I once made the mistake of bringing Sophie’s Choice with me on a beach vacation. Not that it’s a bad book, but with a perfectly blue sky overhead, the book's dark subject matter seemed totally out of synch with the lighthearted vacation mood I was going for.

Now that summer’s coming, the reading lists are starting to roll out, and I found this one by NPR’s All Things Considered commentator Alan Cheuse to be a great start to the beach-reading season. His list is a nice blend of modern and classics, fiction and poetry. You can check out the list right here. From Chekhov stories to a collection of travel tales, happy reading everyone!

And please feel free to send any of your favorite summer reads my way. I'm always looking for a good book recommendation.