What do you con­sid­er a beach read? For us, it’s what­ev­er sto­ry is cap­ti­vat­ing us at a par­tic­u­lar moment. And this sum­mer, there is no short­age of propul­sive reads to fill your E‑Reader or tote bag! Below are eleven high­lights, but you can keep up with our full list of book reviews here. From thrilling lit­er­ary escapes, to thought­ful Amer­i­can his­to­ries, to explo­rative mem­oirs, get ready to beat the heat with these cool books.

Olive Days by Jes­si­ca Eli­she­va Emerson

The Singer Sis­ters by Sarah Seltzer

Klara’s Truth by Susan Weiss­bach Friedman

Long Island Com­pro­mise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

Feh: A Mem­oir by Shalom Auslander

Simona is the Jew­ish Book Coun­cil’s man­ag­ing edi­tor of dig­i­tal con­tent and mar­ket­ing. She grad­u­at­ed from Sarah Lawrence Col­lege with a con­cen­tra­tion in Eng­lish and His­to­ry and stud­ied abroad in India and Eng­land. Pri­or to the JBC she worked at Oxford Uni­ver­si­ty Press. Her writ­ing has been fea­tured in LilithThe Nor­mal School, Dig­ging through the Fat, and oth­er pub­li­ca­tions. She holds an MFA in fic­tion from The New School.