Fiction Picks for Your Mental Getaway

Fresh Air | By Maureen Corrigan

Published May 19, 2008 at 10:38 AM EDT

There are beach books full of sun and cotton candy and beach books dappled with shadow and sardonic humor. The very different beach books I'm about to recommend, however, all have one thing in common: They carry a reader far beyond the familiar. So, even if you can't afford a beach vacation in this summer of recession and sky-high gas prices, you can still revel in these mental getaways.

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Maureen Corrigan

Maureen Corrigan, book critic for NPR's Fresh Air, is The Nicky and Jamie Grant Distinguished Professor of the Practice in Literary Criticism at Georgetown University. She is an associate editor of and contributor to Mystery and Suspense Writers (Scribner) and the winner of the 1999 Edgar Award for Criticism, presented by the Mystery Writers of America. In 2019, Corrigan was awarded the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing by the National Book Critics Circle.

See stories by Maureen Corrigan