From one reader to another

Your tips for beach reading

Event announcement

This September we’re very excited to welcome Tim Shipman, The Sunday Times’s Chief Political Commentator, to talk about the final volume in his epic quartet charting the Brexit psychodrama of the last few years, Out.

We’ll also quiz Tim on the first couple of months of our new government and what lies ahead.

Upcoming events

Join us from anywhere in the world: Subscribers to our Backstory magazine or our book subscriptions get free access to online livestreams of all events, including those that are sold out. For more information, check out our subscriptions or email us at books@backstory.london

• HENRY JEFFREYS, Vines in a Cold Climate — 10th July, 7.30pm

  Summer is finally here and what better time to look at the remarkable rise and rise of the English wine scene. Henry Jeffreys will take us through the quirky characters behind what is now a multi-million-pound industry with quality to rival Champagne. 

• ANDREW O’HAGAN, Caledonian Road — 25th July, 7.30pm SOLD OUT

• Backstory summer sessions — 18th July: Matilda Gracia SOLD OUT but a limited number of walk-in spots will be available on the night for the last in the series of our summer music nights

• Fiction book club on Zoom, 16th July, 8pm: Caroline O’Donoghue, The Rachel Incident

• Non-fiction book club on Zoom, 23rd July, 8pm: Mark O’Connell, A Thread of Violence

Our book of the month

Evenings and Weekends by Oisín McKenna

London 2019. A heatwave has descended on the city and its inhabitants. A whale is beached on the Thames. Over the course of one very hot weekend, an ensemble of interwoven characters contend with the personal struggles of life in the capital.

From love, sex and friendship to class and economic necessity, this is a vivid portrait of a contemporary, queer London. Both an outburst of anger at a broken Britain and a tender love letter to our city, this is a summer must-read.

YOU’VE SEEN OUR summer reading tips. Now what about yours?

A few weeks ago, I asked newsletter readers which books you would recommend others take to the beach, assuming I left you in charge of Backstory for the day.

Thanks so much for all your responses. Below I have compiled some of my favourite recommendations.

(And remember to download our summer reading guide if you haven’t already.)

Whatever you take with you, happy holidays!

Tom

Kate

I was in Morocco for a few days and read Leïla Slimani’s The Country of Others (first volume in a trilogy): fiction but drawing heavily on the life of her grandparents and mother. I’ve loved her books since I read Lullaby.  But this one is something else altogether.

Before that, I was in Dublin and read Colm Tóibín’s Brooklyn and Long Island back-to-back. Bloody hell! I’ve read other stuff by him, and I’ve liked it more and more with each book I read. I now think he’s one of my favourite living writers.

And … have you read any Emmanuel Carrère? A good starting point might be Yoga, which begins with Carrère on a yoga retreat (which is kind of holiday-ish). Though it’s not really a book about yoga. Limonov is also outstanding, and is now a film starring Ben Whishaw.

Jeff

I’m going to Greece in September… I’m eyeing up The Greek Islands by Lawrence Durrell

Becky

Emailing from sunny Kefalonia. I devoured the new Emily Henry book in one sitting by the pool on my first day (would recommend any of hers: Happy Place was especially good), but I’m now struggling a bit with my charity shop pick, Early Morning Riser by Katherine Heiny. Should have known I just wanted some Beth O’Leary, Taylor Jenkins Reid type books this holiday. 

Yvonne

These are the three books I've just read on a holiday in the sun last week:

The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl — I bought it because I'm going to Paris for 10 days next month and the lure of a book about a Dior dress and lots (and lots) of food hooked me. It’s completely frothy but lovely all the same and the descriptions of the food are mouth-watering. Call me shallow but any book that advocates drinking chilled Chablis and a plate of oysters in a cafe in Paris gets my vote.

A Woman of Pleasure by Kiyoko Murata - I picked it up because I'm going to Japan in December, although why I thought a book about an early 20th-century brothel would prepare me is anyone's guess. But I thoroughly enjoyed it and it was the perfect antidote to an otherwise dull holiday in Tenerife. Butter is on my bedside table so we'll see if that helps immerse me in Japanese culture before I pack my bags.

Cold Comfort Farm. I watched the film again a few weeks ago and it reminded me how much I enjoy the story. Stella Gibbons's writing is surprisingly fresh for a book written in the 1930s and it's also deliciously funny. Lovely. In fact, it's got me in the mood to find some more of her work.

Gabrielle

City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert, because it’s so fun and hard to put down, but also gets very deep. The Talented Mr Ripley because it has a holiday feel from being set in Italy and at the same time is so dark and makes you want to keep reading.

Sarah

I’ve just wolfed down the paperback version (finally! I hate taking hardbacks on holiday!) of Collected Works by Lydia Sandgren. I love chunky beach reads which you can really get into, and this is a captivating, sexy, funny 700 or so pages of discovering what happened to Cecilia Wikener, when she walked out on her young family decades before.