Guest post by author Lauren Ho
Lauren Ho is a reformed legal counsel who now prefers to write for pleasure. Hailing from Malaysia, she is currently based in Singapore, where she’s ostensibly working on her next novel while attempting to parent. Her first novel, Last Tang Standing, was a critically acclaimed debut, but her mother still wishes Lauren went to medical school.
Her second novel Lucie Yi Is Not A Romantic is out June 21 and is available at your local indie or here. Follow her on Instagram, TikTok, or Twitter here: @HelloLaurenHo.
I love me a good, old-fashioned listicle, especially a bookish one in time for the hottest (at least in the Northern Hemisphere) quarter of the year: who has time to read chunky blocks of words when you’re zipping out to soak up the precious sun, a cold brew in one hand and aviators in another? Not you! Certainly not me either, but then again I live in the tropics, and we’re blasé about the sun. What we yearn for instead is the sweet embrace of snow, gently enveloping all the mosquitoes around us in slow, horrible, unpreventable deaths.
Anyway, where was I? Yes, for all of you anticipating summer, here’s my listicle, or an article craftily masquerading as a listicle, of all of my must-read beach reads, both current titles and backlisted ones, broken down by category with barely any plot details to help you out. So sue me, I’m a vibes girl. You’re welcome anyway.
THE LIST!
Transportive Contemporary Romance: Where We End and Begin by Jane Igharo: Lagos becomes a sizzling backdrop to a beautiful second-chance romance that also serves up a side helping of family drama.
‘Destroy me’ romance/women’s fiction: The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang: delicately wrought, beautifully fleshed out love story with a timely spotlight on burnout in the age of social media, and layered ASD rep.
Contemporary fiction featuring a woman who feels trapped by her life: Fault Lines by Emily Itami: an affair in metropolitan Tokyo unfurls to shimmering prose you can snap your fingers to. Also, Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason: Funny, poignant, layered, heartbreakingly wonderful, of a woman’s (and her family’s) experience of an unnamed mental illness.
Contemporary fiction with a polarising lead: Milk Fed by Melissa Broder. Melissa Broder’s writing, like most port-novelists, grips. Compelling, erotic and honest, it follows a young woman obsessed with her diet who becomes smitten with a froyo scooper. Bonus: Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda: a mixed-race millennial vampire dreams of eating human food—and more.
Suspenseful general adult/Women’s fiction: At Least You Have Your Health by Madi Sinha: Shady wellness business, impressionable doctor-mom, witty dialogue, Liane-Moriarty energy and pacing.
Heart-warming Fantasy: The House On The Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune: I’ve never called a book ‘delightful’ until I read this. A cozy hug of a fantasy book.
‘Hear me Roar’ Fantasy: She Who Became The Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan: punchy, cinematic, brilliant.
‘Destroy me’ young adult romance: You’ve Reached Sam by Dustin Thao: Bring tissues and cancel your weekend.
Clever, compelling middle grade murder mystery from SE Asia: Queen of The Tiles by Hanna Alkaf: Hanna, who’s Malaysian like me, is the queen of fierce, character-driven writing. Twisty and fun, with great hijabi rep.
Folkloric middle grade from SE Asia: Mist Bound by Daryl Kho: Atmospheric, touching, richly illustrated and written, featuring folktales from this part of the world.
Funny, fun contemporary romance: The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood. Chemistry of the best kind.
General adult/women’s fiction exploring identity and culture: Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal.
Moving Bildungsroman: Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart: heartrending, utterly memorable from its first line.
Thriller, ish: Girl A by Abigail Dean: suspenseful and heart-breaking, it lingers.
Quiet, meditative fiction: Brood by Jackie Polzin: Wry observational humour, surprising, tender, with no fowl play (sorry! I couldn’t resist the pun!)
Sheer chaotic genre-bending fun: Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto. She took all my Asian auntie nightmares, added murder, and somehow made it LOL. Sorcery.
Sheer romance: Seven Days in June by Tia Williams: Exuberant, sexy, funny, and just absolutely smashing. Also, The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren.
Pure joyful, romcom escapism: Twelve Days in May by Niamh Hargan: Witty, delicious Cannes escapism. Also, On a Night like this by Lindsey Kelk: Nobody writes romcom like Lindsey.
Meta beach reads: Beach Read by Emily Henry. All the feels, all the prose, the angst, the banter.
A modern classic to cherish and re-read: The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy: prepare to have the map of your literary world re-drawn.
Bonus category (auto-read writers): Am I even Asian if I don’t throw this in? And it’s a two-fer!
Poetry: Anything by Li-Young Lee
Short story collections: Anything by George Saunders
And if you liked my listicle and want more beach reads, you could check out my debut romcom/contemporary adult fiction novel, Last Tang Standing, about a woman in her early thirties who navigates societal and familial pressures to get married while she attempts to make partner at her law firm, or my second romcom/women’s fiction novel, Lucie Yi Is Not A Romantic, which follows a woman in her late thirties who attempts to have a family her way, platonically, and the fun and fallout of that decision.
