Classical summer reads: Books that will follow you home from the beach

Summer brain candy reading doesn’t have to equal smut. This is the perfect time to dive into the classics, whose charm and intrigue have withstood the test of time. 

This list is for a better kind of summer reading. It’s filled with books short enough for the season yet good enough to stay with you long after it ends.

The Little Prince By Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Most people encounter this one as children and never return to it, which is a mistake. Read as an adult, The Little Prince is not for the faint-hearted. It is about devastation, and it contains meditations on love, loss, friendship. As the story unfolds, the little prince gains perspective by taking distance. So much distance, that the little prince starts visiting other planets. It takes an hour to read and weeks to shake off. 

Lady Susan By Jane Austen 

Austen's least read and perhaps most mischievous work, the entire novel is told through letters. You are not reading a straightforward narrative so much as peeking through the characters' correspondence and piecing together the scandal yourself. Lady Susan is also Austen's most morally complicated heroine. While brilliant, Lady Susan lacks the virtue seeking aspects typical for most of Austen’s main characters in favor of survival through manipulation. Somehow, though, you come to feel empathy for her and her difficult situation. Lady Susan is unexpected from the beloved Jane Austen, but nonetheless another piece evidencing her genius. 

And Then There Were None By Agatha Christie

There are 10 strangers on an island, and there’s a killer among them. This book is Christie at her best: pure plot, pure momentum, and the kind of book that makes you miss your stop on the train. It is one of my personal favorites for those days when the goal is simply to disappear completely into a story.

Around the World in 80 Days By Jules Verne 

A gentleman makes a bet and then the racing begins. Verne offers his readers an exciting adventure filled with endless entertainment. This book is the perfect antidote to overthinking, and ideal for a long afternoon with nowhere to be. It’s even better as an audiobook during a roadtrip. 

Breakfast at Tiffany's By Truman Capote 

This is a novella — barely 100 pages — about Holly Golightly, New York, and the particular loneliness of people who are very good at performing joy. Capote writes with a precision that makes every sentence feel as if he’s talking about you or someone you know; this is precisely why it is a classic. It is glamorous and exciting, but simultaneously sad and heartbreaking.

The Great Gatsby By F. Scott Fitzgerald 

Short, perfect, and almost unbearably romantic, until rejection becomes the main plot. Fitzgerald captures something about wanting and reaching and the way the past refuses to stay there. The writing is so beautiful you want to slow down, but the story pulls you forward. 

A Good Man Is Hard to Find By Flannery O'Connor 

This is a collection of short stories, which makes it ideal for summer. You could read one story per afternoon and spend your summer deep in O’Connor’s wonderful imagination. She is the great American Catholic writer: dark, funny, brutal, and somehow full of grace. If you have never read her, start here. Once the last page is turned, you won’t be the same.

These books are timeless and worthwhile because they touch on topics that explore the best and most important things about being human and the world around us. Even the negative realities of life are presented in such charming ways that the reader almost doesn't mind being reminded of them. So where will you start? There’s no perfect order, you need only pick one up and start flipping the