Your summer reading list

Tis summer. Exams are over. Or you’re heading off on your holidays. Or just sitting in the garden enjoying that rare beast that is the British summer and slurping down a cool drink (I’m obsessed with elderflower cordial at the moment,) you’ll want something to read. Even more than you usually want something to read.

So, cause I’m helpful, I’ve compiled a list of books I’ve enjoyed recently and books that I’m hoping to fall in love with.

YA/COMING OF AGE

Eleanor & Park By Rainbow Rowell

You will fall in love with Eleanor and Park like they are real people. In my head, I kind of think they are. This is one of those books that you read, then think about every day for at least a year, then roughly every week for the rest of your life.

Red Ink by Julie Mayhew

Full disclosure, I’m happy to say that I’ve shared pizza and a cocktail with Julie on a few occasions but before I knew her like that, I knew that she was writing this book. Red Ink is definitely more coming of age than YA. 15 year old Melon’s mother is killed and she has to learn to fend for herself and to discover what is true and what’s not. It’s equally heartbreaking and hopeful and heart-in-your-mouth funny.

Paper Aeroplanes by Dawn O’Porter

I’m always a bit sceptical and curled of tongue when celebrities turn their hand to novel writing. Like, yeah, I guess it is easy when you have a ghostwriter to do it for you. But then along comes Paper Aeroplanes, one hundred per cent written by Dawn herself, and I don’t care that it is written by a celebrity, because it gets all the messy complicated stuff that happens with best friends. It understands what it feels like not to fit in. And there’s one bit that made me clutch my heart and swallow extra hard.

Penelope by Rebecca Harrington

I’m a sucker for a US college novel, apart from when it’s one of those identikit New Adult books that say nothing to me about my life. Happily, Penelope is not about some doe-eyed, klutzy virgin with some family angst and a dark secret who ends up playing hide the sausage with some beefcake-y yet sensitive type called Zach or Kai or some such… Hang on, where was I? Actually, Penelope is about a klutzy virgin but this is more Perks Of Being A Wallflower territory than New Adult. Penelope, newly arrived at Harvard, is shy and ineffectual and struggles with all the things that should make college fun and then she falls in love with Gustav, a Gatsby-esque Argentinian student. Rebecca Harrington is skilled at investing her characters with quirks and traits that make them easily recognisable and I way over-identified with Penelope and her total lack of social skills.

GROWN-UP BOOKS

Auntie Mame: An Irreverent Escapade by Patrick Dennis

Auntie Mame was the reissued novel all the cool kids raved about last year, but I don’t always get to books right away. When I did get round to it, I LOVED and even GUFFAWED at this tale of a newly orphanned Patrick going to love with his eccentric, bohemian, camp as a row of pink tents Auntie Mame. Every chapter is a comic gem and I have the sequel on its way.

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

I think I’ve mentioned Life After Life before, but it’s so good, it deserves another mention. Ursula is born on a snowy night in 1910 and promptly dies. Then the book starts again and this time she lives. And repeat. And repeat. Atkinson takes us on a magical journey through the many lives and deaths of Ursula, through Spanish Flu and murderous husbands and the Blitz. It’s an extraordinary novel and one that you want to reread as soon as you’ve read the last page.

Longbourn by Jo Baker

Not out until mid-August, you NEED to pre-order this novel which is Pride And Prejudice from the Bennet family’s maid’s point of view, except that doesn’t do this story justice. It’s not just P&P Redux but giving a voice to the silent servants of Longbourn who toiled away so the Bennets could wake up the blazing log fire each morning, or slogged through the mud to Meriton so the Bennet sisters could have new rosettes for their dancing slippers. It’s also very much the story of Sarah, the housemaid, her life and loves and dreams that are always restricted by the rigid rules of life below stairs.

Kiss Me First by Lottie Moggach

A debut novel about loneliness and identity theft and people’s right to die all told in a compelling and creepy voice. If you search on Facebook, this novel was launched with a clever app that freaked me the hell out!

TO BE READ

So many books, so few hours in the day to get to them all.

The Engagements by J. Courtney Sullivan

Published by Virago (one of my favourite publishers who I dream of being signed to,) starting in 1947 and read by every single one of my friends who have all told me I will love it. Apparently, The Engagements begins with a female copywriter coming up with the famous ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ tagline for a De Beers ad and how those three words resonate for other women.

Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

Just out in paperback, Where’d You Go, Bernadette, is a darkly funny book set in Seattle about a whirlwind of a woman who suddenly disappears much to the consternation of her husband and teenage daughter.

The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell

1920′s Manhattan, which to me means flappers, gangsters, bathtub gin, speakeasies and all those good things. Rose, a police stenographer, becomes obsessed with her new colleague, the glamorous and mysterious Odalie. And then Rose is accused of murder…

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

This is the book that has all the Twitter literati frothing at the mouth. I hear that it’s so good, that I might want to give up writing completely!

‘A writer needs 4 things to achieve greatness; desire, disappointment & the sea.’

‘That’s only 3.’

‘You have to do disappointment twice.’

NON FIC

The Churchills: A Family at the Heart of History by Mary S Lovell

I love a good saga-ish biography, preferably featuring posh types with scandalous lives so this biography of the Churchill family (there were a lot more to them than just old Winston) doesn’t disappoint. Written by Mary S Lovell who wrote the amazing The Mitford Girls so you know you’re in good hands.

Be Awesome: Modern Life for Modern Ladies by Hadley Freeman

I love Hadley Freeman’s pieces for The Guardian and this book does exactly what it promises in all kinds of funny ways as Hadley writes about feminism, sex, being single and everything else in between.

Running Like a Girl by Alexandra Heminsley

Hemmo, as she’s known on Twitter, is one of the most inspiring women I know. She’s run five marathons and encouraged me to run with some cunning reverse psychology (“Well, maybe you’re just not a runner, Sarra”) which ended up with my own personal best – a ten mile yomp in the pouring rain. I gave up running after I tore a calf muscle in a step aerobics class, but having spent the last year eating all my feelings, this book is making me want to buy a new pair of trainers and embark on a couch to 5k. Hemmo shares her running journey and imbues even the most reluctant runner with a can-do attitude. She is also a world authority on sports bras for ladies with big bosoms.

Hope you find a few things in here that you might want to read. This is SUCH a good year for good books.

Live on

Sarra x