For better or worse, the beach book is the Rodney Dangerfield of publishing. It gets no respect.

But Patrik Henry Bass says that, despite their bad rap, we shouldn’t be ashamed of diving into and savoring the fluffiest of literary concoctions. The senior editor for Essence magazine, and a lover of a wide variety of genres, Patrik says there are loads of delicious beach books hitting shelves right now – and that we don’t necessarily have to respect them to enjoy them.

Patrik's top five picks for the season (as well as two bonus suggesions) are after the jump.