Big Summer Beach Reads

“I think that [summer reads are] what we think about when we think about the beach . . a departure from the routine, from the workday, from the whole home life, from whatever art normal is . . . I just want to be transported. I want to be away from my normal daily reading.”

“As publishing evolves, as we evolve . . . We now have more African-American beach reads, you know, both hardcover and trade paperback. [The advice I give] on making characters is . . . to make them as flesh and blood as possible, to really make the reader care about the characters. And that’s where the talent of the author comes in.”

“For me personally, I’m looking for something that’s going to . . . get me away from all the angst and strife and hate. It doesn’t matter to me if it’s going to be a fantasy, science fiction, an adventure story, a memoir or a mystery, just something that will replenish my soul and lift my spirits.”

“To me, nothing’s more romantic than books and paper and the smell of bookstores . . . that in of itself is romantic. The way [writers] can make the most mundane, you know, incident so beautiful. That’s what books do. That’s what authors do. And I feel like, too, writers in love lends itself to high romance.”