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What a great opening! Well done.

My all-time-favoritest-beach-books-ever are the Mitford books by Jan Karon!
They are so funny, heart rending and romantic...all at the same time. Whenever I pick one up and thumb through it, I'm transported back to a shady spot at the edge of the bay with the gulf breeze blowing through my hair. Father Tim is a hoot!

I also love Francis Mayes' books, "Under the Tuscan Sun" and "Bella Tuscany".
The couple buys an old villa in Tuscany and this is a journal of their travails in trying to restore it. Hilarious. The second book is about their travels around and getting to know Italy. Warning: YOU WILL WANT TO LEAVE FOR ITALY IMMEDIATELY! Her writing style is marvelous...."languid" comes to mind. Perfect hammock book.

Lastly, I love any of Sharon Kay Penman's earlier novels about Wales. ("The Sunne in Splendour"..."Here Be Dragons")
Best historical fiction I've ever read. You won't be able to put them down.

Thanks, daisyscarlett. I'm in a good mood already this morning just thinking about all these good books!

Good Morning...Guess now we know why you were so anxious to get to Italy. Is that on your itinerary for your upcoming European jaunt? I have a friend who is about to make her third trip in five years to Italy. She just glows when she tells of her trips there.

I think I will take a look at the Mitford series. I love "funny" books....especially for the beach and/or vacation.

If you like historical fiction,I'd like to point you at a series that you may not have heard of,until now.

For some years,Fred Saberhagen has been writing(albeit at a very slow pace-a book every 3 years is the approximate rate) a very interesting series with Count Dracula as the protagonist. There's a twist-Count Dracula is telling his side of the story,and he's the good guy,although not exactly the nice guy.

That makes for an interesting perspective,and Saberhagen is one heck of a good writer. Several of the books are also pretty good historical fiction-well researched,too. The series starts with The Dracula Tape,and goes on from there-head for the library and treat yourself!

The Mitford books are nice because they tell a good story with good character development, without the need to resort to vulgarity or sleaze. I guess that sounds kind of corny nowadays, but I sure didn't feel I was missing anything because there were no F-bombs or steamy sex scenes.

The house we rented for our Outer Banks vacation several weeks ago had a ton of books, and I read so many I can't even remember them, but given the choice, I'd pick a comfy chair and a stack of Ruth Rendell mysteries and suspense novels.