When your mind needs a vacation from your vacation
Explore our sea shelves for stunning beach and island themed titles, as well as great classics and new arrivals.
Our Top Reads
Beach
Beach Read by Emily Henry
A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters.
People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.
Under the Gulf Coast Sun by Skip Rhudy *Local Author*
Kassie Hernandez visits Port Aransas, Texas in 1978 before heading to college determined that nothing will stop her from one day working at NASA.
There she meets surfer Connor O’Reilly, and they can’t keep their hands off each other. The inexperienced couple navigates their feelings and passions, struggle through conflict and jealousy against a backdrop of wild parties, epic surf sessions, and family dynamics that have formed their most sensitive vulnerabilities.
#BookTok
The Butcher by Jennifer Hillier
A thriller set in Seattle, revolving around the infamous Beacon Hill Butcher: a serial killer who terrorized the city until shot by Police Chief Edward Shank in 1985.
Now in his 8, retired chief Shank is struggling with age and loneliness. He decides to leave his grand Victorian house to his grandson, Matt, who is eager to start fresh. While renovating the backyard, he unearths a locked crate. Unable to resist, he picks the lock and makes a horrific discovery that will change his life forever.
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
Texas, 1934. Millions are out of work and a drought has broken the Great Plains. Farmers are fighting to keep their land and their livelihoods as the crops are failing, the water is drying up, and dust threatens to bury them all. One of the darkest periods of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl era, has arrived with a vengeance.
In this uncertain and dangerous time, Elsa Martinelli must make an agonizing choice: fight for the land she loves or go west, to California, in search of a better life.
One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune
I never anticipated Charlie Florek.
Charlie Florek was nineteen when Alice took his photo from afar. Now he’s all grown up—a shameless flirt, who manages to make Nan laugh and Alice long to be seventeen again, when life was simpler, when taking pictures was just for fun. Sun-slanted days and warm nights out on the lake with Charlie are a balm for Alice’s soul, but when she looks up and sees his piercing green gaze directly on her, she begins to worry for her heart.
Mystery/Thriller
Botanist's Guide to Parties and Poisons, A by Kate Khavari
Newly minted research assistant Saffron Everleigh is determined to blaze a new trail at the University College London, but with her colleagues’ beliefs about women’s academic inabilities and not-so-subtle hints that her deceased father’s reputation paved her way into the botany department, she feels stymied at every turn.
While at a school dinner party, she expects to engage in conversations about the university's expedition to the Amazon, not for Mrs. Henry to be poisoned by an unknown toxin...
Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano
When Finlay is overheard discussing the plot of her new suspense novel with her agent over lunch, she’s mistaken for a contract killer, and inadvertently accepts an offer to dispose of a problem husband in order to make ends meet . . . Soon, Finlay discovers that crime in real life is a lot more difficult than its fictional counterpart, as she becomes tangled in a real-life murder investigation.
Tenant, The by Freida McFadden
There’s no place like home…
Blake Porter is riding high, until he's not. Fired abruptly from his job as a VP of marketing and unable to make the mortgage payments on the new brownstone that he shares with his fiancee, he's desperate to make ends meet.
Enter Whitney. Beautiful, charming, down-to-earth, and looking for a room to rent. She's exactly what Blake's looking for. Or is she?
Fantasy
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
The apocalypse will be televised!
A man. His ex-girlfriend's cat. A sadistic game show unlike anything in the universe: a dungeon crawl where survival depends on killing your prey in the most entertaining way possible.
You can't just survive here. You gotta survive big.
They call it Dungeon Crawler World. But for Carl, it's anything but a game.
Pony Confidential by Christina Lynch
In this one-of-a-kind mystery with heart and humor, a hilariously grumpy pony must save the only human he’s ever loved after discovering she stands accused of a murder he knows she didn’t commit.
Sirens, The by Emilia Hart
A story of sisters separated by hundreds of years but bound together in more ways than they can imagine.
A breathtaking tale of female resilience, The Sirens is an extraordinary novel that captures the sheer power of sisterhood and the indefinable magic of the sea.
Romance
Love Haters, The by Katherine Center
It’s a thin line between love and love-hating.
Katie Vaughn has been burned by love in the past—now she may be lighting her career on fire. She has two choices: wait to get laid off from her job as a video producer or take a career-making gig profiling Tom “Hutch” Hutcheson, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer in Key West.
The catch? Katie’s not exactly qualified. She can’t swim—but fakes it that she can.
Plus: Cole is Hutch’s brother. And they don’t get along.
Next stop paradise!
The Newcomer by Mary Kay Andrews
When Letty's sister is murdered, she's certain the prime suspect is Evan Wingfield, the sleazy ex with shady dealings and a temper.
With her four-year-old niece, Maya, in-tow, Letty hits the road, determined to outrun Evan and the law. As she settles into a mom-and-pop motel in Florida, she tries to unravel her sister's shady past all while dodging the attention of the owner's dangerously attractive, police detective son.
Can Letty find romance and the truth, or will she end up behind bars?
Say You'll Remember Me by Abby Jimenez
There might be no such thing as a perfect guy, but Xavier Rush comes disastrously close. After one incredible and seemingly endless date, Samantha is forced to admit the truth that any kind of relationship would be impossible. Samantha begs Xavier to forget her. To remember their night together as a perfect moment. Only no amount of distance or time is nearly enough to forget that something between them. And the only thing better than one single perfect memory is to make a life worth remembering
Historical Fiction
Anita de Monte Laughs Last by Xochitl Gonzalez
A mesmerizing novel about a first-generation Ivy League student who uncovers the genius work of a female artist decades after her suspicious death.
Moving back and forth through time and told from the perspectives of both women, Anita de Monte Laughs Last is a propulsive, witty examination of power, love, and art, daring to ask who gets to be remembered and who is left behind in the rarefied world of the elite.
Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid
An epic new novel set against the backdrop of the 1980s Space Shuttle program about the extraordinary lengths we go to live and love beyond our limits.
A passionate and soaring story about the transformative power of love, this time among the stars.
The Eights by Joanna Miller
They knew they were changing history.
They didn't know they would change each other.
Oxford, 1920. For the first time in its 1000-year history, the world's most famous university has admitted female students. Giddy with dreams of equality, education and emancipation, four young women move into neighbouring rooms. Beatrice, Dora, Marianne and Otto (collectively known as The Eights) have come here from all walks of life, and they are thrown into an unlikely, life-affirming friendship.
Self-Help
Change the Recipe: Because You Can't Build a Better World Without Breaking
A collection of chef José Andrés' most affecting and powerful life lessons: hard-won wisdom from a man who has dedicated his life to changing the world through the power of food.
Fifth Agreement, The by Don Miguel Ruiz & Don Jose Ruiz
The Four Agreements provides the foundation for breaking thousands of agreements that create needless suffering.
With The Fifth Agreement you recover all the power of your authenticity, which is who you really are when you are born.
Life is a Lazy Susan of Sh*t Sandwiches by Jennifer Welch & Angie Sullivan
Angie and Jennifer open up about the most personal moments that shaped their worldviews, sharpened their humor and inspired the “hopeful cynicism” that underpins their I’ve Had It podcast. From infidelity, addiction and sobriety to economic instability, struggles with self-worth and brushes with fame, they've seen it all, and they're here to help guide readers on their own journeys, showing us how we too can center our lives around humor, hope and connection and let go of the rest.
Non-Fiction
Surfer Stories by Claudia Lebenthal
Surfer Stories is an unrivaled collection of unique, revealing, and intimate stories about twelve of the world’s greatest surfers.
Each surfer’s story is told by a different writer—fellow surfers, famed authors, celebrities, musicians, and surf journalists—who shares a passion for surfing. Surfer Stories offers an insightful perspective on the life of each surfer, both in and out of the water.
Never Caught by Erica Armstrong Dunbar
A startling and eye-opening look into America’s First Family, Never Caught is the powerful narrative of Ona Judge, George and Martha Washington’s runaway slave who risked it all to escape the nation’s capital and reach freedom.
Impeccably researched, historian Erica Armstrong Dunbar weaves a powerful tale and offers fascinating new scholarship on how one young woman risked it all to gain freedom from the famous founding father.
Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder by David Grann (Eng & Spa)
A grand tale of human behavior at the extremes told by one of our greatest nonfiction writers. Grann's recreation of the hidden world on a British warship rivals the work of Patrick O'Brian, his portrayal of the castaways' desperate straits stands up to the classics of survival writing such as The Endurance, and his account of the court martial has the savvy of a Scott Turow thriller. As always with Grann's work, the incredible twists of the narrative hold the reader spellbound.
Children's
A to Sea by Kirsti Scott
This softbound book is filled with sea glass art designs created with surf-tumbled pieces of beach glass. Each letter in the alphabet is represented by a sea glass mosaic. The mosaics in the book are animals and images from the shore. Great for new moms, babies, or anyone who loves the beach!
Read a Bug a Book by Alexia Lopez
Join Luke on a week of exciting adventures with his favorite bug friends as they jump into stories and fly into tales.
Seashells by the Seashore by Mariannne Berkes
Discover twelve kinds of seashells in this beautifully illustrated, rhyming and counting book for kids! Perfect for a trip to the beach, the classroom, and a gift for a granddaughter or grandson. Includes two full-page tear-out sheets of all twelve kinds of shells for kids to take with them.
Children's Chapter Books
Plain Jane and the Mermaid by Ver Brosgol
Jane is incredibly plain. Everyone says so: her parents, the villagers, and her horrible cousin who kicks her out of her own house. Determined to get some semblance of independence, Jane prepares to propose to the princely Peter, who might just say yes to get away from his father. It’s a good plan!
Or it would’ve been, if he wasn’t kidnapped by a mermaid.
Shark Night by R.L. Stine
After an accident with the original diver, Carlo finds himself alone in a giant water tank holding a camera. A twenty-foot-long hammerhead shark is about to be lowered into the tank with him... But Carlo is still paralyzed with fear, and as the shark is lowered into the tank he realizes something isn’t right …
They sent down the WRONG shark!
Caterpillar Summer by Gillian McDunn
Cat has been the glue holding her family together.
But even the strongest glue sometimes struggles to hold. When a summer trip doesn't go according to plan, Cat and Chicken end up spending three weeks with grandparents they never knew. For the first time in years, Cat has the opportunity to be a kid again, and the journey she takes shows that even the most broken or strained relationships can be healed if people take the time to walk in one another's shoes.
Hundreds of titles available in-store. Stop in and browse the sea shelves.
Not in Port Aransas?
That's okay! Enter the desired title in the search bar below to purchase items online through BOOKSHOP.ORG.
Every purchase financially supports your favorite indie bookstore, Sea Shelves by the Seashore.