(FORTUNE Magazine) – It's not too late for some juicy beach reading--but these three tell-alls mix some serious business in with the fun. Go behind the scenes of the restaurant world with Turning the Tables by veteran food writer Steven Shaw, the belly behind website egullet.com. Shaw dissects everything from reservation systems--scarily specific these days, some track favorite tables, no-shows, even how strong to brew your tea--to restaurant reviews and the intricate path your food takes to the table. Frequent travelers will be fascinated (and maybe a little disturbed) by Hotel Babylon, a peek into life at an unnamed five-star London hotel by journalist Imogen Edwards-Jones and an anonymous co-author. Hourly segments detail the upstairs/downstairs goings-on throughout a full day, as hotel-vet Anonymous packs in the requisite sordid anecdotes (9 A.M.: customer appalled by £850 phone-sex bill). Finally, in The Sky's the Limit, Calvin Klein biographer Steven Gaines gets into the guts of one of the nastiest businesses of all: the Manhattan co-op market. It's a world where even Johnson & Johnson heirs willing to pay $27 million for a pad get turned down, uptight neighbors can kill a deal with a word, and real estate brokers are in the Social Register alongside their clients. Each of the books makes going back to the office easier, because they make your chosen field look downright sane. --Kate Bonamici