( Oprah ) -- Kick back — there 's a reason they call them beach reads . `` Seating Arrangements '' by Maggie Shipstead . Winn Van Meter has everything an affluent person could hope for : a devoted wife of almost 30 years , two daughters , a privileged life in Connecticut , and a summer home on Waskeke — a fictional island resembling Nantucket . Despite his comforts , Winn suffers from a typical midlife dissatisfaction : `` He had almost everything he could think to want , and yet still ambivalence bleached his world to an anemic pallor . '' Maggie Shipstead 's `` Seating Arrangements '' is a whip-smart and engaging debut novel , set on Waskeke over the course of three days . Winn 's oldest daughter , Daphne , is pregnant and getting married . His youngest daughter is lovelorn and mourning a recent abortion . Strong personalities clash as Winn struggles with his long-burning attraction to one of Daphne 's gorgeous and wildly flirtatious bridesmaids , Agatha , as his marriage grows stale . `` He could not be sure that he had ever been in love with Biddy , or with anyone for that matter , but Biddy was the woman he had felt the most for . '' Shipstead observes the absurdity of the upper class in Winn 's trivial anxieties ; he 's incensed that he was n't invited to join an elite golf club , and he carries on a rivalry with another island couple . This is the best kind of smart beach read : a book that expertly examines social life with heart and wit . Oprah.com : 20 romantic reads . `` Heading Out to Wonderful '' by Robert Goolrick . `` Heading Out to Wonderful '' — about a drifter who takes up with the wife of the richest man in small-town Virginia — is by `` A Reliable Wife '' author Robert Goolrick , which means it 's deliciously dark and dangerous . Oprah.com : 7 books that will take you on an inner journey . `` Calling Invisible Women '' by Jeanne Ray . When Clover Hobart , 50-something wife and mother of two , notices after her morning shower that she ca n't see her reflection in the bathroom mirror , she assumes she 's had a stroke . But when neither her husband nor her grown son notices anything out of the ordinary , Clover realizes she 's become exactly what she often feels : overlooked . Jeanne Ray 's newest novel , `` Calling Invisible Women , '' tells the humorous , touching story of how Clover reclaims her sense of self . Over the years , her once-thriving journalism career has shrunk to a weekly gardening column , and she 's filled her days walking the dog , getting dinner on the table and being a pediatrician 's dutiful wife . But after she `` disappears , '' she finds a support group of women all suffering from the same baffling disorder . Emboldened by this sisterhood and the freedom her condition gives her , Clover sees `` a whole world of beauty and injustice I had never dared to notice before . '' Stripping off her clothes to go undetected , she becomes a sort of superhero : punishing bullies on the school bus , halting bank robberies , preventing her son from getting a tattoo — not to mention reigniting her career as an investigative journalist . Invisibility is hardly a subtle metaphor . But Ray argues persuasively that going undercover has its benefits . Oprah.com : 9 lessons from the fictional women we 've always wanted to be . `` Imperfect Bliss '' by Susan Fales-Hill . `` Imperfect Bliss '' is Susan Fales-Hill 's sitcom-ish tale of a mixed-race family obsessed with British royalty ( the four daughters are all named for Windsors ) and what happens when a very American reality show comes to town . Oprah.com : Jodi Picoult 's rules for life . `` The Hypnotist 's Love Story '' by Liane Moriarty . Patrick may be the best boyfriend Ellen , the protagonist of Liane Moriarty 's `` The Hypnotist 's Love Story , '' has ever had . If only women from his past did n't keep getting in the way . First there 's former-girlfriend-turned-stalker Saskia . She 's not `` Fatal Attraction '' scary — when she breaks into Ellen 's house all she does is bake biscuits ( that turn out to be delicious ! ) . Still , she puts Patrick in the worst mood . Next there 's Patrick 's eternally young and beautiful wife , who `` had to go and die before she had time to get boring or annoying . '' How is an ordinary hypnotherapist to cope with this sort of competition ? You do n't have to be a psychic to figure out that love ( eventually ) will find a way . Oprah.com : 6 page-turners you 'll tear through . `` Gone '' by Cathi Hanauer . Beautiful , complicated , and often funny , Cathi Hanauer 's `` Gone '' asks the question many long-marrieds barely dare to contemplate : What would you do if your husband left to drive the babysitter home and just never came back ? Oprah.com : O 's 2012 summer reading list . Subscribe to O , The Oprah Magazine for up to 75 % off the newsstand price . That 's like getting 18 issues FREE . Subscribe now ! TM & © 2011 Harpo Productions , Inc. All Rights Reserved .
`` Seating Arrangements '' is about love and family on a Nantucket-like island . In `` Calling Invisible Women '' a former journalist becomes empowered again . Love finds a way despite tragedy in `` The Hypnotist 's Love Story '' Cathi Hanauer 's `` Gone '' is beautiful , complicated and often funny .