by Kimberly Fisher

Want to see what I read on my last beach vacation?

Confessions of a Hostie by Danielle Hugh

A simple, fun, easy beach read about the adventures of being a flight attendant or “hostie”. Danielle’s world is filled with exotic locations, jet lag, shopping, men, celebrities, unruly passengers and a weak immune system. At least she has a fabulous wardrobe, wit and charm to keep you laughing as she travels around the world. To buy: Confessions of a Hostie: True Stories of an International Flight Attendant

Falling in Honey: How a Tiny Greek Island Stole my Heart by Jennifer Barclay 

Jennifer Barclay may seem like your typical girl: breakup. Heart break. Devastation. We have all been there. At one point she decides that she has two choices:  she can wallow or she can change. She gives herself three gifts: Freelance Fridays, the vow of celibacy and a month in Greece.

Life is Greece for Jennifer is simple and beautiful. Having drinks with the owner of a small bar in Oia, Kyriakos comments “Happiness is easy sometimes” as they relished in the blue sea below, watch the donkeys traveling up and down the hillside and admiring the terraces dotted with blue tables alongside the cliffs.

While at her new home in Greece, Jennifer lives in the present. She fills herself with the fragrance of the island as she cooks. She dines in the neighborhood cafés. She swims in the ocean on lunch breaks. Jennifer fulfills her dreams by eventually moving to a small Greek island after a devastating breakup. She prevails. She loves. Captured with beautiful words that paint a serene picture of life in Greece.  If you also want to fall in love with Greece, I highly recommend Falling in Honey: How a Tiny Greek Island Stole My Heart

A Broken Kind of Beautiful by Katie Ganshert 

A sweet novel that portraits almost over-the-hill model Ivy Clark. At age 24, the gorgeous fashion struggles with life: getting older in a cut-throat career, being the product of an affair with a father that seemed he never cared, the death of her best model friend.  She finds herself on a shoot in the small island town of Greenbriar, South Carolina in an intertwined story of love, loss, religion and prevalence trying to hold on to her career, where appearance is everything and no one cares about your broken past. In Greenbriar Ivy learns lessons in love, hope, redemption, and true beauty, redefining her beliefs to find real beauty.  A Broken Kind of Beautiful: A Novel

I Talk to Strangers: to be sure, to be sure, to be sure by Carole Chandler 

When you read “I Talk To Strangers” you are the friend that author Carole Chandler is casually having a conversation with, in her own voice, at her own speed, on her own time. She is an individual that is adventurous, kind, meditates daily and has penance for Chinese take-away when traveling.

You travel with her on a journey to Ireland, where she….talks to strangers. Not only does she talk to them, she finds some sort of positive interaction about the experience. Even with the mean tour lady on the way to Wicklow.

Carole also mentions several times that “time is an illusion”. She doesn’t wear a watch, and doesn’t ever run to catch a bus, or get stressed out about waiting for the next one.

She writes “as the mood takes her in moment” and let’s the experience be her guide. Her musings have the occasional “Yay” and other Carole musings you are sure to enjoy. To purchase: I Talk to Strangers: to be sure, to be sure, to be sure