Top Ten Tuesday

TTT – Summer Means Swimming!

By on • ( 31 Comments )

If you’re in the Northern Hemisphere like me, we’re heading into the long, hot days of summer. This week’s prompt is a summer-themed freebie, and my all-time favorite thing about any summer ever was the chance to go swimming. It didn’t matter whether it was a pool, a lake, or the ocean, all I wanted to do was swim. So for this week, I’m going to list my ten favorite books featuring water on the cover.

  1. That Weekend by Kara Thomas. Taking place at a lakeside cabin, this should involve plenty of swimming and fun. But if that was all that was occurring, this wouldn’t be a very good mystery.
  2. My Name is Emilia del Valle by Isabel Allende. The main character of this story does plenty of traveling, and her visit to Chile during a civil war involved plenty of sea travel. Plus, the story was amazing.
  3. The Night We Lost Him by Laura Dave. Set in a world of the people who make enough money to be called a magnate, this story takes place at the cliffside home of the patriarch of the family, and was a fantastic mystery.
  4. These Deathless Shores by P.H. Low. Set in a reimagining of the Peter Pan story, the magical land where they grew up is surrounded by water and I really loved the way the story was written.
  5. Salt Water by Katy Hays. Traveling vicariously through books has allowed this story to take me to the glamorous and rich side of Capri, a place I probably won’t get to experience in such luxury.
  6. The Lies of Alma Blackwell by Amanda Glaze. In this book, there are drownings that occur, so this isn’t an ideal swimming spot, but if it wasn’t for the paranormal element of the story, it wouldn’t be as good.
  7. Daughter of the Merciful Deep by Leslye Penelope. This magical realism historical fiction was a magnificent introduction to the Black towns that were flooded to create dams.
  8. Every Time I Go on Vacation Someone Dies by Catherine Mack. A fun cozy mystery, this book actually involves swimming in Italy. This book also features a murder, which isn’t ideal when searching for swimming spots.
  9. Across So Many Seas by Ruth Behar. A middle grade story about a Sephardic Jewish family in diaspora, this book involves ocean travel, but since I live on an island, the ocean has always been prime swimming opportunity (because I never had a pool).
  10. The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon. Okay, so this is not a body of water that I would like to swim in, but there’s just something so gorgeous about this cover.

Have you read any of these? What is your favorite place to swim?

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31 replies »

  1. We used to have one of those small “above ground” pools that you’d put up each summer and it was one of my most favorite things to enjoy when it got hot! I haven’t swam for a while now, but there’s really nothing like lounging in a pool when it gets so warm. 🙂

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    • I absolutely loved swimming and never got to have a pool. So I did a lot of swimming in the ocean, but I was so jealous of people with a pool. Okay, I still am. There’s nothing like a swim on a hot day.

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    • My fondest memories as a kid were in a pool – I still love to go swimming every chance I get, which isn’t very often anymore. But I’m hoping to get in a pool at least once this summer. Hope you’re staying warm!

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  8. I loved The Frozen River! Ariel Lawhon’s books are great. I’ve got a few book covers featuring water today as well. My favorite place to swim has to be Hawaii – everything about Hawaii is gorgeous.

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    • It was such a great book! Now I’ll have to check out her other books. And I got to visit Hawaii when my nephew was stationed there, and somehow in the whole two weeks, I never went swimming or set foot on a beach. Looks like I’ll have to go back just to swim, and you won’t hear any complaints from me.

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  9. Salt Water sounds so good! That Weekend does as well.

    Swimming in the summer is such a big summer memory for me as well. I loved swimming as a kid, and getting in the pool as often as I could. I didn’t have a pool but we went to public pools a lot.

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    • I think you’d like those books a lot.

      I was absolutely thrilled to go to the public pool too – it was often my only chance to swim unless we were at someone else’s house. My mom’s bestie had an absolutely gorgeous, inground pool with a huge boulder as the diving board, which kept me busy and out of the adults hair.

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  10. I have a pool, so summer is all about swimming and water play. I try and get in the pool everyday to exercise as well. I have read Everytime I Go on Vacation and The Frozen River, both great books.

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    • I love how we have such different taste in book genres and still manage to find overlap. And I’m so jealous of you and regular pool access. Pool exercise is so good for you, I love this for you but I’m still jealous. 😂

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      • I have always had a pool except the first few years of my marriage. When my dad passed, mom put a pool in the yard because she couldn’t afford nor had the time to take us to the local pool. I got hooked, swam on the swim team at school and when we went looking for houses, told my real estate agent it had to have a pool. I pretty much get in every day once it is open.

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    • Thanks! I figure a pool is a must in the summer. I’m already struggling and it hasn’t even hit the 80s here. Luckily it doesn’t usually go too much higher than that in NY. Perks of living on an island.

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