Matt and LoAnn's beach reads: editorial director Matthew Link and associate editor LoAnn Halden continue their Freaky Friday gender-psyche swap with a reading list to accompany this issue's "Year of Island-Hopping" feature. (Really, they both just want to be Oprah.).

MATT'S LESBIAN BEACH READS

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Weight by Jeanette Winterson--pack for Mykonos. The Greek isle is a perfect place to carry Weight, a retelling of the myth of Atlas and Heracles from this ferociously witty lesbian writer.

What Night Brings by Carla Trujillo-pack for Fernando de Noronha. Add some Latin drama on a trip to these Brazilian isles with a plot that pits a feisty lesbian against her brutish father.

Among Other Things, I've Taken Up Smoking by Aoibheann Sweeney--pack for Salt Spring Island. This debut novel about a budding lesbian raised on an isolated isle dodges coming-out cliches.

Noise of Infinite Lonqing by Luisita Lopez Torregrosa-pack for Puerto Rico. A haunting, heartbreaking memoir from the out New York Times editor about her upbringing in San Juan.

Margaret Mead Made Me Gay: Personal Essays, Public Ideas by Esther Newton and Bill Leap-pack for Samoa. Explore the queer missing link between Mead's 1953 sexuality study Coming of Age in Samoa and modern times with this collection from a butch feminist anthropologist.

Trace Elements of Random Tea Parties by Felicia Luna Lemus--pack for Curacao. Her hip Latina take on relationships, folklore, and family ties complements the multicultural mix of Curacao.

LOANN'S GAY BEACH READS

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Palimpsest: A Memoir by Gore Vidal--pack for Martha's Vineyard. Take this out traveler's gossipy tome to this celeb-studded isle to soak up his reminiscences of the Kennedys.

Riders in the Chariot by Patrick White--pack for Tasmania. A sharp critique of Down Under suburbia from the gay author, the only Australian to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Dancer From the Dance by Andrew Holleran--pack for Ibiza. After hitting the island's clubs, recover on the beach with the vivid party-loving protagonists of this bittersweet gay classic.

The Book of Salt by Monique Truong-pack for Reunion. On this French-speaking island, savor this saga of a gay Vietnamese cook employed in Paris by Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas.

The Beginning of Calamities by Tom House--pack for Malta. A worthy foil to Malta's entrenched Catholicism, this book's queer star, an 11-year-old with a Christ complex, will resonate with every gay man raised in the church.

Fraud by David Rakoff--pack for Phuket. Laugh your way around the globe from America to Phuket with gay humorist David Rakoff, whose fish-out-of-water essay collection includes stops at home and abroad.