Great beach reads on audiobook for summer 2021
Summer is well underway, and this season's best beach reads are heating up best-seller lists. However, not everyone prefers black-and-white print format, especially now, when so many talented voice-over actors have entered the book-narration landscape. Hence the beauty of audiobooks.
Not sure what to listen to while sunbathing on the beach, driving long hours on a road trip to your summer vacation, taking a solo hike in the mountains, puttering in your own back garden, lounging in a backyard hammock or working the grill? CBS Essentials has sourced out some of the hottest audiobooks of the moment in every type of genre -- political thriller , sci-fi, romance and memoir included.
An added bonus? All are available on Amazon, and also Audible, so you can use your credits to listen.
"The Other Black Girl"
Zakiya Dalila Harris' debut novel is one of this summer's hottest thrillers, generating tons of buzz. An "immersive, genre-bending debut," per The New York Times, and an Amazon editors' pick as a best book of June 2021, "The Other Black Girl" is inspired by the author's own experience in publishing. At 26, Nella is the only Black woman at a top publishing house -- until glamorous Hazel-May McCall waltzes in. The two become fast friends, until she realizes her new confidante is not who she seems, threatening more than Nella's career.
"Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood"
Danny Trejo's life story is just as compelling and unbelievable as some of the characters he has played in his blockbuster film career. "Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood," chronicles the actor's extraordinary life, which involves stints in San Quentin, a brutal battle with addiction, a harrowing and inspiring journey to recovery and an accidental rise to fame. The read is action-packed and inspiring. What makes the audiobook even more entertaining: the spirited narration of Trejo himself, along with fellow actor (and co-author) Donal Logue.
"That Summer"
Jennifer Weiner is one of the reigning queens of beach reads. Her 2021 release, "That Summer," doesn't disappoint. Suburban housewife Daisy Shoemaker starts getting mysterious emails directed at a woman named Diana Starling. Starling's life as a single woman -- glamorous and powerful, running a huge corporation -- is drastically different from Shoemaker's. The two develop a friendship, but their supposedly accidental connection isn't quite what it seems, and Shoemaker must learn who Starling really is and what she wants. Sutton Foster of "Younger" fame narrates.
"Golden Girl"
Elin Hilderbrand, another reigning beach-read queen, brings us back to the coastal town of Nantucket, this time to chronicle the life and death of author Vivian Howe. After she is hit by a car, Howe ascends to Beyond, where she is granted a last gift: She can watch her family from above for one final summer. She is also given three chances to change the outcome of what happens down on earth. Considering that her three children are all immersed in their own life dramas, and her final, unfinished manuscript reveals a childhood secret that could alter her reputation, Howe must use these chances carefully.
"The Last Thing He Told Me"
In Laura Dave's latest mystery, "The Last Thing He Told Me," Hannah Hall's husband goes missing. The man leaves only a note, asking Hall to take care of his teenage daughter, Bailey, who wants little to do with her stepmother. As the two scramble to find out what happened to the man they love, they are confronted with the shocking and heartbreaking reality that he isn't who he seems. Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine production company snapped up the rights to the book several months prior to publication; Apple TV+ will air it, and Julia Roberts has signed on to play the lead.
"Project Hail Mary"
Andy Weir ("The Martian) penned this sci-fi beach read. Ryland Grace is a middle school teacher-turned-astronaut who wakes up in a spaceship with no recollection of who he is or why he is floating in outer space. Flashbacks leading up to the launch of the Hail Mary spacecraft help him remember why he is 12 light years from Earth -- and some details of his greater mission. "Project Hail Mary" will, natch, soon come to the big screen, with Ryan Gosling signed on to play the lead.
"The President's Daughter"
Former President Bill Clinton and best-selling author James Patterson team up for their second White House-centric political thriller, a "highly entertaining book" per The New York Times. President Matthew Keating's teenage daughter is kidnapped by terrorists. After the U.S. government refuses to help recover her, Keating, an ex-Navy SEAL, goes rogue, assembling his own team of SEALs and Secret Service agents. With plenty of details chronicling the inner workings of government, courtesy of Clinton, and Patterson's page-turning prose, the story has already established itself as a New York Times best seller.
"The Chosen and the Beautiful"
F. Scott Fitzgerald fans might like this reinvisioned version of "The Great Gatsby." In the American literature masterpiece, Jordan Baker is a white southerner with a somewhat minor role as a love interest of narrator Nick Carroway. In "The Chosen and the Beautiful," she is the narrator. She is also a queer Vietnamese adoptee, and while she is just as priviliged, educated and sophisticated as her peers of the swinging 1920s, she faces racial discrimination and homophobia. This coming-of-age tale is "jazzier" than the original, per The Washington Post, and has a whimsical twist -- Jordan can also perform magic.
"Malibu Rising"
Taylor Jenkins Reed started her career in film production, so it's no surprise that her books read like movies. In "Malibu Rising," her latest novel, the author brings us back to 1983 and the glamorous beaches of Malibu, California, where the rock-royalty Riva family is throwing an annual summer bash. But this year's party turns out to be more of a rager than ever; a wildfire sparks a serious twist. The fate of the four Riva children isn't revealed until the end of this audiobook, narrated by fellow author and actress Julia Whelan.
"The Guncle"
"The Guncle" gets its name from protagonist Patrick, a struggling actor and gay uncle to a beloved neice and nephew. When tragedy strikes, his role as the fun GUP (gay uncle Patrick) gets majorly upgraded to full-time caretaker. "Rowley's depth and humor will warm even the most jaded hearts," The Washington Post said of the "feel-good" novel. The audiobook is narrated by the author, Steven Rowley.
