I do enough heavy reading professionally – when I read for pleasure, I’m looking for a good novel, or very entertaining non-fiction. These five are guaranteed beach, holiday, or plane reading:

My Fundamentalist Education: A Memoir of a Divine Girlhood, by Christine Rosen
Black Swan Green: A Novel, by David Mitchell
Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise, by Ruth Reichl
The History of Love: A Novel, by Nicole Krauss
My Losing Season, by Pat Conroy