Yesterday’s stall bestsellers
5. Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney
4. OneTrackMinds: True Stories About Life Changing Songs by Kristian Brodie and Adam Shakinovsky
3. The U.S. Supreme Court: A Very Short Introduction by Linda Greenhouse
2. Broken Heartlands: A Journey Through Labour’s Lost England by Sebastian Payne. Seb will be signing copies at the pop-up on Hildreth Street, Balham at 2.30pm next Saturday (2nd July). If you can’t make it, order a copy via our website and I can get it signed for you.
1. The Guardian!!
“Durham was very good for history,” recalls the Frances de la Tour character in Alan Bennett’s The History Boys. “It’s where I had my first pizza. Other things too, of course, but it’s the pizza that stands out.”
As with new dishes - and, well, other things - songs are often filed in the memory by location. “Maps” by Maroon 5 always takes me back to a reporting assignment in Texas, the first time I had driven on any road after passing my test. The music reminds me of that magical drive: hot, sticky, terrifying yet liberating.
It’s the same with summer reads. Look at my bookshelves and I’m Interrailing again, reading my first le Carré, inscribed by the friend who bought it for me. Or I’m back in that bookshop at an Italian train station, thrilled to stumble across Robert Harris’s Conclave, desperate for a bit of comforting escapism at the fag-end of a holiday before starting a new job I was already fretting about.
Glancing up at the shelves, I can tell which ones were summer reads. They are the ones in an appalling condition: cracked spines, coffee and sun cream stains; their sorry state now the mirror image of the reader’s joy then. But I keep all of them because they so vividly recall a moment in time, even the ones that weren’t very good (like a trashy novel that was the only thing in English when I ended up staying with a photographer at a honeymoon resort in Samoa…long story!)
There is no fixed definition of a summer read, though I go by Ryanair Rules - i.e. hardbacks are out. For me, it means fiction, ideally under 400 pages. The books I take usually have at least two of three Ss: sun, sex, spies. There is also usually an intensity to - or claustrophobia within - romantic or family relationships that sits well with boiling days, culminating in occasional storms.
For a week, I’d usually pack three or four, though often not get through them: a thriller by a tried-and-tested old favourite, like Robert Harris or John le Carré; a couple of bits of contemporary fiction, often chosen as much for their sky-blue covers as their apparent literary chops; and some more heavyweight thing I’ve been meaning to read for ages and feel guilty about. I always read the old favourite and rarely even start the heavyweight; whether I get through both the middle two depends on how much time I spend on the lounger (and probably alcohol consumption and therefore nap time…)
So, in the spirit of making new memories, here are some books to think about packing this summer. The first few are books I think are perfect for the beach, followed by some Backstory team recommendations. Then there are some of my favourite suggestions from a Twitter call-out I did earlier in the week.
Whether you’re going to Australia or sprawling in the nearest park with a bottle of beer, have a fantastic summer.
Tom
Summer reads I’ve loved
Scoop by Evelyn Waugh: Waugh’s classic, hilarious skewering of journalism, still accurate 80 years on. I first read it on a family holiday to Majorca - seeing it now reminds me of the olive groves of Deià. It’s very, very funny.
The Past by Tessa Hadley: Four siblings are reunited on baking hot summer days to sort out their grandparents’ house - and rake over old memories. A sharply-observed family portrait.
Any PG Wodehouse: Funny, delightfully written and not remotely serious. Ideal beach fodder.
Turbulence by David Szalay: a marvellously slim volume of short stories linked together by a series of flights. Excellent vignettes of human nature.
Hot Milk by Deborah Levy: Perfectly captures the claustrophobic relationship between a hypochondriac mother and her daughter on a medical trip to Spain. The daughter has a fling with a lifeguard, because of course.
The Forgiven by Lawrence Osborne: I’ve raved about this one before. I devoured it on a beach in Tenerife, which felt nearly hot enough for the Moroccan weekend it describes, in which a British couple attending a house party grapple with the consequences of running over a local boy.
Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid: I read it for a book group in a cold January and still loved it. But it belongs on a beach. A glorious tale of rock-and-roll and fame that also manages to satirise the genre of self-serious Netflix documentaries.
Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis: I read this years ago on a boiling hot staycation, and it made me giggle. A classic comic novel about a young academic on the cusp of “a moderately successful future”.
Any Robert Harris: They’re all great but Conclave springs to mind as a really pacey beach read that you’ll tear through in a couple of days, with its gripping tale of ambitious cardinals locked together to choose a new Pope.
Backstory team picks
Life by Keith Richards: When this memoir came out over a decade ago, the ingenious tagline was "Yes, I remember it all" - and it's true: he does (well, as far as the reader can tell). Best enjoyed listening to the Stones' back catalogue with an ice-cold beverage to hand, ideally next to a pool... Lucie
Less by Andrew Sean Greer: Arthur Less uses travel to try to outrun the passage of time. This funny, moving (and Pulitzer Prize-winning!) novel follows him on a chaotic trip around the world, in which the past always manages to catch up with him. Tara
My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell: “Around us the town rose steeply, tiers of multi-coloured houses piled haphazardly, green shutters folded back from their windows, like the wings of a thousand moths.” Whether you're thinking of sunnier shores or lounging on this one, this light-hearted and colourful book about the eccentric Durrell family and their menagerie in Corfu is a perfect beach read. Dani
The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer: Charts the fortunes of a group of friends who first meet at a camp for gifted children in the 70s. A hugely engaging exploration of friendship, envy and the weight of expectation. Lucie
Bear by Marian Engel – A young archivist, Lou, has been sent to catalogue the library of the late, eccentric Colonel Cary in a house on a remote Canadian island. Also on the island is a bear, once the Colonel’s pet. As their bond grows, they embark on a spiritual and sexual journey together. Dubbed “the most controversial novel ever written in Canada”, I enjoyed this book, which at times has the feel of a folk tale. Dani
Friends of Backstory recommend…
The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V Higgins: sub-200 pages so perfect for zipping through on an afternoon. And its influence - not least on Elmore Leonard - is huge. Euan McColm
The blurb: When small-time gunrunner Eddie Coyle is convicted on a felony, he's looking at three years in the pen - that is, unless he sells out one of his big-fish clients to the DA. But which of the many hoods, gunmen and executioners he calls his friends should he send up river? Set on the mean streets of Boston and told almost entirely in crackling dialogue by a vivid cast of cops and lowlifes, The Friends of Eddie Coyle set a standard for authentically gritty crime fiction that has never been bettered.
Cecily by Annie Garthwaite: pacey historical fiction romp I would DEVOUR on the beach Sarah Roller
The blurb: 1431 is a dangerous time for a woman to be defiant. England has been fighting France for 100 years. At home, power-hungry men within a corrupt government manipulate a weak king - and name Cecily's husband, York's loyal duke, an enemy.
As the king's grasp on sanity weakens, plots to destroy York take root... It will take all of Cecily's courage and cunning to save her family. But when the will to survive becomes ambition for a crown, will she risk treason to secure it? Inside closed bedchambers and upon bloody battlefields, Cecily portrays war as women fight it.
Metronome by Tom Watson: akin to a John Wyndham novel, where normal isn’t normal. A couple imprisoned on a remote island wrestle with what is true Ian Duncan
The blurb: Not all that is hidden is lost. For twelve years Aina and Whitney have been in exile on an island for a crime they committed together, tethered to a croft by pills they must take for survival every eight hours. They've kept busy - Aina with her garden, her jigsaw, her music; Whitney with his sculptures and maps - but something is not right. Shipwrecks have begun washing up, and their supply drops have stopped. And on the day they're meant to be collected for parole, the Warden does not come. Instead there's a sheep. But sheep can't swim...
As days pass, Aina begins to suspect that their prison is part of a peninsula, and that Whitney has been keeping secrets. And if he's been keeping secrets, maybe she should too. Convinced they've been abandoned, she starts investigating ways she might escape. As she comes to grips with the decisions that haunt her past, she realises her biggest choice is yet to come.
Sun Damage by Sabine Durrant: Gripping and brilliantly written with horribly believable characters. Flic Bowden-Smith
The blurb: Nine guests arrive at a remote villa in the south of France. They know each other well. Or think they do. But at least one of them has plenty to hide - and nowhere to run. Under the relentless sun, loyalties will be tested, secrets revealed, and tensions pushed to the point of no return.
Mr Wilder & Me by Jonathan Coe: An elegant and beguiling [novel] about the wonderful film director Billy Wilder. It's partly set on a Greek island, so perfect holiday reading. Jenny Linford
The blurb: In the summer of 1977, naive Calista Frangopoulou sets out to venture into the world. On a Greek island that has been turned into a film set, she finds herself working for Billy Wilder, about whom she knows almost nothing. While Calista is thrilled with her new adventure, Wilder himself is living with the realisation that his star may be on the wane. Rebuffed by Hollywood, he has financed his film with German money, and when Calista follows him to Munich, she finds herself joining him on a journey of memory into the dark heart of his family history. At once a tender coming-of-age story and an intimate portrait of a Hollywood icon, Mr Wilder and Me explores the nature of time and fame, of family and the treacherous lure of nostalgia.
How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie: Especially recommend for raising an eyebrow on family holidays Charlotte Carnegie
The blurb: They say you can't choose your family. But you can kill them. Meet Grace Bernard. Daughter, sister, serial killer... Grace has lost everything. And she will stop at nothing to get revenge.
The Man Within by Graham Greene: His first and most underrated book. The key scene takes place on a beach Alistair MacDonald
The blurb: This is the story of Francis Andrews, a young man whose betrayal of his fellow smugglers has left a man dead. Fearing vengeance, he flees and takes refuge in the house of a young, isolated woman who persuades him to give evidence against his accomplices in court. But neither she nor Andrews is aware that to both criminals and authority, treachery is as great a crime as smuggling.
A Certain Hunger by Chelsea G Summers: An unrepentant murderer reflects on her illustrious career as a food writer. I ripped through it a few bank holidays ago. Potentially depends on your mileage when it comes to sexy cannibalism. Holly Harley
The blurb: Dorothy Daniels has always had a voracious - and adventurous - appetite. From her idyllic farm-to-table childhood (homegrown tomatoes, thick slices of freshly baked bread) to the heights of her career as a food critic (white truffles washed down with Barolo straight from the bottle) Dorothy has never been shy about indulging her exquisite tastes - even when it led to her plunging an ice pick into her lover's neck.
There is something inside Dorothy that makes her different from everybody else. Something she's finally ready to confess. But beware: her story just might make you wonder how your lover would taste sauteed with shallots and mushrooms and deglazed with a little red wine.
Still Life by Sarah Winman: A book I wish I had saved for a holiday. Set in a radiant Florence, full of love and life and glorious sounding food and wine. Just a perfect beach read. Gary Wigglesworth
The blurb: 1944, Italy. As bombs fall around them, two strangers meet in the ruined wine cellar of a Tuscan villa and share an extraordinary evening. Ulysses Temper is a young British soldier, Evelyn Skinner a 64-year-old art historian living life on her own terms. She has come to salvage paintings from the wreckage of war and relive memories of her youth when her heart was stolen by an Italian maid in a particular room with a view. Ulysses' chance encounter with Evelyn will transform his life - and all those who love him back home in London - forever. Uplifting, sweeping and full of unforgettable characters, Still Life is a novel about beauty, love, family and friendship.
The Cold Millions by Jess Walter: Free speech riots in the Wild West in early 1900s but with the same tenderness of his earlier book, Beautiful Ruins (another great read). Didn’t want to leave the beach because of it… Naomi Grimley
The blurb: 1909. Spokane, Washington. The Dolan brothers are living by their wits, jumping freight trains and lining up for work at crooked job agencies. While sixteen-year-old Rye yearns for a steady job and a home, his dashing older brother Gig dreams of a better world, fighting alongside other union men for fair pay and decent treatment. But then Rye finds himself drawn to suffragette Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and her passion sweeps him into the world of protest and dirty business. As a storm starts brewing, questions of love, sacrifice, brotherhood and betrayal emerge, threatening to overwhelm them all. The Cold Millions is at once an intimate story and a stunning, kaleidoscopic portrait of a nation grappling with the chasm between rich and poor, dreams and reality.
Take me to the beach
This is a great list, including the completely-unknown-to-me readers’ list. I’ve forwarded it on.
I don’t do comfort reading, but have (re)-read The Cancer Ward, The Sorrow of Belgium, and Agota Kristof’s trilogy recently. I’ve just finished Pat Barker’sThe women of Troy which got rave reviews but I found the language very poor and the voice not credible.