Short and Sweet Beach Reads

A warm and wonderfully vivid novel about taking second chances — in life and in the sea. Set against the intoxicating backdrop of palm trees, calypso bands, and perfect ocean views, The Shark Club is a story of the mysterious passions of one woman’s life: Her first love and new love; the sea and the sharks that inhabit it.

304 pages

An “eviscerating” (The New York Times) novel about being a wife, a mother, and an artist, and how marriage makes liars of us all — from the author of Very Cold People and 300 Arguments. Liars is a tour de force of wit and rage, telling the blistering story of a marriage as it burns to the ground, and of a woman rising inexorably from its ashes.

272 pages

Two women haunted by their sisters’ unsolved disappearances band together in this captivating mystery from the author of All Good People Here and host of the #1 true crime podcast Crime Junkie.

288 pages

In this dazzling debut, Jemimah Wei explores the formation and dissolution of family bonds in a story of ambition and sisterhood in turn-of-the-millennium Singapore.

368 pages

From the author of The Bride Test comes a heartwarming and refreshing debut novel that proves one thing: There’s not enough data in the world to predict what will make your heart tick.

352 pages

A young woman and her lover are marooned on an island in this “lushly painted” (People) historical epic of love, faith, and defiance from the bestselling author of Sam. Inspired by the real life of a 16th-century heroine, Isola is the timeless story of a woman fighting for survival.

384 pages

A passionate vice principal and a guarded science teacher compete for a grand prize, only to realize their budding relationship might be the real jackpot.

320 pages

Follow the seashell path along Tokyo Bay until you get to the Chibineko Kitchen, where a traditional Japanese meal can summon anyone you choose from your past, but only for as long as it continues to steam … — for fans of Before the Coffee Gets Cold, The Midnight Library, and Studio Ghibli films like Spirited Away.

244 pages

From a dazzling new talent, the story of a newly divorced young mother forced to reckon with the secrets of her own childhood when she brings her daughters back to the big house where she was raised. Warm and generous, unflinchingly human, and ultimately joyful and empowering, Sleep is about the cycles of motherhood and childhood, the cost of secrets, and the burden of love, and what’s on the other side of silence: The world, rich in possibility.

272 pages

Normal People is the story of mutual fascination, friendship, and love. It takes us from that first conversation to the years beyond, in the company of two people who try to stay apart but find that they can’t.

304 pages

In this remarkable and harrowing debut novel, three extraordinary women —  a mother, her daughter, and their maid — are each forced on a journey of survival during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong in World War II. At once monumental and intimate, When Sleeping Women Wake powerfully explores how ordinary people are capable of extraordinary things, and the unwavering hope that love can carry us through even the darkest of times.

352 pages