Tessa Bailey & More Authors Reveal Their Beach Bag Books for Summer

'Little House on the Prairie' Stars Share the Major Way the Show Stayed True to the Books

Belle Burden is no stranger to a good book.

In fact, the best-selling memoirist has quite a few that will serve as main characters within her beach bag this summer.

“I do think the number one book on the Amazon list is a must read for everybody: Kin,” the Strangers author told E! News in an exclusive interview at Amazon Books’ Literary Lounge event celebrating Amazon’s Best Books of the Year So Far. “It absolutely should be. I think that could be the book that you have to read. And then the other one is Famesick, which I now am reading for the second time, by Lena Dunham. I highly recommend that.”

As for Kin author Tayari Jones herself, she’s found the perfect hack for summertime literature.

“I like a little crime in the summer, I don't know what it is about the summer, but it just makes you open to crime,” she told E!. “I just finished the new Tana French [book], The Searcher—amazing. I loved it. I also read a book called Where the Wildflowers Grow, and I was really touched by that book. I wasn't expecting to be touched in the way that I was.”

But beyond Terah Shelton Harris’ new novel, she also admitted to being captivated by Imani Thompson’s debut.

“I also just finished an odd book called Honey,” Jones added. “It's like dark academia, and it's set in the U.K., and I read it while I was just there, and—the whole time I was reading it, I was thinking, ‘This is so strange,’ yet I cannot put it down.”

And while some authors like Jones like to put their detective on during this time of year, others such as Tessa Bailey have a different kind of due process—especially in the world of romance.

Jeremy Chan Photography/Getty Images

“I'm reading The Missed Connection by Tia Williams right now,” Bailey explained, “and it's a banger. Everything she writes is amazing, just like heartfelt, clever.”

So, she was more than ready to book a ticket to Williams’ most recent release.

“It's a really great concept about this connection that happens on an airplane,” the It Happened One Summer author shared, “and then she's trying to track down the guy that she had this connection with, so she reaches out to her friend via email about tracking this guy down, but actually accidentally cc’s the entire company, and it becomes a quest.”

As Bailey summed up, “It's a lot of fun.”

“That's what I recommend to everybody,” she explained, adding, “I don't know what I don't know what I'm going to read next.”

However, the answer was just a page turn away: “I have Strangers by Belle Burden in my bag.”

For a closer look at even more books being released this summer, keep reading…

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