10 light reads for your summer holiday

Posted on 1 January, 2015

Like so many things in life I have always found a personal recommendation to be the best way to find the next good thing – and books are no different. My plans for this summer include a lot of relaxing and easy reading so I asked my awesome fellow HerCanberra writers for their recommendations.

Heather Wallace suggests the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch. Imagine Harry Potter graduated Hogwarts and started working for ‘The Bill’ and you have the Rivers of London series. It’s the world and characters in it rather than the mystery plots that makes the series so much fun. The series comes with serious geek credentials as Ben Aaronovitch was a scriptwriter for Dr Who in the late 80s and has talent for creating a world that’s slightly parallel and underground to ours. This one is on the top of my list!

Emma Bourke has suggests Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham; You’ll be Sorry When I’m Dead by Marike Hardy and Bossy Pants by Tina Fey. I am a big fan Lena Dunham and Tina Fey so they are both on my list! I watch the ABC’s The Book Club and I could put money on the fact that if Marike Hardy likes a book – I will hate it and vice versa. I would love to be in a book club with Marike as we have such different tastes in books, so I won’t be putting her book on my list. How about you?

Bronwen Stead says Paris Letters by Janice Macleod is an easy and enjoyable read. It’s about one woman’s pursuit of her own happiness, which lead her to pursue living simply, reducing her stuff and eventually leaving her high paying, high stress job in order to travel the world. By getting rid of the “stuff” she had accepted she needed without question, she creates her own truth and connects with her true joy.

That sounds like just the inspiration I need to start the de-cluttering process of my entire house, so that one is on my list too!

Tash Shan tells me that George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire is a surprisingly easy read but I’ve tried to start reading the Game of Thrones series twice now and not been able to get into it, even though I am a huge fan of the TV series. Maybe Tash’s recommendation will push me to try it again….this one is tentatively on my list.

One of the awesome parts of being on the HerCanberra team is that I’m sometimes sent books to review by publishers. Unfortunately, it also gives me the first world problem of having too many books and not enough time in the day. So here are some books that are currently on my bedside table.

The Lightkeepers Wife by Karen Viggers. I LOVED The Grass Castle and I know I’m going to love this one too. Read the review here.

A Short History of Stupid by Bernard Keane and Helen Razer. With questions such as “How did everything get so dumb?”, “How did we become hostages to idiocy?” and “What must we do to be freed from a captor whose ransom note simply reads ‘D’oh?” This book is said to be hilarious, smart, unpleasant, infuriating and rude. What more could you want in a book?!

The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness is the third book in the All Soul trilogy. I devoured the first two in a matter of days and am sure that the final book will be just as enthralling. With aspects such as time travel, witches and vampire scientists, these all seem extremely likely thanks to the talented author. The paperback has 580 pages, so this is one I have been waiting for some uninterrupted time to immerse myself into.

Mothers and Daughters by Kylie Ladd promises tension, bitchiness, bullying, sex, drunken confessions, bad behaviour and breakdowns when four mothers and their four teenage daughters head off to a tropical paradise with no internet or phone reception. One word. Awesome! Perfect for a summer poolside read.

Confessions of a Millionaire’s Mistress by Ava Reilly is the true story of an innocent young woman who found herself swept into a passionate, irresistible romance with a charismatic, wealthy, powerful man used to getting what he wants – whatever the cost. I love to read about people’s lives that are so very different from my own and this looks to be an easy and enjoyable read.

What’s in your book pile this summer? What do you hope to read…or at least finish?

Feature image of sunglasses resting on book courtesy of Shutterstock.