Cancer season marks the beginning of summer, the season of sun-kissed vacations, beaches and a little bit of extra leisure time. Cancers typically love to spend their season falling head over heels in love with strangers, worrying whether they are into them or not. But why not spend that precious time reading? As one of the more introverted and shy signs, Cancers will most likely truly enjoy a beach read or two.
Stories that Cancers go for have to be emotionally intelligent, honest, insightful and complex. They like a great sob story as well as a generic cheesy romance.
10 Love: Normal People By Sally Rooney
Sally Rooney's second novel, Normal People, took the world by the storm. Most people know the story from the television adaptation. Even though the series and the cast is absolutely marvelous, the books is still well-worth a read.
Normal People is a compelling story about love, heartbreak and the things left unsaid. Sally Rooney's style is light, yet perceptive. It captures the complexities of young love and a twin flame relationship with refreshing originality. As one of the most emotional Zodiac signs, Cancers will definitely eat this novel up in a day or two.
9 Hate: Adultery By Paulo Coelho
Paulo Coelho's works are generally a perfect fit for the beach. They're short, easy to read and on top of it all, they (try to) teach readers how to be a better human. Adultery might seem like a great book suggestion for Cancers, since it is introspective, intimate and tackles the emotional storm of a bored married woman. It's the hurried and shallow execution that just won't cut it for water signs - it's more a fit for air and fire signs.
8 Love: Love Life By Zeruya Shalev
Good luck trying to put this book down, Cancers. It is raw, desperate and unsettling - everything that love can often feel like for Cancers. Yaara, a young woman with a promising academic career and a reliable partner, finds herself in a psychologically twisted affair with her father's childhood friend, Aryeh. From the very first time they met, Aryeh is well aware of the power he has over our Cancer-like heroine. Her obsession with him is irrational, intense, dark: just how water signs like it.
7 Hate: Tropic Of Cancer By Henry Miller
Since the title of the book is named after an astronomical concept that Lana Del Rey (who is one of the most famous Cancers out there) paid tribute to in her heart-wrenching song Tomorrow Never Came, many late-June and July babies might find themselves compelled to give Tropic of Cancer a go on the beach.
However, this incredibly demanding masterpiece is by no means an easy read and the content would sooner soothe a soul of an air sign rather than a beach-dwelling Cancer.
6 Love: Little Fires Everywhere By Celeste Ng
Another novel that inspired an equally amazing TV adaptation is Little Fires Everywhere. Its gripping story about family relationships and close-knit communities makes for the perfect beach read.
Of all the Zodiac signs, Cancers are generally the most attached to their homes, mothers and roots. Since this novel first and foremost tackles the issues of parenthood, Cancers are definitely going to feel compelled to finish it within a day or two.
5 Hate: Frenchman's Creek By Daphne Du Maurier
Otherwise hyped as a wonderful beach read, Frenchman's Creek is probably going to leave Cancers feeling indifferent and mildly impressed at best. The main character is Lady Dona, an English woman who is not easy to like: she's selfish and treats her servants and family poorly. She runs off on an adventure with a Robin-Hood-like pirate who, predictably, she falls madly in love with.
If that sounds a little bit like Elizabeth Turner from Pirates of the Caribbean, it's because it kind of is like that. Best leave books about spontaneous adventures and travels to Sagittariuses!
4 Love: Troubling Love By Elena Ferrante
Elena Ferrante is a insightful Italian author with an eloquent, yet dramatic writing style that makes for the perfect beach read. Troubling Love is about an intense mother-daughter relationship, spiced with brutally honest depictions of Naples and abusive men.
The story begins with Dalia's mother drowning in the sea. What follows is a feverish search for truth, a journey into the dark parts of the human psyche and a whole lot of descriptions of the surrounding scenery.
3 Hate: A Farewell To Arms By Ernest Hemingway
Hemingway's most famous work would make for a great companion on a 3-day retreat at the seaside if it wasn't for its dry and rather boring narrative. It reads slow and easily, yet it lacks depth that Cancers crave for. The story itself could otherwise intrigue a sensitive Cancer: it's about love and survival in a war-torn country.
This novel certainly didn't age well. Not only is Hemingway's English unimaginative, he is also sexist and portrays women as some sort of one-dimensional stock characters.
2 Love: My Favorite Half-Night Stand By Christina Lauren
As Cancers are so intuitive and emotional, dating can be a bane of their lives. This light-hearted fun read will surely soothe their soul. My Favorite Half-Night Stand is a predictable, witty and clever chick-flick about two friends, Millie and Reid. After they hook up, they agree not to tell anyone, but the plot thickens when Millie, under an unrecognizable username, matches Reid on a dating app and the two fall in love. A light meditation on friendship and vulnerability, this novel is the perfect beach read.
1 Hate: Slaughterhouse-Five By Kurt Vonnegut
Objectively speaking, Slaughterhouse-Five is witty, imaginative and absolutely wacky, but that won't charm vacationing Cancers. This is a chaotic Sci-Fi/pacifist story about PTSD, a topic that Kurt Vonnegut tackles with a little too much humor and superficiality for a typical Cancer to enjoy. Pragmatic Earth signs might get a good laugh out of it, but water signs generally prefer something that has to do with personal relationships rather than a societal commentary on war and capitalism.