In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume. Okay, I haven’t read it. It just came out. But it’s Judy, and we know it’ll be good for the beach! UPDATE - I read it! You should, too, if you like a beach book. It kept me perfectly engaged through two long flights and a ferry ride. Most of the novel is set during a short period in the early 1950s when three planes crashed into the city of Elizabeth, NJ. There are multiple points of view, but the protagonist is a teenager, Miri, so we get a good dose of Judy Blume doing what she does best - creating likeable teenage characters. I loved Miri - she copes. It's not as "beachy" as Summer Sisters, but only in that it's not set on a beach. It has other attributes of a good beach book - nicely written, propulsive movement (no pun intended) well drawn characters. Synopsis: “In 1987, Miri Ammerman returns to her hometown of Elizabeth, New Jersey, to attend a commemoration of the worst year of her life. Thirty-five years earlier, when Miri was fifteen, and in love for the first time, a succession of airplanes fell from the sky, leaving a community reeling. Against this backdrop of actual events that Blume experienced in the early 1950s, when airline travel was new and exciting and everyone dreamed of going somewhere, she paints a vivid portrait of a particular time and place—Nat King Cole singing “Unforgettable,” Elizabeth Taylor haircuts, young (and not-so-young) love, explosive friendships, A-bomb hysteria, rumors of Communist threat. And a young journalist who makes his name reporting tragedy. Through it all, one generation reminds another that life goes on.”
