The Book(ish) summer reading guide: part 1
It's back for 2024 - and it's big.
I consider pretty much any time to be a good reading time, but there is something special about summer reading. Now, I don’t want to be prescriptive, so please consider this a loose concept. It could be a sunny afternoon spent lounging a deckchair in your garden or on your balcony. A Saturday trip to the beach. A proper holiday. Any extended period of time when you can - without guilt - just read. Preferably in the sunshine, but I’ll take what I can get. (I did a lot of reading the summer we holidayed in Cornwall, which was so beautiful and yet so very, very wet. )
Before we begin, some housekeeping.
Because there are too many good books (a nice problem to have), this will be divided into instalments.
Today: 24 brilliant books
Coming up: There are some absolute corkers published later, plus books I couldn’t fit into today’s list, including a good dollop of romance, books to warm your heart (judging by current meteorological conditions, anyone holidaying in UK will require this), and one category I have called, quite simply, ‘romps’; non-fiction - because not everyone wants to read fiction on the beach; and the guest edit.
I know, I know. If I was the ambassador you could quite rightly remark that I am spoiling you.
Brief pause to add that I am heading to Brighton to interview Fearne Cotton about her debut novel Scripted on 19th June. If you’re local - or fancy a jaunt to Brighton (it’s a lovely place) - then you can buy tickets here.
And so to business….
Complicated Women
Because complicated makes for exceedingly interesting.
The Sicilian Inheritance’s Sara is a brilliant character. She’s a restauranteur, a trained butcher (with a tattoo of a meat cleaver on her forearm), the kind of woman who wears a red jumpsuit to her Aunt Rosie’s funeral. Rosie (who sounds quite the girl herself) has left Sara with a mission: to go to Sicily, discover the truth about her grandmother Serafina’s death, and whether a valuable property ought by right to be in their family. In 1910s Italy, whip-smart Serafina’s attempts to escape servitude to the patriarchy do not go down well - and may even have led to her premature death. There’s murder, romance, history, misogyny and descriptions of Sicily to make you ponder a last minute holiday. [Find it at Amazon or support independent bookshops via Bookshop.org]
Do not be fooled by the bucolic image on the cover! Spoilt Creatures is a dark, clever debut set in an all-female commune. 32-year-old Iris is untethered, bored by her nothing job and ordinary life. In other words, vulnerably ripe for the plucking. When she hears about Breach House, she’s not unnerved by the fact it sounds like Bleak House (only me?) and moves in. It’s all lushly dreamlike and sun-drenched at first, but as the cult-like commune tightens its tentacles, the danger and tension rises. Amy Twigg’s novel crackles with suffocation, female rage and the seductiveness of obsession. [Amazon; Bookshop.org]
Dearest readers, given that it took me many hours and almost as many digestive biscuits to compile this, I hope you will understand the paywall situation. Do not miss out! Become a paid subscriber today and get all the juicy goods. It’s worth the price of admittance: the joy will be longer lasting than the coffee equivalent. Thank you so much for supporting my writing - every single like, share, and subscriber is so very much appreciated. I know there are many voices clamouring for your attention, so it makes me very happy to have you here.