5 Southern beach reads for your summer reading

Spanning from 1956 to the present, the stories take place in towns and communities across the country from Tucson, Arizona, and Big Fish, Montana, to Nashville, Tennessee, and Keene, New Hampshire. Some stories are linked and others stand alone. Both humorous and poignant, they are filled with observations on human nature and commentary on modern-day life. And they’re populated with a colorful array of characters like the middle-aged, bordering-on-bitter TV anchor who, having prioritized her career over her personal life, gets a second chance at happiness after committing an embarrassing social gaffe in “Beware of Weathermen.”

In “Something to Look Forward To,” Sigmond Noodle is a publicist for Warner Bros. who dies at the Motion Picture Retirement Home and is reincarnated as a grub worm. He attends a support group for newcomers with an ant, a moth and a hawk where the topic of discussion is “The Pros and Cons of Being a Human Being versus All Other Living Creatures.”

Bookending the collection are chapters about an alien from Planet 8676 who poses as William Frawley (aka Fred Mertz from “I Love Lucy”) and checks into the Marriott in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He’s there to observe human behavior on planet Earth and report back to his boss. In the process he falls in love with Debbie, a widow who works at the Baskin-Robbins ice cream parlor.

Perhaps the most memorable characters are a multigenerational family of four women. Octogenarian Velma lives on the family farm in Cottonwood, Kansas. Her daughter Ruth Ann lives a short, hard life in Hollywood. Her daughter Cathy is a vegan yoga instructor. She lives in Berkeley, California, with her daughter Tracie Ann, who changes her pronouns and their name to Garland. Desperate to connect but separated by distance and ideologies, the women struggle for intimacy. Their story arc underscores the impact physical distance can have on families.

There’s a nostalgic undercurrent to these stories that expresses a longing for a time before electric charging stations, gluten-free products and changing pronouns. In the kindest, most gentle way, the 80-year-old author advocates for a simpler way of life when the change of seasons or an invitation to a home-cooked meal or a cuddle with a house cat can hold as much fascination as a flickering image on a cellphone.

Velma speaks for many of the book’s characters when she confides in her chicken, Bess, “I just don’t understand the world anymore.”

Here are four more beach reads to check out:

Credit: Tiny Reparations Books

Credit: Tiny Reparations Books

“As You Wish” by Leesa Cross-Smith. Lydia, Jenny and Selene are au pairs in Korea who become fast friends on a group vacation with their host families on Jeju Island. Beneath a full moon at an enchanted waterfall, the three young women each make wishes that, to their surprise, begin to come true. Complications arise when Jenny starts to question whether the adage to “be careful what you wish for” is true. (Tiny Reparations Books, June 24)

Credit: Waterbrook

Credit: Waterbrook

“A Gardin Wedding” by Rosey Lee. In this follow-up to the 2024 novel “The Gardins of Edin,” this stand-alone romance novel returns to the fictional South Georgia town of Edin where the four Gardin women hold sway from their family compound. During matriarch Naomi’s nuptials, her niece Martha receives a proposal of her own from a well-to-do man about town. But challenges emerge that threaten to derail the marriage. (Waterbrook, out now)

Credit: Gallery Books

Credit: Gallery Books

“The Violet Hour” by Victoria Benton Frank. Violet Adams is the sweet, polite youngest child in a family of assertive women living in Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina. Having recently endured a romantic breakup and a tragedy, she’s struggling to regain her footing. But she’s determined to turn things around with the aid of her influencer friend, a newcomer to the South who’s also experienced a tragedy. (Gallery Books, Aug. 12)

Credit: Bantam

Credit: Bantam

“Love You to Death” by Christina Dotson. Best friends Kayla and Zorie are living lives that haven’t panned out as they had hoped. To compensate, they crash strangers’ weddings and steal the cash and gifts, which they pawn for money. But when a heist goes wrong, they go on the lam, and Kayla begins to question how well she really knows Zorie. (Bantam, July 22)

Suzanne Van Atten is a book critic and contributing editor to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She may be reached at Suzanne.VanAtten@ajc.com.