Books to read on stifling, lazy summer days

[IceIceBabyBump]

I'm after some recommendations for literary fiction books for hot, lazy summer days. I don't mean fluffy holiday reads at all.
I mean books that ooze thick, humid, oppressive heat and, in doing so, create an unsettling atmosphere.

I'm after recreating the seasonal pairing of dark, atmospheric, spooky books for autumn nights but for hot summer days.

I've got Claire Fuller's "Bitter Orange" on my list already.

What else?

For a retro read try Jaws by Peter Benchley and Savages by Shirley Conran which is about a bunch of rich women stranded on a tropical island.
Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne du Maurier, is a gorgeous book and set in the summer.

The Cement Garden was the first that came to my mind.

Zennor in Darkness, it has the most beautiful and immersive depiction of a heatwave I have ever read.

North Woods by Daniel Mason. Lyrical and atmospheric set in haunted apple orchard in New England

Great thread by the way. I'm making myself a reading list from all these recommendations

The Great Gatsby
The Swimming Pool Library
Call Me by Your Name
Hideous Kinky
Demon Copperhead
Educated
The Girls Who Grew Big
The Island of Missing Trees

i actually always think the section in the desert of The Goldfinchis one of the most oppressively hot pieces of literature. And agree with anything written but Elena Ferrante

love this thread!

Gosh I think the opposite - def a book to read in the depths of winter for me

Oh also The Four Winds

The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon is set during the hot summer of 1976

Definitely. I loved those scenes!

Love the recommendations thank you

Great thread I also love a book with a steamy sultry vibe. I can recommend Tigers In Red Weather by Liza Klaussmann

The Battle of the Villa Fiorita by Rumer Godden

The Stand by Stephen King. Not necessarily summer, but frequently hot (quite a bit is in desert landscape) and definitely unsettling. One of his best.

I read the beach in less than 2 days, on a greek beach, about 22 years ago.

Brilliant book and as you say, much better than the film. It had everything I loved in a book - back then - and have read it again since. I would love to read something similar, though more in the present time.

Just finished Beneath the Orange Blossom by Emma Cowell, and just started a 99p kindle special called One Perfect Couple, set on a remote Island in the Indian Ocean.

Helen Dunmore definitely writes a good heatwave.

The Siege being the winter counterpart!

@IceIceBabyBump I also didn't get the Ferrante hype - I don't know if it was the translation but the books felt flat to me.

Great thread btw!

Agreed.

The Leopard, Giuseppe Tomasi

Tom Lake by Ann Patchet - looks at the hidden lives of parents before they have kids… three daughters return to their home in a cherry orchard and ask their Mum about her old flame, an actor.

The Book Club podcast just did a terrific episode about this book and its author.

The hanging of Hettie Gale

"We Used to Live Here"

I'm just half way through 'HomeGoing' by Yaa Gyasi. Set in Africa and America through the 17th and 18th centuries, a look at slavery and civil rights. Absolutely compelling and beautifully written, but also quite uncomfortable to read and complex with a richly woven family history. Definitely recommend

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

Water Shall Refuse Them by Lucy McKnight Hardy

Property by Valerie Martin
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys