SUMMER HOLIDAYS are for lazing by the pool, with a cool drink in your hand and a stack of good books beside you. Looking to add to that stack? Here are our recommendations.
1. Fat Chance by Louise McSharry
The broadcaster (and former DailyEdge.ie writer) draws from her 33 years of life experience to offer Irish women advice on sex, weight, feminism, and everything in between, as well as frankly discussing her ‘messed-up childhood’ and her recovery from cancer. Read it, then give it to every gal you know.
2. Nothing On Earth by Conor O’Callaghan
One hot August, a man invites a frightened girl into his home, where she tells him about her strange life in the show house of a ghost housing estate. If you enjoyed Dónal Ryan’s The Spinning Heart, you’ll love this.
3. Shrill by Lindy West
This collection of essays by the ‘ferociously witty’ Lindy West tackles everything from social justice, to body image, to West’s real life run-in with a internet troll who impersonated her late father. Life-affirming stuff.
4. The Association of Small Bombs by Karan Mahajan
One day in 1966, a bomb goes off in a Delhi marketplace. A young survivor of the blast tries to pick up the pieces of his life, while bearing the physical and psychological effects of the disaster. An unpredictable, unputdownable novel.
5. Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld
It was only a matter of time before Pride and Prejudice was reworked for the 21st century, and Curtis Sittenfeld – author of Prep and American Wife – is just the writer to do so. The Bennet family are relocated to modern day Cincinnati, and Mr Darcy is a neurosurgeon. But of course.
6. The Two-Family House by Lynda Cohen Loigman
There’s nothing like a sprawling family saga to get stuck into by the pool, and this one should do just nicely. In 1940s Brooklyn, two babies are born minutes apart in a two-family brownstone house – this novel charts the making and breaking of their friendship.
7. Solar Bones by Mike McCormack
McCormack’s darkly funny novel brings us to the West of Ireland just before the recession hits the country. It tells the story of how one man’s world fell apart – and how seemingly minor decisions can change everything.
8. The Girls by Emma Cline
Set in 1960s California, Emma Cline’s debut follows a teenager as she is drawn towards a group of girls who belong to a cult (based on the Manson Family). We don’t know about you, but this is basically everything we look for in a poolside read.
9. The Mirror Thief by Martin Seay
What is summer without a good thriller? Here’s one with a twist – The Mirror Thief links sixteeth-century Venice, 1950s Venice Beach, and a present-day Las Vegas casino in a gripping tale of a man with nothing to lose.
