The best books for your vacation in 2026
“Mom, you buy a lot of books and then never read them.” My daughter is right. A little. Because I buy them and keep them, until the vacation. Until now. Because when we are in the rat race of life, it is usually just a bit easier to binge-watch a series than to find the peace to pick up a book. We are currently significantly reducing our screen time and increasing our reading time.
Curating is key when it comes to reading books, because nothing is more annoying than lugging around a thick book that ends up being labeled “tedious and boring.” So here are my tips that you definitely won't find stupid.
1. Bringing Home the Birkin – Michael Tonello
Not a literary masterpiece, but according to my daughters and me, one of the most enjoyable books we've ever read. I always keep a few copies of this book at home to give as gifts because I just know that ‘women like me’ will love this book. It’s about a makeup artist who moves from America to Barcelona. Once there, he has just signed a lease for a year when he hears that his job is not going to happen after all. To make some money, he starts selling clothes. He has little closet space and doesn’t need his warm winter clothes in Barcelona. Among his belongings is also a Hermès scarf, and when he sells that, it marks the start of a business in Hermès. He bluffs his way from boutique to boutique and ends up in a world of the rich and famous and finds true love.
2. Strangers – Belle Burden
Belle is with her husband and two daughters at their vacation home in Martha’s Vineyard to make the corona period somewhat bearable. In New York, where they live, it is too dangerous, and their vacation home with the large garden is the perfect place to work and let their daughters learn. One evening, which seems quite pleasant under the circumstances, her husband has grilled meat on the barbecue, she has cooked, and the fireplace is burning, she receives a call from a number she doesn’t know. She doesn’t answer, but listens to her voicemail. “I’m looking for Belle,” it says. “My wife is having an affair with your husband.”
A true story about the consequences of a divorce, financially, emotionally, but also socially, and about Belle's resurrection. Really beautifully written. Gwyneth Paltrow is going to adapt it into a film, but definitely read this book first, because it is a gem.
3. All the Blue of the Sky – Melissa Da Costa
Emile, a young man of 26, receives the verdict of early Alzheimer's and decides that he does not want to end up between the four walls of a hospital room for clinical research that may help science, but will not prolong or improve his life. He places an ad looking for a travel companion willing to accompany him, for an indefinite time and until his death. Joanne, the only person who responds, turns out to carry her own immeasurable sorrow. A beautiful story, despite its thickness you will only want to put it down when it’s finished.
4. When Women Ran Fifth Avenue – Julie Satow
The American department store was a palace of glitter and glamour where women could claim their own space. Hortense Odlum, Dorothy Shaver, and Geraldine Stutz took risks, broke conventions, and turned these places into a playground for female ambition. From housewife to CEO, from Paris copies to original American designs, they set the tone for the fashion world. Julie Satow dives into When Women Ran Fifth Avenue and shows how these women transformed the department store into a mecca for all ages and ambitions. The book reveals the glitter, the dramas, and the clever strategies behind these centers of consumption. I must say: I haven’t read this book yet, but it’s waiting for me at home and I’m really looking forward to it.
5. The Christie Affair – Nina de Gramont
Did you know that Agatha Christie, the famous detective writer, was missing for eleven days during her life and that this is related to her husband's mistress and their affair? Well, that mistress has written a book and Reese Witherspoon praises it on the back cover, and I was captivated when I started flipping through it while standing, waiting for my husband and daughters.
In 1925, Nan O'Dea infiltrated the rich, exclusive world of author Agatha Christie and her husband Archie. She became part of their lives, in every way. First of both of theirs, later only of Archie’s. Soon, Nan became Archie’s mistress and lured him away from his devoted wife, hoping to marry him.
Nan didn’t devise her plan on the day she met Archie and Agatha. It had taken shape years earlier, in Ireland, when she was still a young girl. Nan and her beloved seemed destined to be together, but fate was not kind to them. The Great War, a pandemic, and slanderous secrets drove them apart. After that, they remained separated by unspeakable horrors. Why does someone commit murder? How far is someone willing to go in the name of love? What kind of crime is unforgivable? In this novel by Nina de Gramont, these and many other questions are explored, and I am just intensely curious about the story behind Agatha Christie.
