HotelChatter

The titles are rotated every quarter, with a new batch just hitting shelves before the holidays. Here’s what you can pick up to read poolside right now:

* Impatient With Desire, by Gabrielle Burton
* The Kitchen House, by Kathleen Grissom
* One Amazing Thing, by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
* The Information Officer, by Mark Mills
* Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, by Helen Simonson
* Noah’s Compass, by Anne Tyler

The books’ backdrops range from pioneer days in California and a quaint English village to the island of Malta after WWII and the dreary outskirts of Baltimore. Frankly, all very serious and important sounding. Given Las Ventanas’s pretty beach location, we wouldn’t mind if they loosened up this lineup with a few trashy thrillers or potboilers to go with our Margaritas.

You can’t take the books with you when you check-out, but read all six titles and you’ll have enough posh-party conversation to get you through the holidays. These books don’t hit stores until January through March, so you’ll sound like quite the insider—and have something to brag about other than your tan.