While books are not inherently gendered, the beach-read genre tends to be dominated by romantic comedies and smutty love affairs. No, there’s no shelf called “summer reads for guys” at the bookstore, but that doesn’t mean the genre doesn’t exist.
The way I see it, the best beach reads contain the following things: They’re plot-driven and easy to read; you don’t want to put it down, but when you do, you can pick up exactly where you left off; and, perhaps most importantly, the world is all-consuming and different from your own. The books on this list are precisely that. There are short-story collections, engrossing fiction, and decidedly not-boring memoirs that will keep you entertained for the rest of the summer. Plus, they’re all titles you won’t be embarrassed to pull out of your beach bag—because, let’s face it, although you shouldn’t judge a book (or a reader) by its cover, we all do.
Read all these? Try the 50 books every guy should read before he’s 50.
