Discover Heartfelt Summer Beach Reads About the Power of Female Friendship and Self-growth
Written by Kaelie Piscitello
The thing about books is that everyone can always find more to read! While many of the books I listed in the last article depict romance, the ones in this article explore women’s relationships with each other.
While a romance book makes a great beach read, sometimes a story about female friendship can also make an excellent subject to ponder after a nice swim.
Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
I have not started Eat Pray Love yet. However, I intend to read it before I jet off to Bali this summer. Elizabeth Gilbert explores a common theme in this book: what do I want out of life? To do this, she embarks on the trip of a lifetime to Italy, India, and Bali and learns lessons that shape how she lives.
Eat Pray Love seems like the perfect tale for a relaxing vacation (especially in any of these destinations). I’m excited to read more about these destinations because I want to visit them. I also think it will bring interesting insights into my life, and I’m excited to read it!
Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchi
I read Circle of Friends three years ago and couldn’t help but love all the characters and the spunk they bring to their story. In Circle of Friends, Eve Malone and Benny Hogan endure their teenage years together before moving to college and meeting a new group of people who will change their lives.
Binchi explores themes of trust, female friendship, and the ideas behind young people and marriage through Eve and Benny. I loved reading about the girls’ new friend, Nan, and how the three try to keep their strong bond despite their changing relationships with men when disaster strikes. Circle of Friends warms hearts and makes people reflect on their relationship choices.
Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah
Firefly Lane depicts the intricacies of friendship between women and how two friends, Kate and Tully, support each other from their youth to their forties. Firefly Lane readers grow up with the girls and become attached to the people they grow into.
This book has the perfect mix of good and hard times throughout it, and it explores what it means for a woman to choose their family over their career and vice versa, a topic near and dear to many women’s hearts. It will resonate with many women and make readers cry.
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Everyone wanted to read The Help in the early 2000s, because many famous people raved about it. However, many people my age have not read it. I did when I started high school and fell in love with the characters and their story.
More people in their 20s should read The Help because of its essential subject matter and the way the civil rights movement has impacted society decades later.
Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton
As I write this article, I’m in the middle of Everything I Know About Love, and I think it would make a great book to sit by the ocean or pool with. Dolly writes from her point of view and describes the trials and tribulations she experienced as she came of age and her desire for people to take her seriously.
This book has made me laugh and relate, especially during the first half of the book, reflecting on Dolly’s university years and early twenties. It has many parts I relate to. I loved reading the chapters where she talks about her friends making crazy decisions for stories to impress one another in the morning. It made me realize how much my friends and I have grown up recently.
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
I will always love Anne of Green Gables, one of my favorite books. The calm nostalgia of Avonlea makes it a heartwarming beach read. Anne is an endearing character I have always rooted for, and I always want to see the best happen for her. Other Green Gables characters, such as Marilla and Matthew, bring a charm and old-time feel to the story other authors have tried to match but cannot.
The Anne of Green Gables series follows Anne Shirley Cuthbert from girlhood to college and her marriage to Gilbert Blythe. All of the books make their readers feel good. However, I prefer the original, and everyone should enjoy such a light, precious book on the sand during a warm summer’s day.
Snowflower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
Snowflower and the Secret Fan is also one of my favorite books. It follows Lilly and Snowflower, laotongs, or friends bound together for life through a loving contract, as they grow up together. During their story, they experience foot binding, marry their respective husbands and experience married life as young and middle-aged women in nineteenth-century China.
Despite the girls’ deep love for one another, the friends have a misunderstanding that leads them to cut ties for a while. They must decide whether their love for each other will withstand life’s challenges.Snowflower and Lily also demonstrate female friendship and taught me the value and rarity of a lifelong friend. Their story brings a unique historical perspective to relationships among women and how they have always supported each other throughout the centuries. Lisa See’s books all have a nostalgic quality to them and beautifully depict womanhood. Every woman with a life long best friend should read this book.
