It's not dark until 10:00 pm, my heating bill's cheap as chips, and I can carry a cold drink in my hand outside without the threat of said hand falling off!? I've definitely been feeling like this recently:
So with sunshine and beach holiday season just about in full swing, here at Rare Birds we've put together another of our ultimate reading guides to suit this time of year.Â
Of course there's no actual rules set in stone when it comes to the book you bring on a summer holiday. If I saw someone lugging around The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk on their island getaway I'd be terrified and slightly concerned for sure, but mainly impressed.
In general though, there is a bit of a consensus on the ideal summer read. I agree they should have a few core elements—they should be engaging, a bit escapist, and not too heavy (thematically and physically). When I'm lying in my hostel bed, physically exhausted and trying to wind down while someone snores loudly in the bunk above me, the last kind of book I want to read is something extremely dense and challenging.
So whether you're off on an adventure holiday, lazing by the pool, or finding a patch of sun in your local park to read, we hope you find a book you love on this list! There's a good mix of genres, with some new releases and some older, they're also mainly paperbacks with a few cheeky hardbacks thrown in.
For the romance loversÂ
Love and Other Paradoxes by Catriona SilveyÂ
Perfect for fans of the movie 'About Time'! AKA me big-time.Â
'Cambridge University student Joe Greene dreams of a future where his words will echo through the ages. Esi already knows his future. She’s on a time-traveling tour to witness history’s greatest moments. In Esi’s era, Joe is as renowned as Shakespeare, and he’s about to meet Diana, the subject of his famous love poems. But Esi is harbouring a secret.'
'This year, something will happen at Cambridge that will wreck her life, and she’s hellbent on changing it. When she bumps into Joe, she sends his destiny into a tailspin. To save both their futures, Esi becomes Joe’s dating coach, helping him win over Diana. But when Joe starts falling for Esi instead – they both face a crucial question: Is the future set in stone, or can we rewrite our fates?'
Consider Yourself Kissed by Jessica StanleyÂ
'What happens when you find love, but life keeps getting in the way?'
'When she first meets Adam, Coralie is new to London and feeling adrift. But Adam is clever, witty, and – he insists – half an inch taller than the average British male. His charming four-year-old daughter, Zora, only adds to his appeal.'Â
'And yet ten years on, something important is missing from the life Coralie and Adam (though let’s face it, mostly Coralie) have built. Or maybe, having gained everything she dreamed of, Coralie has lost something she once had: herself. Consider Yourself Kissed is a captivating portrait of a woman in love which effortlessly balances sweetness with bite, the public with the personal, and humour with heart.'Â
Chaotic Energy by Stephanie YeboahÂ
'Watch out world, Artemis Owusu is entering her villain era...'
'Artemis 'Temz' Owusu has bags of confidence, and plenty of opportunity for hook-ups; she fiercely embraces her beautiful size 26 body and expects any man to do the same. Her marketing career is on fire, and she has a thriving side-hustle as a 'plantfluencer'.
'But for some reason, her romantic relationships just won't stick. So, when sexy California-based tech entrepreneur Ruben slides into her DMs looking for plant care advice, Temz doesn't waste an opportunity. Soon their long-distance digital flirtation is growing roots - until, in an out-of-character bout of self-doubt, Temz commits the cardinal online sin...'
The thrilling & mysterious
The Salt Flats by Rachelle AtallaÂ
'Martha and Finn's marriage is hanging by a thread. Martha, crippled by paralyzing climate anxiety, finds herself at odds with Finn, who steadfastly refuses to confront the demons of his past. In a desperate attempt to repair their relationship, they join a group of privileged tourists on a pilgrimage to The Salt Centre, a mysterious retreat nestled deep within the Bolivian salt flats.'
'As a series of salt ceremonies unfold, hallucinogenic episodes force each of them to confront their own versions of reality. When the final ceremony descends into a nightmare, Martha and Finn are met with an ultimatum. Forced to grapple with the moral implications of their trip they must ask themselves: are some wounds too deep to heal?'
What a Way to Go by Bella MackieÂ
'I was immensely grateful that despite the gruesome way my husband died, he’d done it with his clothes on.'
'Anthony Wistern is wealthy beyond imagination. Fragrant wife, gaggle of photogenic children, French chateau, Cotswold manor, plethora of mistresses, penchant for cutting moral corners, tick tick tick tick tick tick.'
'Unfortunately for him, he’s also dead. Suddenly poised to inherit his fortune, each member of the family falls under suspicion. And that’s when the lying starts.'
Listen for the Lie by Amy TinteraÂ
'Lucy Chase can’t remember anything about the night her best friend was murdered. Lucky her, you’re probably thinking. Who would want that to be their last memory of someone they love? But for Lucy, it’s become an issue.'
'Because everyone thinks she did it. But that was five years ago, and Lucy has put it all behind her. Or at least, she thought she had, until an interfering yet not bad-looking podcaster offers her the opportunity to join his investigation into the night she forgot.'
'On the one hand, if she’s a murderer, it's probably better to know – right? On the other, if she didn’t do it, she’ll be putting herself back in the sights of the person who did. And either way, if you’ve already killed once, what’s to stop you from doing it again?'
Short StoriesÂ
Ideal if you're looking to dip in and out of reading while you dip in and out of the pool.Â
Love in Colour by Bolu Babalola
'Bolu Babalola takes the most beautiful love stories from history and mythology and rewrites them with incredible new detail and vivacity in her debut collection.'
'Whether captured in the passion of love at first sight, or realising that self-love takes precedent over the latter, the characters in these vibrant stories try to navigate this most complex human emotion and understand why it holds them hostage. Moving exhilaratingly across perspectives, continents and genres, from the historic to the vividly current, Love in Colour is a celebration of romance in all of its forms.'
Openings by Lucy Caldwell
'I still sometimes wonder if one could draw a window in the wall, or in the air, and step through it together. To somewhere else, entirely new.'
From a passionate affair in Blitz-era London, to a highly charged Christmas party in Belfast, to a trip to Marrakech which could form a new family, the thirteen striking stories of Openings pulse with possibility and illuminate those fleeting but recognisable moments of heartbreak and hope that can change the course of a life.
A Cage Went in Search of a Bird by Various AuthorsÂ
'What happens when Kafka's idiosyncratic imagination meets some of the greatest literary minds writing in English across the globe today? In this collection of stories, commissioned to commemorate one hundred years since his death, ten of our most celebrated international writers take ideas of Kafka's - motifs from his stories, titles of his famous works, or unfinished fragments left behind in his Blue Octavo Notebooks - and run with them to make something new.'
Thought-provoking funÂ
On the Calculation of Volume, 1 by Solvej BalleÂ
Shortlisted for the international booker, this hypnotising read is one of my favs of this year so far!
'Tara Selter has slipped out of time. Every morning, she wakes up to the 18th of November. She no longer expects to wake up to the 19th of November, and she no longer remembers the 17th of November as if it were yesterday. She comes to know the shape of the day like the back of her hand - the grey morning light in her Paris hotel; the moment a blackbird breaks into song; her husband's surprise at seeing her return home unannounced. But for everyone around her, this day is lived for the first and only time.'
'As Tara approaches her 365th 18th of November, she can't shake the feeling that somewhere underneath the surface of this day, there's a way to escape.'
8 Lives of a Century-Old Trickster by Mirinae LeeÂ
'At the Golden Sunset retirement home, it is not unusual for residents to invent stories. So when elderly Ms Mook first begins to unspool her memories, the obituarist listening to her is sceptical. Stories of captivity, friendship, murder, assumed identities and spying. A life that moves from WWII Indonesia to Busan during the Korean war; from cold-war Pyongyang to a Protestant church in China.'
'The adventures are so colourful and various, at times so unbelievable. Surely they can't all belong to the same woman. Can they?'
Fundamentally by Nussaibah Younis
'By normal, you mean like you? A slag with a saviour complex?'Â
'When academic Nadia is disowned by her puritanical mother and dumped by her lover, she decides to make a getaway - accepting a UN job in Iraq. Tasked with rehabilitating ISIS women, Nadia becomes mired in the opaque world of international aid, surrounded by bumbling colleagues. But then Nadia meets Sara, a precocious and sweary East Londoner who joined ISIS at just fifteen, and she is struck by how similar their stories are.'
'A bitingly original, wildly funny and razor-sharp exploration of love, family, religion, radicalism, and the decisions we make in pursuit of connection and belonging.'
Escape into Another WorldÂ
The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai MochiwkiÂ
'Under a glittering full moon, a Kyoto coffee shop with no fixed location or fixed hours appears only where and when it's needed. It is run by talking cats serving the finest teas and coffees, delicious desserts and age-old astrological wisdom. The Full Moon Coffee Shop attracts customers who have lost their way in their life, from a down-on-her-luck screenwriter to a failed video game developer. In the middle of the night, the feline guides will set them back on their fated paths.'
Dragonfall by L.R Lam
'Long ago, humans betrayed dragons, stealing their magic and banishing them to a dying world. Centuries later, their descendants worship dragons as gods. But the 'gods' remember, and they do not forgive. Since they were orphaned, Arcady has scraped a living thieving on the streets of Vatra, dreaming of life among the nobility - and revenge.'Â
'When the chance arises to steal a powerful artefact from the bones of the Plaguebringer, the most hated person in Lumet history, they jump at it, for its magic holds the key to their dreams. But the spell has unintended consequences, and drags Everen – the last male dragon, who was once foretold to save his kind – into the human world. Trapped, and disguised as a human, Everen soon realises that the key to his destiny, and to regaining his true power, lies in Arcady.'
Monk and Robot by Becky ChambersÂ
A new paperback edition of Becky Chambers well-loved post-utopian duology. Coming June 16th that Contains books 'A Psalm for the Wild-Built' & 'A Prayer for the Crown-Shy'
'It's been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; centuries since they wandered, en masse, into the wilderness, never to be seen again; centuries since they faded into myth and urban legend. One day, the life of a tea monk is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in.'
'The robot cannot go back until the question of "what do people need?" is answered. But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how. They're going to need to ask it a lot.'
