Redefining the Beach Read

When Caryn Karmatz Rudy heads for the beach, she eschews the kind of lightweight read that's typically thought of as a "beach book." Caryn thinks beach books should be the opposite of the plot-driven page-turner we've come to see on a regular basis on publishers' summer lists.

"To me a beach read is something that's got a lot of heft to it," says Rudy. "What is a summer read? It's something meaty, because you have time to absorb a book." What better for those long hours of leisure than a book you can really dig into?