Last year I wrote a post about the best books I had read
throughout the year. I intended to do the same this year but with the summer
holidays just a few weeks away, I thought I was share some of my favourites in
case you needed inspiration!
Here are my top literary picks to pack in your suitcase this
summer:
Both wonderful books which I rattled through in a few days.
I preferred CWF but both are great. Read this if you love getting to know
characters in a lot of details, perhaps give it a miss if you need something
fast-paced.
I love Elizabeth Day’s podcast and was excited about this
book from the day she announced it. I think it’s very healthy to discuss
failure in a world driven by ‘success’, most of which seems to be deemed by
salary, social media, clicks, likes, marriage, mortgages and motherhood. I
really enjoyed the book but as I have listened to every podcast episode, I
didn’t think there was much new material in it. The Party was a great read and
would be perfect for packing in your suitcase.
This was an absolute masterpiece and one of my favourite
books of the year so far. In this collection of essays about her life, Irish
writer Emilie Pine discusses work, fertility, IVF and her acceptance for living
a child-free life, relationships, her father and his battle with alcoholism.
It’s a short book – less than 200 pages – but I would wholeheartedly encourage
you to read this slowly, savour every word, and when you finish the last page,
go back and start again. I loved it.
Another very excellent book. Everyone should read this
regardless of how much is in your bank account or how much you earn. It
explores our relationship with money (something I have been focusing on
recently) and after I finished this book, I made a few tiny changes which will
have a massive effect (I’m talking about the good stuff here – pensions etc,
this is not just another book telling millennials to stop buying coffee and avo
toast). This book is currently £4 on Amazon - less than the price of lunch. It's probably the best money you'll spend this year.
I don’t read as much fiction as I used to, but when I did I
loved Jodi Picoult. I was lucky enough to meet and interview her for my final
project at uni and she was such a dream. I picked up this book after hearing
her on Emma Gannon’s podcast. It’s a little difficult to keep track of the
story as it’s not told chronologically, but it’s worth sticking with. It tells
the story of a group of people at an abortion clinic who have been taken
hostage. Both sides of the pro life/pro choice debate are explored in this
book, which had a great twist at the end. I loved it!
This was the first book I read this year. I’ve highlighted
and scribbled in this so much. I didn’t feel like my usual sparkly self at the
start of 2019 and I found this really helped. It would make a great gift and I
can see it being relevant for people of all ages for years to come.
This was a birthday gift from a friend who knows me well! I
read this while training for the Brighton Marathon and really enjoyed it. It’s
a great, accessible book for anyone who jogs for five minutes or competes in
marathons.
Anna’s life is told through the countries she visits, her
journey around the world and eventually, to a place she can call home. I’m
always fascinated by people stories of being raised abroad, and Anna’s
childhood spent in Singapore was no exception. This book is good if you're like me and spend every flight home working out how you can quit your job and move abroad.
I didn’t know much about Busy Philipps but someone was
raving about this on IG stories so I popped it in my Amazon basket and kind of
forgot about it. I picked it up one day when I knew I had a long train journey
ahead of me, and I managed to read it in a day. I absolutely loved it – it’s
very honest, absolutely hilarious and gives you a fascinating BTS look at Hollywood.
An absolute game changer. This has re-framed how I look at a lot of things. I've highlight so much of this book (once a lit student, always a lit student) and written on just about every page. This book gave me the confidence to sit in the discomfort and realise that long term gain is always worth the short term pain.
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