My Favorite Beach Read 2023
A couple of weeks ago, I was chatting with a friend over text when she sent over these words:
“This has been my favorite ‘beach read’ this summer—sending the link.”
I love texts like this. So I hopped onto my Libro account and listened to the audiobook sample and thought, “Hm, I wonder if I even need a beach read this summer—I’m not going on a beach vacation and I’m kind of too busy, plus it might be kind of sappy, but. . . “ But something about the book stayed with me. I kept thinking about it. So, when my audio credit became available the next week, I bought it, and once I started listening, I couldn’t stop. I took extra long walks just so I could finish one more chapter. I jumped at the chance to do all the camp drop-offs and pick-ups just so I could keep listening.
It quickly became more than a beach read—maybe even the best, most impactful book I’ve read this summer. (Which is a weird thing to say about a novel, *said the non-fiction-loving lady who writes about life-changing books every Friday morning*) I’ll have to let you know what I decide about its life-changing qualities when I finish listening to it a second time. Getting right on that.
Here it is—Same Time Next Summer by Annabel Monaghan
I won’t spoil it for you, in case you’re interested in reading it yourself. But I will tell you this—it’s a story about a woman who woke up one day and found herself with a choice between her wild, wonderful, authentic self and the self everyone expected her to be, and she made a brave decision.
Admittedly, I’m an empathic reader. I often find my moods swinging in all sorts of directions based on the books I’m reading (which may be why I never read horror or murder mysteries, now that I think about it). Also, I’m a sucker for beach house tales and high school sweetheart stories. Probably because I come from a long line of beach house-loving folks and I got really lucky in the high school sweetheart department and consider myself having lived inside one of the best love stories of all time for the past 25 years or so.
But I said I was going to write about the books that have been important to me—and the ones that are redefining my life in real-time.
So, here we are. This is one of those books.
Actually, I’ve already found myself doing a few “authentic me” things since finishing it
(& may have seemed a little crazy to a few of my family members in the process).
1— Last weekend, I went deep in conversation with that high school sweetheart of mine about what kind of work life and family life I really, truly want to create over the next months and years, and we committed to making a few changes.
2— I let the tears flow freely every time my boys hugged me last week, not holding back one single bit of the emotion I was feeling. (One of them is leaving for college in a couple of weeks, so there are a lot more emotions around here than usual.)
3— Last Friday, I got a campsite at my very favorite oceanfront campground down the street from my house and took myself on a spur-of-the-moment solo camping trip. When my family dropped me off, I pulled the “forced family fun” card and made s’mores over a campfire with my teenagers before sending them home for the night with their dad.
I sat by the ocean and watched the sun go down.
I pitched my tent right by the shore.
I hung a hammock just for me.
I forgot my hairbrush and let my hair go wild.
I woke up a million times in the middle of the night and hiked from my tent to the bathhouse.
I got completely quiet for the first time in months.
I heard my soul’s song.
I loved every minute.
The next morning, after packing up my campsite, I wrote a little POV (Point of View) page in my journal.
Which later became a fun little photo record of my trip on the ‘gram⤵
You hear about an ocean-front campsite available for the night and put your name on it.
You run to the garage and quickly throw your tent, sleeping bag, and paddleboard in the car.
You make a quick dinner for your people, scarf it down, and throw the dishes in the dishwasher as you all head out the door.
Five minutes later, you’re on the campsite together, building a fire, pitching a tent, making s’mores.
After sunset, your partner takes the kids home and you sit by the ocean until darkness falls, doing absolutely nothing.
Just thinking.
Just being.
You spend all night snoozing in the tent watching the night sky through the net roof, listening to the sound of the ocean kissing the shore as the tide does its thing.
In the morning, you grab your mug and walk to the campground coffee spot and sit on the porch for an hour chatting with an old friend.
Then, you pack up your tent, roll up your sleeping bag, and grab your board for a quick paddle before it hits you — You’re in a dream moment and you want to savor it.
So you put down your board, pull out your moleskin, and write about it.
In just a few minutes, your partner will be back to pick you up. He’ll probably make a joke or tell you about something at home that needs fixing or a bill that needs paying, and the dream moment will have passed.
But it happened.
And you’ll never forget it.
This weekend, I’m pretty sure I won’t be going on any spur-of-the-moment camping trips (although, who knows? Anything can happen). But thanks to this little book and my friend who suggested it, I bet I’ll still be trying to live as my true self and making room to feed my wild heart a little bit of wonder.
I hope you will, too.
💛
& hey —
If you have a book recommendation you’d like to share, by all means, please send it over!
➸ You can send me an email and tell me about it.
➸ If you have an old copy lying around, you can send it to my PO Box (the one I opened this week just for book friends—grab the address from the bottom of any of my Friday morning emails sent on or after 7/28/2023! Just make sure you tell the post office you’re sending it “MEDIA MAIL”, the cheapest way I know of to send books through the mail)
➸ Or, if you’re feeling especially generous, you can go to my “buy me a book” page and put a few dollars in my book fund with the title of the book you want me to purchase.