So I’ve been on a total Laurie R. King kick lately, working through audio books of the 7th and 8th Mary Russell novels. I love these books enough that when I get to the end of the series I may very well start over. They are perfectly English in all the best ways, witty mysteries with eccentrics, glorious details, tons of wit (my mentor Dee recommended them when I was in grad school). They are absolutely perfect during the chilly months of the year, but when we had our little cold snap here the past week or two (it dropped into the 60s!) I kind of had a hankering for them.

However, since most of my listening happens in the car with a certain toddler present, she has been voicing her own opinion about what we listen to. Loudly. And her opinion is that it’s too hot for intellectual genre fiction. She wants beach tunes, with the occasional song thrown in just to up her street cred.

These are the songs that keep her from yelling at me in the car, from her Spotify playlist.

Read more on H’s Summer Jams 2013: The Playlist…