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Original poster

If there's one book I should buy as a paperback this summer, it would be...

126 replies

OMGOMGOMGHELP · 04/07/2022 07:07

...
If you had to recommend one book to buy as a paperback to read on the beach or by the pool this summer, which would you recommend?

OP posts:
beguilingeyes · 04/07/2022 14:39

OMGOMGOMGHELP · 04/07/2022 13:42

@CactiHug If you like historical fiction I’m reading The Crystal Cave at the moment and really enjoying it. It’s the origin story of Merlin and King Arthur.
oh, this is my most read book in my whole collection. I had that as a child and have read it so many times. I bought the others when I was an adult (I took them out of the library when I was a child, but didn't like them) and was still disappointed. I started watching the film with my DC a couple of years ago and they were aghast at the quality and refused to watch the rest 😂

@beguilingeyes All of them. Here be Dragons 💔 I wanted to call DD Joanna but DH vetoed and I didn't even tell him why! Took me ages to track down all of the de Quincy ones.

So many to choose from! I'm ordering the DC's summer books and wanted to sneak in one for me. Might not get away with 10!

Here Be Dragons is my favourite book ever. Poor Wales. I've been to see Joanna's coffin in Beaumaris.
The Poldark book are very, very good. Much better than the adaptation.

babyjellyfish · 04/07/2022 14:41

Currently enjoying Hamnet, and Blood and Sugar is next on my list.

MissyB1 · 04/07/2022 15:01

AgathaMystery · 04/07/2022 10:44

oh & my suggestions would be anything by Richard Osman, Nora Ephron, David Sedaris & i LOVED Standard Devation by Katherine Heiny.

Standard Deviation is one of my favourite books ever!!

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duvetdrama · 04/07/2022 15:09

A couple of books that have stayed with me - The Letter by Kathryn Hughes and The Girl in the Red Coat by Kate Hamer.
Loved Crawdads too 👍

outnumbered77 · 04/07/2022 15:51

I'm enjoying the seven sisters series by Lucinda Riley. Currently on book 2

Kris02 · 04/07/2022 16:01

Audiobooks are also great for holidays, especially when you are stuck in traffic or at an airport and just want to zone out. Stephen Fry Reading Sherlock Holmes or PG Wodehouse is my idea of heaven. Someone mentioned Pullman’s Dark Materials, which is also great on audio. Isn’t Wolf Hall on audiobook too?

MissRainbowBrite · 04/07/2022 16:26

@outnumbered77 the Seven Sisters series is fab, I'm upto book 4 and there isn't one I've not enjoyed yet, all have been good in their own way. The first one would be a good holiday read.

Original poster
OMGOMGOMGHELP · 04/07/2022 17:20

I totally agree @MissRainbowBrite I like them all in their own way.

I've never listened to audiobooks apart from with the DC's, might try it out.

OP posts:
LadyOfTheCanyon · 04/07/2022 17:26

Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell if you want historical fiction that's a little closer to home ( late '60s)

mathanxiety · 04/07/2022 17:52

The Boys in the Boat, by Daniel James Brown.

Loved it from beginning to end.

mathanxiety · 04/07/2022 17:57

The Boat book is set in 1920s-30s Washington State. Time and place are superbly evoked, and the story is an enlargement of actual events, part biography, part hero journey - a great read.

Gatekeeper · 04/07/2022 18:02

CredibilityProblem · 04/07/2022 09:05

Wolf Hall
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell

both big meaty books which would benefit from a solid poolside read (they're page-turners once you get into them, but you need to blast through the opening hundred pages to find your feet).

Bloody LOVED Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell; I dont think I spoke to my dh for a week when I started reading it!

TattiePants · 04/07/2022 18:25

Pat Barker’s Women of Troy series (actually anything by Pat Barker). It’s a retelling of the Trojan war but told from a woman’s point of view.

I’ve also recently read and enjoyed My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Stroud and Restoration by Rose Tremain.

LiveatCityHall · 04/07/2022 18:56

Either Malibu Rising or Daisy Jones and the Six both by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Both amazing.

TheNoodlesIncident · 04/07/2022 20:05

I remember that bit in Provincial Lady! Never read the book but the film was on a few times when I was a kid and found large parts of it traumatising! 😱😱

It was a film too?! @tobee I had no idea! I can imagine it would be rather traumatic in places, for sure. It is a very good read though.

I can also recommend The Shrimp & The Anemone, also by L P Hartley. And Rosamond Lehmann's Dusty Answer and The Fountain Overflows, both great. And Stella Gibbons' (she of Cold Comfort Farm fame) Nightingale Wood. I have taken that with me to reread on holiday a few times, it does suit being read on a sun lounger with cicadas rattling away in the olives...

babysteps22 · 04/07/2022 20:56

Lessons in Chemistry

BookwormButNoTime · 06/07/2022 22:35

Have a look at the Persephone Books website. They are all books that had gone out of print which they have lovingly created new bound editions. I have yet to read a bad one. I particularly liked "The Call" by Edith Ayrton Zangwill.

Hopeandlove · 31/07/2022 21:40

I didn’t think I would but just finished The Severn husbands of Elevlyn Hugo and liked it - quick read though - less than 24 hours in

Delatron · 31/07/2022 21:52

I loved All My Mothers - beautiful book that really stayed with me.

KindergartenKop · 31/07/2022 21:57

Hamnet

Thereisnolight · 31/07/2022 23:20

Just finished American Wife by Sittenfeld on holiday. Highly entertaining. (Not really about being the President’s wife, as I was expecting - more about being the wife of a man who happens to decide to run for President - there’s a difference).

goldfinchonthelawn · 02/08/2022 07:13

Bloody LOVED Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell; I dont think I spoke to my dh for a week when I started reading it!

I love books that do that to you. I remember when I was reading The Pillow Boy of the Lady Onogoro by Alison Fell I felt like I had to rip a seam back through into the 21st centruy every time I was forced to put it down. I felt like I was living in medieval Japan with seven layered silk gowns and snow in the castle grounds. It was so mesmerizing.

Gatekeeper · 03/08/2022 18:10

goldfinchonthelawn · 02/08/2022 07:13

Bloody LOVED Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell; I dont think I spoke to my dh for a week when I started reading it!

I love books that do that to you. I remember when I was reading The Pillow Boy of the Lady Onogoro by Alison Fell I felt like I had to rip a seam back through into the 21st centruy every time I was forced to put it down. I felt like I was living in medieval Japan with seven layered silk gowns and snow in the castle grounds. It was so mesmerizing.

I know exactly what you mean. It's like you have to completely re-focus your eyes and brain back to the here and now

asparalite · 03/08/2022 18:16

Liane Moriarty books perfect summer reads.

sakura06 · 03/08/2022 18:41

If you like historical fiction, I would recommend 'Katherine' by Anya Seton or 'Night Shall Overtake Us' by Kate Saunders. Also a big fan of Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth and Bernard Cornwell's Arthur series or The Last Kingdom.

'Pachinko', 'Hamnet' and 'American Wife' as mentioned by others are also fantastic.