The MN summer reading recommendations list 2010: share your top summer reads here

[GeraldineMumsnet]

There have been calls for an Official MN Summer Reading List.

So we're starting one.

Please list your suggestions for suitcase-friendly summer reads on this thread.

Same criteria as book club ie no misery memoirs, sleb biogs, yummy-mummy lit, books with more than 800 pages, or books with no punctuation or capital letters.

Your recommendations can be fiction or non-fiction. And if you agree with other people's picks, please say so, so that we can try to come up with a handy list of your top 10 (or 20) summer reads.

And , a reminder that MN bookclub will be back in September. Details to follow presently.

Thank you.

Oops - excuse typos: was dribbling coffee down myself at time of writing!

How about Maggie O Farrell's new book "The hand that first held mine" or indeed her earlier novel "The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox". Both superb Summer (or any time) reads.

Also a lovely read by an Irish author Deirdre Madden called "Molly Fox's Birthday", a book centred around the lives of the 3 main charachters on a midsummer's day. Her previous novel "Authenticity" is also very enjoyable.

Oh yes yes to The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, great read.

Loved American Wife - easy read but one you really get stuck into - kept wondering in between reading session what would happen to the characters.
Also The Outcast (by Sadie Jones) - one of the best books I've read in the past few years
And I know it's old-ish but I've read it recently and think it's outstanding: Behind the scenes at the museum by Kate Atkinson.

Half of a yellow sun, absolutely! Also check out The Consequences of Love by Sulaiman Addonia. Great story about two young people in Saudi Arabia, giving quite some revealing facts about the Saudi kingdom.

Mourning Ruby by Helen Dunmore - OI love her beautiful style of writing. A Spell of Winter by same author.
The Guernsey Literary and Potatoe Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer - fun and quirky

I liked The Road Home , too as above.

Great to hear Scarlett Thomas has a new book out - will be ordering that today!

I also enjoyed Juliet, Naked, by Nick Hornby as an easy summer holiday read and dh did too. Would recommend A Friend Like Henry - be warned though it made me cry lots! (tho tis true that's not hard to do...)

I do like Dorothy Koomson but that's probably far too chick-lit for the likes of all of you...

I'm Not Scared by Nicolo Ammaniti. Fabulous, evocative writing, very funny, very sharp.

Have just finished Homicide by David Simon today, and since it comes in at under 800 words I will add it to the list. It is utterly compelling.

I am very hard to please - but the following are genuinely GOOD (proper writing, without pretention, solid interesting things to say, stay with you after you've finished, a voice you want to keep hearing) and not listed below ...

Olga Grushin, The Dream Life of Sukhanov
A M Homes, This Book Will Save Your Life
David Mitchell, Ghostwritten (and Number 9 Dream)
Jon McGregor, If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things
James Robertson, Testament of Gideon Mack (and even more, begging to be a film or a TV adaptation, FABULOUS book and hardly known, Joseph Knight)
Marghanita Laski, Little Boy Lost (it's not mis lit by the way)

They aren't so recent, these books; they're the fruit of several summers.

Also try :
" The Private Lives of Pippa Lee" Rebecca Millar
"The Secret Scripture" Sebastian Barry
"The Slap" Christos Tsiolkas (controversial Booker Prize nominated)

The Ninth Life Of Louie Drax by Liz Jensen.

I found Louie Drax quite a let-down, BG. Was expecting to really enjoy it, but it just didn't deliver.

Yes, I agree any book by Kate Atkinson would be on my list, eminently readable.

Sarah Waters latest book "Little Stanger" though was a real let down. I kept waiting for something really exciting to happen and was let down consistently. She kept building up the suspense but I was deflated by the ending which did not match the build up. Her earlier books "Fingersmith" and "Affinity" are superb books with remarkable twists and much better reads in my humble opinion.

"The other hand" by Chris Cleave was also a big disappointment.

I have just bought Jospeh O Connors new book "Ghost Light" which is very promising. If you are not familiar with this author, I recommend to you his earlier book "Star of the Sea" which is a masterpiece!

Another great book while I think of it is Zoe Hellers "The Believers" as is her better known book "Notes on a scandal".

It's funny isn't it, Cyteen, how some books live up to expectations and others don't? When I read it, I'd never heard of her and just picked it up at random in the library and then devoured it.

Maybe it's just not as good as I remember it? I know I enjoyed it hugely at the time but I think it was in the first few weeks after dd2 was born, so I may have been in a bit of a fug!

Agree with previous MN-er, any of Colm Toibins other books - "Blackwater Lightship" is particularly good.

Also "Suite Francaise" and "All our worldly goods" by Irene Nemirovsky

The Historian by Elizabeth somebodyorother is brilliant (vampires) and I see she has another one fairly newly out in paperback - has anybody read it? Her name is Kostervan or something like that.

I think I might re-read Frankenstein.

oh yes the beliveers - but that was out last year

have just bought the new catherine oflynn one

i met a man in the bookshop who overheard me raving about north korea
he too was after it

Haven't read The Believers but absolutely detested Notes On A Scandal.

i htink you are what they call in the trade a " trikcy customer"

Me? I'm lovely!

I opened a door once for Zoe Heller's sister and she completely blanked me - grrrrrrrrrr. This was AFTER I'd read and hated the book though.

BelligerentGhoul - her new book is The Swan Thieves. It's nothing like as good a story as The Historian and I am finding the structure really irritating.

The White Tiger, fantastic read couldn't put down, very strong story and interesting insight into Indian boy's struggle to survive.

I have almost finished WhiteTiger which i have really enjoyed
Am taking
Her Peferct Symmetry - Audrey Nefeneger, and
Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel, has anyone read it?