As the summer heats up across the country our brains begin to melt.  Okay, maybe that is a little dramatic but I know that as the thermometer rises my desire to tax my brain wanes.  I suppose this is where the term Beach Read developed.  I like this description by about.com, “A good beach book is engaging and quick enough read that you can finish most of it before your sunscreen wears off”.  With that in mind the July Swagbucks Book Club selection is Can You Keep a Secret? by London born author Sophie Kinsella.

Synopsis

Emma is sitting on a turbulent plane. She’s always been a v. nervous flyer. She really thinks that this could be her last moment. So, naturally enough, she starts telling the man sitting next to her – quite a dishy American, but she’s too frightened to notice -all her innermost secrets. How she scans the backs of intellectual books and pretends she’s read them. How she does her hair up like Princess Leia in her bedroom. How she’s not sure if she has a G-spot, and whether her boyfriend could find it anyway. How she feels like a fraud at work – everyone uses the word ‘operational’ all the time but she hasn’t a clue what it means. How the coffee at work is horrible. How she once threw a troublesome client file in the bin. If ever there was a bare soul, it’s hers.

She survives the flight, of course, and the next morning the famous founding boss of the whole mega corporation she works for is coming for a look at the UK branch. As he walks around, Emma looks up and realizes…

It’s the man from the plane.

What will he do with her secrets? He knows them all – but she doesn’t know a single one of his. Or… does she?

Publishers Weekly writes, “Backstabbing office shenanigans, competition, scandal, love and sex…. Kinsella’s down-to-earth protagonist is sure to have readers sympathizing and doubled over in laughter.” Please join us Friday July 27th when we discuss this title. Can You Keep a Secret? is available in the Swag Store as Kindle edition or you can put those Amazon Gift Cards or Barnes & Noble Gift Cards to use.  Or check your local library.

For today’s discussion I want to know if you purposely choose a lighter read when you go on vacation and if so, what is your favorite?  Do you have certain books that you associate with past vacations?  For me, every time I hear about Steven King’s Christine I’m immediately transported back to a family road trip in the mid-’80s to Myrtle Beach, SC where my brother and I shared the same copy of the book.  Not only was the book so engrossing that I didn’t want to put it down, if I did, I never knew when I might get it back.  I still look fondly on that vacation and that book as they went hand in hand.  What are your favorite Beach Reads?

-Becky