Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

Original poster

What is this year's 'Captain Corelli' s mandolin'?

49 replies

Moredarkchocolateplease · 04/05/2023 11:13

By which I mean the one book that will be spotted on sun loungers across the hot spots of Europe, covered in suncream and remembered as 'the holiday where I read < insert book name here>

I'm going away at half term and I like to follow the crowd and read a big page turner on my hols 😁😚

OP posts:
Original poster
Moredarkchocolateplease · 04/05/2023 11:13

I have no idea why the kissing emoji is on here too...

OP posts:
sparklefresh · 04/05/2023 11:28

Hmm, maybe Lessons in Chemistry? I feel as though it's everywhere and that everyone has read or is about to read it. It's very good and an easy read!

XBealtaine · 04/05/2023 11:31

No it's Barbara Kingsolver's new book. Demon Copperhead.
Last year's was Susanna Clark's Piranesi I think.

mynameiscalypso · 04/05/2023 11:31

I was going to say Lessons in Chemistry too. It's rare that I get on the tube and don't see at least three people reading it.

ChicoryDip · 04/05/2023 11:31

Yes, Lessons in Chemistry is a good shout.

The move to Kindles for lots of people has meant that I really miss seeing the bestseller for the year on sunbeds. DH and I will still talk about 'The Captain Corelli holiday' or the 'Life of Pi trip' or 'Wasn't that the Di Vinci code year?'.

Original poster
Moredarkchocolateplease · 04/05/2023 11:41

@ChicoryDip yes that's exactly what u mean! I was also going to use Da Vinci Code!

Agreed re kindles but I still think there is a big sale of paperbacks at the airport especially to disorganised men I suspect!

Will look into all those titles. I've picked up a copy of the Harry Quuebert affair which feels like a nice sunlounger book, but sometimes I want to be sheep like!

Last year I read the Lincoln Highway in paperback on the plane and loved it.

OP posts:
JaneyGee · 04/05/2023 18:55

It always amazes me how people rush to buy the latest ‘big thing’. I hardly ever read popular books. It’s not that I think they’re no good. And it isn’t snobbery (I love Bill Bryson, for example). It’s just that I have literally piles of unread books in my room. There are SO many classics I want to read and haven’t got round to (Wuthering Heights, Bleak House, Middlemarch). I haven’t even read everything by my favourite authors (Aldous Huxley, Evelyn Waugh, Virginia Woolf, P G Wodehouse, Oscar Wilde, etc). I also have countless unread non-fiction works piled up. I’ve had Sagan’s Cosmos and Dawkins’ Selfish Gene sat on my shelves for nearly a decade!! Somebody bought me Harold Bloom’s final work for Christmas, and I haven’t even opened the damn thing, let alone read it.

Original poster
Moredarkchocolateplease · 04/05/2023 20:16

Well I don't think I am 'rushing' more I just quite like the idea of reading some popular easy reading fiction on my holiday!

And given that I've been plodding through two Jonathan Franzen books for the last 6 months whilst working, being ill and supporting my family, my attention span is probably a bit short for Bronte or Elliot and the chances are they'd just send me to sleep on the sun lounger I'm so knackere😁

OP posts:
user4750 · 04/05/2023 20:21

I also came on ti say lessons in chemistry. It’s good

sparklefresh · 04/05/2023 20:53

Absolutely nothing wrong with popular easy fiction!

Whyjustwhy123 · 04/05/2023 22:22

Oscar Wilde? Nah I’ll stick with Lessons in chemistry etc.

Original poster
Moredarkchocolateplease · 05/05/2023 07:53

I will try and get a copy of lessons in chemistry too. So I can say I've read it, along with everyone else 😉😄

OP posts:
FoFanta · 05/05/2023 07:57

Lessons in Chemistry is pretty good. I also recently enjoyed Maggie O'Farrell's new book The Marriage Portrait. It's set in Italy so would be a good shout if you were heading to actual Italy on your holidays.

OnMyWayToSenility · 05/05/2023 07:59

I'm currently away and it's lessons in chemistry

RampantIvy · 05/05/2023 07:59

I thought Lessons in Chemistry was OK, not great, just OK.

Sagittariusrising · 05/05/2023 15:58

I would agree with everyone that Lessons in Chemistry would be really popular, especially as it's now in paperback. I also see a lot of people reading the Slough House series books by Mick Herron on public transport.

Cakemonger · 05/05/2023 16:05

I might be wrong and out of the loop but I don't feel there's been a summer hit as big as Captain Corelli for quite a while?

The last 'summer hit' I read was Fleishman is in Trouble and I was quite disappointed with that so wrote off the whole thing as pure marketing and vowed not to be taken in again!

Original poster
Moredarkchocolateplease · 05/05/2023 16:22

Ah I agreed. Gave up on fleischmann too.

Mad that we all remember the summer of Captain Corelli!

OP posts:
Tiddlywinkly · 05/05/2023 20:16

Not literary, but I've heard a lot about Pineapple Street.

I've bought that and Demon Copperhead. Looking forward to reading them 😀

ChicoryDip · 05/05/2023 20:24

Tiddlywinkly · 05/05/2023 20:16

Not literary, but I've heard a lot about Pineapple Street.

I've bought that and Demon Copperhead. Looking forward to reading them 😀

I've downloaded Pineapple Street to my Kindle. Hoping it's good.

ArcticBells · 05/05/2023 20:37

FoFanta · 05/05/2023 07:57

Lessons in Chemistry is pretty good. I also recently enjoyed Maggie O'Farrell's new book The Marriage Portrait. It's set in Italy so would be a good shout if you were heading to actual Italy on your holidays.

Just read Lessons in Chemistry and now reading Maggie O'Farrells's Hamnett 😀

ElizabethinherGermanGarden · 05/05/2023 20:49

If you haven't read Still Life by Sarah Winman, that's lovely. Set in Italy and London through and after WWII - it's got that emotional, sunshiny vibe.

Upanddownthemerrygoround · 05/05/2023 21:01

@ArcticBells you’re going to cry. But it’s an amazing book.

Last year’s but Cloud Cuckoo Land or Great Circle would be my holiday choice.

ElderflowerPress33 · 06/05/2023 23:05

Lessons in Chemistry is so over rated and pretty dull. Couldn’t wait to finish it.

RampantIvy · 07/05/2023 07:00

You and I are in a minority @ElderflowerPress33.
I also couldn't wait to finish it.