Summer 2018 book preview: The best beach reads for vegging out

What to read if you want to veg out

It's the summer, which means it's time to relax. But relaxation does not mean a brain break — these beach reads aren't fluff, they're funny and charming tales that will lift you up and, most importantly, give you a dose of full-on escapism.

The Lido by Libby Page

This debut novel follows the most unlikely of female friendships: Between a 20-something and an 80-something. One is a longtime resident of her London neighborhood, who has just lost a job at her beloved local library. The other just moved into the neighborhood and is feeling desperately lonely. They wind up bonding over an attempt to save a historical local pool — that would be the lido — and yes, it's all just as charming as it sounds. Out July 10.

When Life Gives You Lululemons by Lauren Weisberger

Emily, the enterprising assistant from The Devil Wears Prada, is now an image consultant to the stars, and finds herself living in Greenwich, Connecticut — despite the fact that she doesn't do the suburbs. She finds a neighbor desperately in need of some crisis PR (a former supermodel who is left by her senator-husband after she is arrested for a DUI) and thus begins the next stage in Emily's life. Out June 5.

French Exit by Patrick DeWitt

White-collar crime is the milleu of choice for this outrageous family romp. A caustic older woman and her adult son — oh, and his slowly-dying cat — are forced to flee New York for Paris and escape scandal, only for things to get (hilariously) worse. Out Aug. 28.

All These Beautiful Strangers by Elizabeth Klehfoth

This book is what you get when you combine an esteemed East Coast prep school, an exclusive and secretive student society hell-bent on disruption, a high-stakes initiation process, and the still-unsolved mysterious disappearance of the beautiful wife of a real estate mogul.

The mysterious disappearance is that of Grace Fairchild, mother of All These Beautiful Strangers‘ protagonist Charlie Calloway — she vanished from the family's lake house years earlier, but the circumstances come back to haunt Charlie in present-day. Out July 18.

The High Season by Judy Blundell

Ruthie Beamish is our hero here — she's a museum director in the North Folk (that's Long Island) village of our dreams. Every summer she, along with her family, vacates their inherited beach house to make way for high-paying summer renters (it's how they afford it in the first place), and this year her temporary tenant brings along a whole lot of drama. Ruthie is forced to navigate a straying husband, a struggling teenage daughter, and a museum board full of socialites drunk on power. Out now.

From the Corner of the Oval by Beck Dorey-Stein

The author was working at a Lululemon store in Washington, D.C. when she applied to a mysterious Craigslist job posting — the next thing she knew she was hired as the newest White House stenographer for the Obama administration. She regales readers with hilarious insight into the Oval Office, the hot romance she begins with a high-level staffer, and the friendships that see her through all the drama. Out July 10.

Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman

This haunting tale from the British actress (Downton Abbey) follows newlyweds as they discover a bag of money in Bora Bora. They make an ill-fated decision to open it, and the consequences take them past the point of no return. Out July 24.

The Glitch by Elisabeth Cohen

Our heroine is Shelley Stone — think of her as Marissa Mayer or Sheryl Sandberg on steroids. She works out at 3:30 a.m., she puts sex with her husband into her Outlook calendar, she is obsessed with multivitamins. But after meeting someone with her exact same name (who also bears an uncanny resemblance to herself), she starts to wonder whether this lifestyle is causing her to lose what little grip on reality she had to begin with. Out now.