Blue design of layered, wavy shapes to imitate the appearance of water. Blue-scaled covers of the books mentioned later in this post float on the waves and yellow text at the top reads: “6 Beach Reads;” while white text at the bottom reads: “for nature lovers.”
Yellow background with two book covers. The first cover is for “Gray Lady and the Birds” by Mabel Osgood Wright published in 1907. The faded cover features the illustration of three birds (or a sequence of one bird) flying over trees and into the distance. The title is printed in yellow at the top of the cover; the author is printed in the bottom-right just above the treeline.
The second cover is for “London Parks and Gardens” by Alicia Amherst (or Mrs. Evelyn Cecil) published in 1907 with Illustrations by Lady Victoria Manners. The embroidered cover features the title, author, and illustrator at the top-right with a row of flowers each springing from their own blossom at the bottom of the page.
Yellow background with two book covers. The first book cover is for the original imprinting of “The Sea Around Us” by Rachel L. Carson (1951). The cover is green with sea creatures surrounding a darker area in the center where the book title and author are written in white.
The second book cover is for the 70th Anniversary edition of “Gift from the Sea” by Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1955). The cover is light blue but fades to white in the center where there is the outline of a conch shell and the title printed under; the author is listed at the top of the cover.
Yellow background with two book covers. The first cover is for Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s “Theory of Water: Nishnaabe Maps to the Times Ahead” (2025). The art consists of water-colored dots that flow across the cover. The title is printed in blue amid a white circle in the middle of the cover, and the author’s name is printed at the top in white.
The second cover is for “Margins: A Naturalist Meets Long Island Sound” by Mary Parker Buckles (1997). It is white with a skinny-outlined box that surrounds all of the cover’s contents. In the box is the title and author printed in skinny, underlined text and an image of fishing nets set in the water at sunset.
Find yourself by the water this summer? Here are six different writings on waterways, shorelines, and the critters you might find in their sands or skies.
This post is inspired by the scholarship of Susan A.C. Rosen, editor of Shorewords: A Collection of American Women’s Coastal Writings (2003)
📚💙
