I have a hard time committing to a book on the beach—mostly because I can’t seem to stay awake for more than 20 minutes at a time when I’m lying next to a large body of water.

So summer vacation, for me, means time to catch up on all those long magazine features and profiles I bookmarked but never got around to reading. This week, for your beachside reading pleasure and mine, here are five absorbing TMN longreads, ready to read here on TMN or in an e-book you can export to your Kindle, iPad, iPhone, etc.