Yahoo Lifestyle11 Umissable Books To Read This Summer
One of the best things about the holiday season is that we finally have time to read all those books we never usually manage to get to. Here are our favourite picks for this season
It's summer holiday time and finally we can sit down with a good book. But where to start? We've rounded up 11 of the best reads this summer - and there's something for everyone.
1. For Foodies: Season to Taste by Natalie Young
Take one lacklustre marriage, add the smothering leafy suburbs of Surrey and a wife’s nagging need for change - and you get a simple solution: kill and eat the husband.
That’s the conclusion that Lizzie, the narrator of Season to Taste, comes to anyway, and the result is a creepy but intriguing read. Step by step, Lizzie describes chopping up her husband’s body and deciding how to cook it so that body parts lose their emotional attachment to the man who was once her husband. It’s not one for those of a sensitive disposition.
But Natalie Young uses the whole ordeal to unveil Lizzie’s despair at her life, her need for independence and her emotional trauma through the whole ordeal.
Season to Taste or How to Eat Your Husband
2. For music fans: Clothes clothes clothes, boys boys boys, music music music, by Viv Albertine
This summer’s must-read music biog comes from punk icon Viv Albertine, from 1970s band The Slits. Staying true to her punk roots, Albertine lets it all hang out in a way that puts current celebrity biographies to shame, and tells us in intimate detail about miscarriages, arguments - and giving Johnny Rotten a blow job.
Even if you missed out on punk, and aren’t a fan of her music, this memoir of a punk goddess who grew up to be an aerobics instructor, and developed cervical cancer along the way, is a compelling and brutally honest read.
Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys.
3. For island getaways: The Lemon Grove by Helen Walsh
The glare of the sun and the heavy, sweet-summer air of rural Majorca weigh heavily on this sexually-charged novel, which tells the story of a woman who finds herself lusting after her stepdaughter’s boyfriend during a family holiday.
It’s not all “50 shades” however, and The Lemon Grove is as much about family dynamics and what’s happening in Jenn’s head as her obsession grows, as it is about female sexuality. Helen’s Walsh’s new novel is an intelligent, thoughtful take on a summer romance - with added baggage.
4. For City Breaks: Glow, by Ned Beauman
Award-winning writer Ned Beauman’s new novel is a psychedelic, drug-induced romp through south London that is infused with the grime and energy of fast-paced city life. It tells the story of Raf and Issac, who are experimenting with a new drug, glow, and Beauman takes them further and further into a complicated rabbit warren of a plot that is exacerbated by the effects of their chemical indulgences. It’s a novel that needs attention to keep up with, but the plot is helped along by imaginative and powerful writing that makes it well worth the effort.
5. For historical fiction fans: Frog Music by Emma Donoghue
Best known for the phenomenally successful Room, Emma Donoghue returned this March with her latest novel Frog Music. It’s a world away from her previous book but once again reflects on the complicated bond between a mother and her child.
Set in late 19th Century San Francisco, it tells the story of French prostitute Blanche, her lover/pimp and his friend Ernest, who both take liberties with Blanche’s body and her earnings. Into this fairly unwholesome mix comes Jenny, a cross-dressing free spirit whose arrival makes Blanche question what she’s been putting up with, and the novel soon turns into an historical murder-mystery, but with all the drama you could want.
6. For Jane Austen fans: Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid
Award winning crime writer Val McDermid has turned her hand to Jane Austen for a modern-day telling of Northanger Abbey.
Set in the gothic heights of Edinburgh town, McDermid has heroine Cat Morland traipsing around the Edinburgh Festival, rather than Regency Bath, when she falls for Henry Tilney of Northanger Abbey at a ceilidh. Facebook, Google and Twilight all get a mention, bringing Austen’s goth classic up to date as a modern crime thriller.
Northanger Abbey (Austen Project 2)
7. For a speed read: Dept. of Speculation, by Jenny Offill
Sometimes on holiday, you just want a short, sharp burst of a book, rather a weighty tome taking up space in your beach bag. And you could do no better than Jenny Offill’s slimline Dept. of Speculation.
The story is narrated by “the wife”, a New York artist and new mother, who appears utterly amazed - and sometimes terrified - at what her life has become, and tries to make sense of the demands and drudgery of domestic life.
But Dept. of Speculation is anything but boring: made up of anecdotes and almost stream-of-consciousness type diatribes, this is a book where every sentence has been carefully considered and which takes a philosophical look at love and the confines of modern life.
8. For workaholics: #GIRLBOSS, by Sophia Amoruso
For those readers who don’t understand the meaning of “switching off”, Sophia Amoruso’s story about her journey from E-Bay seller to international CEO is a readable memoir packed with motivational punch. Amoruso’s fashion company Nasty Girl has sold over $100m in clothing - and this CEO has just turned 30.
In #GIRLBOSS, she reveals some of the tricks of the trade and tells the story of her very individual route to success, from cult following to international acclaim, with lots of anecdotes about the fashion and business worlds along the way.
9. For self-help addicts: Thrive: the third metric, by Arianna Huffington
If you’re a web-savvy internet addict, it will have been hard to miss the campaign by media mogul Arianna Huffington to get us to sleep more, worry less and learn how to relax.
It may seem an ironic battle cry from the woman who founded the international media company Huffington Post and has a handful of books to her name to boot. But she had a wake-up call after fracturing a cheekbone when she collapsed, due to exhaustion, in 2007. Now she’s calling for an end to our plugged-in, 24 hour culture. And in Thrive, tells us how to do it.
Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Happier Life
10. For Scandi-fans: My Struggle book 3: Boyhood Island, by Karl Ove Knausgaar (translated by Don Bartlett)
This is the third novel from Karl Ove Knuasgaar’s series to be translated into English, and it is has had critics and fans beating down publishers’ doors for their next hit.
The Norwegian writer’s fictional memoir about his life is a meandering, detailed tale that spans six volumes in his native tongue. It has caused huge controversy in Norway because of his unflinching “warts and all” conviction to reveal details about his family, no matter how much of their privacy he is compromising. But outside of Scandinavia, it has been a huge hit: lauded writer Zadie Smith also famously said she “needs the next volume like crack”.
Boyhood Island (My Struggle 3)
11. For lols: One more thing, by BJ Novak (Random House )
Better known as “Ryan the temp” in the US version of The Office, BJ Novak has turned his hand to short stories and the result is a funny series of sharp sketches.
With names like “Wikipedia Brown and the Case of the Missing Bicycle” or “Chris Hansen at the Justin Bieber Concert”, Novak takes aim at a whole range of contemporary oddities. But his longer form pieces also make for a thought-provoking read, and reveal a sensitive soul underneath.
One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories
