For Beach Beauties

Queen of Babble in the Big City

By Meg Cabot

The “Queen of Chick Lit” Meg Cabot brings more misadventures of Lizzie Nichols to the bookshelves just in time for whiling away the lazy summer days on a chaise lounge, cocktail in hand. This time, it seems Lizzie is living the sweet life—cohabitation with her summer fling in his mother’s luxurious Fifth Avenue apartment. As receptionist at a posh law firm, Lizzie is comfortably getting by, that is, until her notorious big mouth starts getting her into a bit of trouble. It isn’t long before she ends up jobless and homeless and thick in the struggle to find career security and a committed relationship. William Morrow, 320 pages, June 2007

For World Travelers

Shadow of the Silk Road

by Colin Thubron

Few can beat the adventurous spirit found in Colin Thubron, and his books have inspired more than one world journey. Traveling third-class the entire way, Thubron follows the course of the ancient network of trade routes connecting central China with the Mediterranean Coast in his latest travel epic. Thubron extracts poetic images from crowded railroad cars, rattle-trap buses, crummy inns and offbeat encounters with locals during his traverse along the Silk Road, truly illuminating the essence of travel. (For the full review, turn to page 24.) HarperCollins, 384 pages, July 2007

For Homebodies

Nixon and Kissinger: Partners in Power

By Robert Dallek

If staying at home curled up with an intellectually stimulating book is your idea of the ideal vacation, Robert Dallek's newest title is for you. Using his unprecedented access to historical resources, including transcriptions of telephone conversations and Oval Office discussions, Dallek here analyzes the often troubled partnership of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger. Dallek reveals how both men suffered from profound insecurities and were resentful of criticism and challenges. He shows the reader important material that will change any previous perceptions of Nixon and Kissinger—the man Dallek deems “a kind of co-president.” Penguin Books, 752 pages, June 2007

For the Young and Restless

My Revolutions

By Hari Kunzru

If you have wanderlust, "My Revolutions" will be a great read on the road. Bringing to life the post-’68 generation's radical idealism along with the darker currents which ran beneath it, this is a story of one man’s unraveling present due to his hidden past. Unknown to his partner and step-daughter, Mike Frame has been living under another name since the revolutionary struggle of the 1970s. Now, suddenly haunted by the ghosts of a dead ex-lover and an old friend, Frame can no longer ignore the contradiction between his past and present self. Hamish Hamilton Ltd, 288 pages, August 2007

compiled by Whitney Rosenberg