Beach Reads That Stand Up to Sand, Salt and SPF

There was a time not long ago when you could stroll down a beach and get ideas for your next book: Sunbathers held hardcovers in their hands; swimmers left paperbacks facedown on towels. The shoreline was an open-air bookstore window, a browsing bonanza that led straight to borrowing or buying your next read. Of course you’d have to pick up an ice cream cone on this expedition, and maybe a pound of fudge.

Books on screens have certain perks — you don’t need to put on shoes before buying one, for instance — but they also dial down literary voyeurism at the beach (or the pool or lake or wherever you sprawl on hot days).

Spare yourself the squinting this summer. Odds are, one of these novels will be glowing from a screen near you — or better yet, appearing in the flesh, its cover visible for all to see.

Take me to an island!

If you entered all the beach read ingredients into A.I., it might spit out a lesser version of Michael Callahan’s hearty chowder of a story, THE LOST LETTERS FROM MARTHA’S VINEYARD (Mariner, 304 pp., $30). The recipe includes a pair of sisters, a stash of mysterious correspondence, a charming seaside cottage, a generous dollop of old Hollywood glamour and a sexy fisherman who turns out to be secretly wealthy.

Like many of its seaworthy forebears, “The Lost Letters” chugs along on two timelines. On one, we have Kit, a junior television producer who stumbles into the scoop of a lifetime while cleaning out her grandmother’s house; on the other, there’s Mercy Welles, a rising starlet who dropped out of moviemaking as quickly as she arrived. It was easy enough to figure out how the women’s paths would converge, and I’ll admit a slight bias toward Mercy’s story. If you’re looking for a quick jaunt to Martha’s Vineyard, here’s your ticket.