It’s summertime—finally!—and you’re heading out on holiday. The tickets are booked, the car’s in great shape, the cruise plans are sorted or the hiking trails are all mapped out. But, wait! Have you chosen the perfect book to take along on your vacation? If not, no worries, because we have some great suggestions for you. Whether you’ll be road tripping through the U.S. or backpacking around Europe or just sitting on your butt on a white beach somewhere (lucky you), we have some strong opinions about the reading materials you should bring along on your journey. Read on, Macduff.

1. Family Beach Holiday. A lazy vacation on the beach requires a book that doesn’t require you to think too much, but instead entertains and maybe pulls on the heartstrings. Gerald Durrell’s My Family and Other Animals is a perfect beach read. When the unconventional Durrell family can no longer endure the damp, gray English climate, they do what any sensible family would do: sell their house and relocate to the sunny Greek isle of Corfu. What follows is a funny, heartwarming account of the family’s quirky experiences with the other inhabitants of the island—not all of them human. Told with wit, humor and beautiful detail, this book will have you chuckling as you sip your fruity beach drink. … //READ MORE

Designers are throwing the book at the latest fashion accessories.

People will be hanging on your every word when they notice you bouncing around town or showing up to your next book club gathering wearing one of these literature-inspired fashions. Try a sassy purse like one that might have swayed from Daisy Buchanan’s wrist, a wise-ass tote that would make Holden Caulfield smirk, or writing gloves worthy of a Jane Austen heroine. Whether you love the classics, swoon over epic romances, or find sci-fi out of this world, there’s a novel accessory for you this season. … //READ MORE

When it comes to love, sex, marriage and motherhood, French women say relax. And we Americans should listen, according to Debra Ollivier’s bestseller What French Women Know, a witty examination of the French feminine mystique.

For generations, the world has known that French ladies are sophisticated and confident, sassy and sensual, and can rock a bustier like nobody’s business. But what we may not have noticed, says Ollivier, is that their views on relationships are in some ways strikingly different from American women’s, so much so that French females are able to enjoy life exponentially more than we are. Surprise, surprise.

Now, Ollivier, an American who has lived and raised children in Paris, is not saying French women are perfect. She is simply suggesting that we … //READ MORE

Gabriel García Márquez, the Nobel Prize-winning author of One Hundred Years of Solitude and Love in the Time of Cholera, died last week at 87. The Colombian writer helped to popularize “magical realism,” a genre of fiction writing in which “the fantastic and the realistic are combined in a richly composed world of imagination,” as the Nobel committee described it in 1982. Here, in honor of the writer’s memory, 10 thought-provoking quotes from his works and interviews.

1. “What matters in life is not what happens to you, but what you remember and how you remember it.” —One Hundred Years of Solitude

2. “She discovered with great delight that one does not love one’s children just because they are one’s children, but because of the friendship formed while raising them.” —Love in the Time of Cholera … //READ MORE

There they were, two of the most formidable women in America, sitting side by side on the stage of Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco: Arianna Huffington, president and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group, and her friend Sheryl Sandberg, chief operating officer of Facebook. The media mavens united for this much-anticipated Commonwealth Club INFORUM event March 27 to discuss Huffington’s new book, Thrive, a heartfelt, inspirational read that poses an important question: How can women redefine success, not only in order to lead healthier, more productive lives, but also to change the world for the better?

For Huffington, that topic literally hit her hard one day in 2007 when she collapsed in her office, struck her head on her desk and ended up with a slashed eye and broken cheekbone. She saw several doctors to find out why she had fainted, but none could find anything medically wrong. But the reality was, during the two years leading up to the incident she had been working 24/7 building her new business, the Huffington Post. Yes, she had achieved success as defined by the traditional measures—money and power—but there was something missing. “There was nothing wrong with me—just with the way I was living my life,” she said. “Believe me, if you are lying in a pool of blood in your office … //READ MORE

A few months back I was in the place where every avid reader finds herself at some point in time. I had just read Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl and didn’t know anyone else who had (OK, I was a little late in the game, as I had been reading nothing but non-fiction for three years!). The point is, I was alone and bereft in my Gillian-loving world—and wanting more than anything to discuss the book with someone equally enthralled. As far as I was concerned, reading this novel was the most seismic, thought-provoking, mind-blowing experience I had ever had (aside from a recent relocation to a new country, a major career change, and a reluctant parting with 25 pairs of my favorite shoes), and no one knew what I was going on about.

So I did the obvious thing: I started an online book club. And that has turned out to be the best thing I have done in the past year (aside from changing careers and shifting across timelines). I now have my very own group of book-obsessed, wacky cohorts who are reading the same fiction and non-fiction as I am and can’t wait to let it all hang out—both on the book page, and together even when there is no book discussion. Of course, what makes my book club—or any book club for that matter—both fun and addictive are the group dynamics. If you make sure you have these six types of women represented in your club, you are … //READ MORE