Our Summer Reading Recommendations
This month I asked the team for their summer reading recommendations.
Up first is Paul, who I embarrassed by asking him to pose with his choice of book.
Paul is a huge Terry Pratchett fan and so he chose Going Postal, which we currently have in stock as a beautiful hard back first edition. Set in the fictional Discworld, this is about the saving of the long defunct postal system and contains plenty of Pratchett’s expected sharp wit and satire. The Discworld’s similarities with our own are many and varied and has characters that can be easily recognised as those we know in our own day to day lives. This is what makes it such a great read, hilarious and totally relatable.
I got a bit carried away and suggested a couple of novels from our modern fiction section that I loved plus The Salt Path. A beautiful non fiction account of a couple who have lost everything and decide that walking the 630 mile South West Coast path might just be their salvation. I devoured it in a weekend! Perfect inspiration for planning a staycation trip.
The Woman Who Went to Bed for a Year is the tale of Eva, who decides she’s had enough of running around after everyone else in her life and one day just stays in bed... for good. Is she just a diva? Is she mentally unwell? A subtle but interesting social commentary on what has become known as the ‘mental load’ and the role of women. It was an easy read that you could get through in a couple of days sat on a sunny beach (or in front of a fire with a hot cuppa - we are in the UK after all!).
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine was another easy read that I finished in days. Eleanor is a quiet, socially awkward thirty year old woman with a traumatic past. An unexpected act of heroism and a chance encounter with a work colleague changes the monotony of her days and sets her on a path of learning about the world and herself. You can’t help but be affected by the transformation of this story.
Caitlin suggested journalist Brian Viner’s Cream Teas, Traffic Jams & Sunburn. A humorous look at the history of British holidays both at home and abroad. Not least because of its brief but scathing mention of our nearest ‘big’ town and a notorious stretch of its busiest road that we can all relate to being stuck on in peak holiday times! It’s all the holiday stories you wouldn’t be able to reminisce about if it wasn’t for these typical British experiences.
Penny’s choice is A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian which she says is much funnier than the title might suggest! A story of an 84 year old who falls for a much younger lady and the family drama that ensues. A good ‘laugh out loud’ holiday read.
We hope you enjoy all of our recommendations whether you are reading them on a sunny beach somewhere or inside sheltering from the good old British rain.