] So, yes. And then of course the title also, but, but also I think with Ace of Spades, I was really captivated by, like you said, like the kind of issues at the center I think were really interesting to explore and important things to consider in society.

[00:09:23] Jen: All right, well after that one, this is gonna be a big gear switch, but we are going to transition to our main discussion, and we just wanted to recommend some great books for summer reading. So things that you might find compelling when you have some time off or on vacation. So yeah, Ashley, what would you like to recommend?

[00:09:42] Ashley: Well, interestingly, one is maybe in the vein of like dark things that happen.

[00:09:48] This is Lucy Foley's The Guest List. And I started this because Foley is coming to speak at our local bookstore. M Judson is one of our independent bookstores here in Greenville. And I'm going to see her. And so I was like, oh, I wanna read one of her books. And this one... I don't know. I had heard good things about it, but yeah, I mean it, so yeah… Jen and I did not define what books for your beach bag would mean.

[00:10:18] I think lately I have not been very into romances, which would maybe be another recommendation I would make for a beach read. But this is like a thriller, you know? It's really compelling and I think sometimes when I think about fast reads, things that really suck you in, that is something that comes to my mind for summer reading.

[00:10:33] Would you consider that beach reading?

[00:10:33] Jen: I would definitely. Mm-hmm.

[00:10:35] Ashley: Okay, so this is one like that. So the premise is this: it's the start of a wedding that is happening on a remote island. And in fact, the island is so remote that no one lives there anymore. It is completely... There was a community there. There is some lore around that. But eventually people have left the island entirely and no longer live on the island. So the caretakers of the island are helping to make the wedding happen at this remote destination. And the bride and groom are both kind of like high-end, well-known people. He had been on this show called Survive the Night and was really well known for that.

[00:11:22] And then she has this online magazine that is a kind of high-end magazine. And so both of them are kind of prominent in their area and therefore kind of recognized and they wanted to have this really exclusive experience and then wound up doing it on this island. And so right at the beginning you get a lot of different people's perspectives and it will indicate both the name of the person and also their role in the wedding.

[00:11:52] And there are perspectives from the bride, the groom, but also the best man, the bridesmaid, who is the sister of the bride, the wedding planner, who was making all of it happen. You get some glimpses into all of them as they're going over for the weekend, and then as things unfurl. And also there's two timelines close together happening, and one is the day before when everyone's arriving, and then one is the night of the wedding and it is riveting,

[00:12:27] I thought. So, I just felt like it was a really fascinating story. Things are not as they seem. There's a great sense of setting and mood that is told through the story. And then also there is a propulsion to figure out what is happening on the night of the wedding from these clues that are being dropped from the day before.

[00:12:54] And so I was completely sucked in, so I wanted to recommend it because I feel like I've been in a bit of a rut and I'm like, ah. I really cannot put this down. I was lucky to get both the text and the audio from the library and I found I was using both, which, you know, is a good sign of a really propulsive book when you're doing the thing to like line up your chapters for you so that you can keep going

[00:13:18] in whatever format works, and I read it extremely quickly. So I think it's really great storytelling. It has that feeling of, I mean, there's a great mystery at the center that I think it really pulls you in. And then also, like I said, I loved seeing the different perspectives of the different characters, and I think that something like a wedding is always an interesting plot premise because it enables all these different people from very different backgrounds to be pulled together into this particular event that makes for an interesting story.

[00:13:48] So again, that is Lucy Foley's The Guest List, and I would definitely recommend it for your beach bag.

[00:13:53] Jen: Yes. That sounds like a great summer read. I love those things that are so plot driven and just really are compelling. And Foley is everywhere on Bookstagram. I know she's very popular. She's not one of my main thriller authors, so I haven't read as many of hers as I have some others.

[00:14:08] Ashley: What about you, Jen? What is the one you want to recommend?

[00:14:11] Jen: So I am talking about an author that I've talked about before, Linda Holmes, and I am recommending her newest book Back After This. I have spoken about her before because I just think she's amazing at all the things. She is one of the co-hosts of Pop Culture Happy Hour, and I always love her perspective there.

[00:14:29] She's great on social media where she shares a lot of wonderful pictures of her cute dog, Brian, and she has now published three amazing romance novels. And Back After This is her newest and it focuses on podcasting, which is always fun. I will say I love the sort of behind the scenes moments because, you know, she is on a very famous podcast and even though she is not the editor, she has a lot of little editing details.

[00:14:58] Her main character, Cecily Foster, is a podcast editor and producer, and she and her boyfriend started a podcast that ended up being very, very successful, and then he dumped her and stole the podcast and basically didn't really offer her the chance to still be a part of it. He just really didn't see her as part of it.

[00:15:23] Partially because his was the voice of the podcast. She has always been told that her voice is not a good one for radio, and so she is really self-conscious about that even though she would desperately like to be the voice of a podcast. So Cecily is recovering from this heartbreak and professional setback.

[00:15:44] She does work for a podcast studio that has a number of podcasts under it. And she is an editor, and a very successful one.

[00:15:54] She's sort of one of those people who is in the background all the time, just making all the things run. So she works very, very hard. She has made a lot of friends within the studio, and she is constantly proposing ideas that would get her behind the mic, but her boss slides those opportunities over to other people.

[00:16:16] So she is just stuck behind the scenes, which she enjoys, but is not ultimately the place she wants to be because she has stories that she wants to tell. So one day her boss calls her into his office and says that their business is not going well, but they have an idea that already has a lot of sponsors signed on and that could really make a difference and could save some of her friends' jobs.

[00:16:44] He says this directly. And the idea is that Cecily, who everyone knows is single, will go on 20 dates that are set up by this influencer named Eliza. And Eliza started as a fashion and makeup influencer, but is looking to get more into this sort of matchmaking side of things. And Cecily will be her first public customer to hopefully get more business for her.

[00:17:13] And then the other sponsors are things like meals for people who eat alone and a gym for people who are lonely and all of these other things. Cecily really does not want to do it. This is not the story that she wants to tell, but because it could make a difference for the business and because so many of her friends do work for this company, she feels a sense of obligation to do it.

[00:17:39] So that's that side of things. The other side of things is that one day Cecily is walking, and she sees this gigantic great Dane running down the street with his leash trailing behind him. And she sees this guy chasing the Great Dane. And so she jumps in to help. She has this ginormous bag that she carries everywhere and she just happens to have a jar of peanut butter in it 'cause she likes to snack on peanut butter.

[00:18:03] So she uses the peanut butter to lure the Great Dane toward her to help this guy catch his dog. And then realizes that it's not his dog. He was just being a good Samaritan and trying to get the dog back for a perfect stranger. And of course, this meet cute is in the background of the fact that Eliza is setting her up on all of these dates, and using data to find Cecily's perfect match, and telling her that you don't find your perfect match by accident.

[00:18:36] That you have to have all of this information to make that work. Where we see Cecily just keeps running into this guy whose name is Will, and she sees him at a restaurant and, and so it's like fate is trying to bring them together, so you have these contrasting points of view of love.

[00:18:52] Anyway, that is a setup. It is just delightful. I think Holmes has such a beautiful sense of character and is wrestling with serious topics that aren't heavy, but it is there. There are serious things in the background about who you are as a professional and what is your obligation to the people you work with, and do you decide on that obligation or do you have a conversation with them about what they feel like they want you to do for them. That's a thing that Cecily is a helper who doesn't always ask people if they need help. She just jumps in. And so there's a lot of character development and of authentic growth. Anyway, I just loved it. You can't go wrong with Linda Holmes, and every one of her books has been a five star read for me, and this was no exception.

[00:19:42] So that is Linda Holmes' Back After This.

[00:19:45] Ashley: Oh my gosh. I will definitely have to read that.

[00:19:47] Jen: You will love it so much. It's so good.

[00:19:49] Ashley: That sounds great.

[00:19:51] I will have to get to that for sure. I have read her others and really enjoyed them and I look forward to them. I had no idea that this one's about podcasting.

[00:19:58] That sounds really fun.

[00:19:59] Jen: Yes, I think you will love it. 'cause there's a lot just about like mouth noises and what people choose to drink right before that made me think, oh my gosh, do I do this to Ashley all the time? But anyway, it's really...

[00:20:10] Ashley: sounds great.

[00:20:11] Jen: Yeah. Alright, well we are going to end with our lit chat game, so I'm gonna grab our stack of cards.

[00:20:18] I am just gonna go to the middle of the stack here.

[00:20:21] Is there a book or series that you feel is highly overrated? Defend your choice.

[00:20:30] Ashley: Great question. I feel like we slaughtered Twilight another time. So that did come to my mind. Sorry to rehash for people who listened last time, I will not go down that path again.

[00:20:42] Another one that comes to mind for me is E Lockhart's We Were Liars. I feel like that book got a tremendous amount of hype and I could not stand it. It is one of the most lingering disliked books that I think I've ever read. So, yeah, that one comes to my mind. What about you, Jen?

[00:21:04] Jen: The first one that popped into my mind is Where the Crawdads Sing. And that one, it was so funny because I read about the first 90 pages and I texted our friend Tim, and I said, Tim, I think you are going to love this book. Because the first 90 pages was very atmospheric. It had this really southern gothic feeling with all this gorgeous description.

[00:21:26] And then I got a little further and I texted him, nevermind, because the main plot, which I know is what a lot of people are drawn to, just did not work for me. I felt like it was predictable, and I know a lot of people love, love, love that book, and I understand why you do, but for me, it just did not work sadly.

[00:21:47] So, yeah, I still have not watched the movie. Perhaps the movie would work better. I don't know. I've not been moved to do so at this point. So,

[00:21:58] Ashley: And I have not read that one in part because I knew you felt that way, Jen, and you were not the only of my friends who felt that way. And I am judgier than you are Jen, most of the time, as well as judger than some of our other friends who are big readers. And so I was like, well, I'm good. I don't think I need to find out for

[00:22:17] Jen: Yeah, I, I do not think you would enjoy it. It is not. Nope. I think that's a good call. Alright everyone, well, we would love to know what you would recommend for people to take in their beach bags this summer. And if you have a book you think is overrated, definitely let us know. We love that tea, so, all right.

[00:22:35] Thank you so much for listening.

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