10 books to relax and fall in love with over the summer…
- Me Before You: the trilogy by JoJo Moyes
The Trilogy follows the story of Louisa Clark through love, heartbreak, and life-changing decisions as she discovers who she really is. Louisa is an ordinary girl living a small village with her close family and steady boyfriend. She takes a badly needed job working for the Traynor’s – looking after Will who is wheelchair bound after an accident. A tale of heart-breaking romance yet one of my personal favourites. Moyes writes with such warmth and love that Louisa really comes to life; even better still you can watch the major motion picture film featuring Emilia Clarke and Sam Claflin – who do the book justice.
2. On a beautiful day by Lucy Diamond
It’s a beautiful day in Manchester and four friends are meeting for a birthday lunch. But they witness a shocking accident just metres away which acts as a catalyst for each of them. For Laura, it’s a wakeup call to heed the ticking of her biological clock. Sensible Jo finds herself immersed in a new relationship. Eve, worried about a lump in her breast feels helpless and lost. And happy-go-lucky India is drawn to one of the victims, causing secrets to rise to the surface. The novel is beautifully split across these four women and their stories, it’s about luck and bravery & the hope of friendship and togetherness.
3. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
Eleanor is Honeyman’s unfortunate and hugely sympathetic protagonist, living a lonely and isolated life of monotonous routine. Working in the accounts department of a production company for the past nine years, Eleanor is the office oddball, maligned by her colleagues for her quirks and inflexibility. Yet she finds friendship in a new colleague & her past unravels. A heart-warming and thought provoking tale about loneliness, hope and the importance of friendship.
4. How to stop time by Matt Haig
Tom Hazard the protagonist is very, very old. Born in France in 1581, he is fast approaching his 440th birthday. However, you wouldn’t know this just by his appearance. Tom has a rare but not unique condition called anageria. Meaning tom ages at a rate of roughly one year for every 15 ordinary human years. The novel flits between his past life and modern-day life in London where Tom is ironically a history teacher. With the book split into 5 parts, the novel is a journey through time from past-present-future from 3 different generations. how to Stop Time is a bighearted, wildly original novel about losing and finding yourself, the inevitability of change, and how with enough time to learn, we just might find happiness and love.
5. Is it just me? by Miranda Hart
Comedy queen Miranda Hart recalls the awkward experiences she has encountered over the years and gives her unique thoughts and advice on dealing with them. The Daily Mail express sum it up nicely: “Is Miranda Hart a National Treasure yet? If not, it can only be a year or two before she joins Stephen Fry and Alan Bennett in the trophy cabinet of the country’s affections… That personality and voice belong to a uniquely cherished comedian, and the answer to that question in her title is actually, yes – it is just her. Because there’s nobody like Miranda.”
6. Holes by Louis Sachar
Stanley Yeats is under a curse, he has been unjustly sent to a boy’s detention centre, Camp Green Lake, where the warden makes the boys ‘build character’ by spending all day digging holes. But it doesn’t take Stanley long to realise there’s more than character improvement going on, they are looking for something. Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humourous tale of crime and punishment – and redemption.
7. Around the world in 80 days by Jules Verne
Around the World in Eighty Days is an adventure novel by the French writer Jules Verne, published in 1873. In the story, Phileas Fogg of London and his newly employed French valet Passepartout attempt to circumnavigate the world in 80 days on a £20,000 wager set by his friends at the Reform Club. Around the World in Eighty Days is a story combining exploration, adventure and a thrilling race against time. “To go around the world…in such a short time and with the means of transport currently available, was not only impossible, it was madness”- GoodReads
8. Harry potter and the philosophers stone by J.K.Rowling
If you haven’t heard of Harry Potter, where have you been?! But you may well have seen the films but never read the books. So, to start at the beginning is the best, with added details and developed relationships between characters, the books do trump the films! Harry Potter has never heard of Hogwarts (school of witchcraft and wizardy) until the letters arrive at number four, privet drive where he has been staying with his grisly muggle family (his aunt and uncle). On Harry’s eleventh birthday, a great beetle-eyed giant of a man called Hagrid bursts in & tells Harry he is a wizard and an incredible adventure is about to begin. Full of magic, fantasy, fun and adventure Harry and his fellow partners in crime, Hermione and Ron move through school yet it’s never as simple as it seems.
9. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again…”. With these words a reader is swept up into a world of secrets and lies; one of the most passionate, psychologically twisting and complex stories of all-time. Working as a lady’s companion, the orphaned heroine learns her place, until she meets Maxim de Winter, a handsome widower whose sudden proposal takes her by surprise. Whisked to Manderely, on the Cornish coast, the new Mrs de Winter finds a life full of surprises and the recurring memory of his dead wife Rebecca forever haunting…
10. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Generations of readers young and old, male and female, have fallen in love with the March sisters of Louisa May Alcott’s most popular and enduring gothic novel, Little Women. Alcott’s semi-autobiographical coming-of-age novel centres on four sisters as they embark on the journey from childhood to adulthood during the American civil war. Here are talented tomboy and author-to-be Jo, tragically frail Beth, beautiful Meg, and romantic, spoiled Amy, united in their devotion to each other and their struggles of what it means to be a young woman, experiencing everything from sibling rivalry to first love and loss.
