It's the Summer of the ‘Beach Bag Biography.” Here Are 8 to Pack for Your Next Getaway

Hallemann’s new dual biography traces the legacies and intertwining histories of two dynasties over several generations. From Princess Diana and Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy to JFK Jr. and Prince Harry, the book looks at the parallels between the Windsors and Kennedys, their personal dramas and how they swung into each others’ orbits, the course of which wrote history.

If you love true crime, then Pamela Colloff’s thrilling murder saga excavation—which takes place against the beachy backdrop of the Gulf Coast, no less. In riveting detail, she traces the con work of Paul Skalnik, whose brash, bold—but apocryphal—exaggerations made him a go-to state witness. This emboldens him to commit other crimes, including murder, while framing others while he walks free. Colloff’s book stems from reporting she did in partnership with Pro Publica and the New York Times Magazine, shining a light on the truth behind what has been called a “remorseless, brilliant liar made lethal.”

I’m a little art history nerd, and one of my favorite paintings is Post-Impressionist painter Paul Gaugain’s Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?. In this highly acclaimed (a “best of” winner from The New York Times, Vogue, The New Yorker and more), Sue Prideaux attempts to right the artist’s scandalous reputation, revealing a complex, misunderstood man underneath the lore. The one who would go on to influence Van Gogh, Matisse and Picasso eschewed the glitter of Paris for the island of Tahiti, where he spent his short life using his art to condemn French colonialism.

Susannah Cahalan’s account of Rosemary Woodruff Leary has all the trappings of a beach bag biography. It’s about a beatnik and psychonaut, a woman who sacrificed her own legacy to preserve her psychedelic high priest husband’s, revealing the work Leary did behind the scenes that shaped the culture’s discourse around LSD.

I, like many others, best know Josephine Baker for her legacy as a performer, captivating audiences in the City of Light. There is, however, a forgotten and compelling part of her story. During World War II, Baker became a spy for the French Secret Service, served in the French Air Force and even worked in counterintelligence during the Allied landings in North Africa. Josephine Baker’s Secret War is a dramatic account of how a woman of color thrived in a predominantly white male space, using her star power to work across France, Spain, Portugal, North Africa and the Middle East.

Unlike Josephine Baker, Mahalia Jackson has lived in historical obscurity—until now. Co-authors Timothy Tyson and Mary Williams trace the life of the greatest gospel singer of all time, one who sang for four American presidents and whose song, “Moving On Up a Little Higher” sold 8 million copies. The duo also dive into Jackson’s prominent role in the Civil Rights Movement as they start with her impoverished childhood, ascent to fame and performance at the 1963 March on Washington.

I’m obsessed with classic rock, and The Rolling Stones always make my summer playlist. In this whopping 700-page biography, journalist and pop culture biographer Bob Spritz delivers the result of five years’ worth of research that offers a fresh perspective on the legendary band. It examines the established narrative of one of the most successful music groups of all time and dives into the band’s relationships with each other as they rose to fame.

For his seminal biography on James Baldwin, Nicholas Boggs was a recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award, and it’s easy to see why. In this first major biography on the writer in three decades, readers crisscross the globe: Harlem, Paris, Switzerland, the southern United States, Istanbul, Africa and the South of France, framed by the major relationships in Baldwin’s life. We meet his mentor, Black American Painter Beauford Delaney; his lover and muse, Swiss painter Lucien Happersberger and collaborators like Turkish actor Engin Cezzar and French artist Yoran Cazac, the last of whom is also considered Baldwin’s last great love.