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.

I have to agree with BG re Notes on a Scandal - I have read it twice, years apart (read it when it came out and then for book club). I really Really didn't like it either time.

Wolf Hall - I've read it and it would make a good holiday book in so much as it needs to be read in big chunks rather than dipping in and out of. I took a few weeks to read the first couple of hundred pages mainly last thing at night. Then DD1 was off sick for a couple of days and I read the remaining 400 pages in 2 days. Had almost given up on it and then really enjoyed it.

Wheely - glad I'm not alone!

Snicker - in that case I won't buy it but will wait until it arrives in the library.

I've got Wolf Hall to take with me, so will let people know how I get on with it.

Oh thanks Wheely - I was a bit concnerned about it being such a BIG book, but i do like historical bio-drama.

loved Memiors of a Geisha - read it recently i know its old but I was hooked!

Yes to Memoirs Of A Geisha - that would be an excellent summer read for anybody who has missed it so far.

Another 'oldie' that I really, really enjoyed was The American Boy.

Bink - I really enjoyed A M Homes This Book will Save Your Life too.

Marina Llewynka (sp?) is v good too, a bit different and quite funny, I enjoyed Two Caravans and We Are All Made of Glue much more than the better known A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian.

I finder so NOT funny. I am LOVInG another Peter millar book about America and travelling around it on a train. Willnlink later when on pc

here great book!

( btw went ot book shop and got the slap, the help (!) and the new catherine oflynn, will report back)

Also read The Road Home. A good summer read, some sex.

gah dog thats so LAST summer

I have just finished "Nothing to envy" so so good.

I am reading One Day now and it is fantastic, buy it!

i liekd that too
not as good as NK

yeah, you's right. I am no good at reading beand new books.

Please report back about new Catherine O'Flynn

read mixed reviews but want to read it

grr DONT say that!

I'm sure it's FAB, what do critics know?

Wolf Hall is excellent (dont be put off by the size of the book, its worth sticking with!)

"Indellible Ink" by Fiona McGregor. Just read it for book club and it's fantastic. It's an Australian book but available on bookdepository if not in the shops.

The best book I've read this summer is completely unpretentious and super-easy-to-read, 'The tent, the bucket and me'. PLEASE do not think it is beneath you! It is so, so funny and I'm finding it hard to read anything afterwards as it made me laugh more than any other book could...

I liked 'The little stranger' and 'Her fearful symmetry' but found them more autumnal than summery.

I am going to order 'Molokai' (can't remember who keeps recommending it on here and complaining that everyone is ignoring her - I'm not!)

no i DID read it and found it shit

Suite Francaise Irene Nemirovsky

Lovely evocative short stories by tragic writer.

Sorry if already recommended I didn't read whole thread

Also by Nemirovsky Fire in the Blood

Oh Alaska I just can't understand why everyone doesn't love it - it made me so happy... but I have simple tastes! I'm trying hard not to care if enjoying it makes me a pleb

Non-fiction: Mission Mongolia: Two men, One Van, No Turning Back. You will laugh -- and your bloke will too!