Long live a holiday weekend. Three glorious days of doing whatever sparks your firecracker. Burgers on the barbie, sleeping in late, and maybe even a good book? We found a perfect summer read from a female author in each of our four Tidbits cities to keep you company during your vacay.

AUSTIN
In case you didn’t know, trilogies are not just for Vampire sagas. Austin-based, MJ Heiser, author of the contemporary fantasy trilogy, The Chronicles of Jaenrye. Follow several thirty-somethings in their travels which include encounters with fairies, magic and mystery.

NEW ORLEANS
You love to eat, you love Nola. Welcome to The House on First Street, a decadent tale of globe-trotting Vogue writer Julia Reed’s move to the Garden District where she fixes up a historic home, eats out constantly and watches Katrina’s after-effects. Her hilarious style, weaved with insider Crescent City knowledge, will make you ache for an invitation to one of her raucous dinner parties.

HOUSTON
Hipster author Katherine Center writes what she knows best – being a mom – but this isn’t boring baby-lit. Her characters’ honest observations about life in Houston are mostly hilarious and sometimes heart-wrenching. We love all her books, including just-released Get Lucky, about a NYC ad exec who returns home to play surrogate for her sis.

SAN ANTONIO
Entertainment Weekly writer Karen Valby decided life in a place called Utopia, Texas, had to be pretty darn idyllic. So the Trinity University grad left New York and moved to the Hill Country town of just 241 residents for two years. Her non-fiction chronicle, Welcome to Utopia is getting all sorts of nationwide attention, and Valby says she surprised herself by deciding to settle in Texas when she was done.