Following planning this year's summer reading, I remembered what I read last summer. This time last year I was en route to Florida for three weeks in the sun, in Disney World and on the Gulf Coast. When I wasn't meeting Mickey Mouse, tossing an American football in the Gulf of Mexico, or having barbeques with my boyfriend's family, I was lying in the sun reading or cooling off indoors with a book in hand. Nostalgic today, I am envious of my own self a year ago; the closest I will get to reading on the beach this year is potentially a day trip to Brighton.
Last summer's book choices were perfect. I enjoyed them all immensely and the enjoyment of the holiday itself definitely influenced my enjoyment of the books and the pleasure I experienced in reading contributed to my overall happiness throughout the holiday.
From the photograph above you can see that I read A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, which I had received as a Christmas gift seven months previously and stored up as an ideal summer read. Before that I read one of my Waterstone's Summer 3 for 2 books (I love indulging in this offer for holiday reading), The Private Lives of Pippa Lee by Rebecca Miller (daughter of Arthur Miller and wife of Daniel Day Lewis; the motion picture due to be released this July), which was darker than I expected but had a witty and wise writing style that I really liked. I followed this up with the incredibly engrossing The Return by Victoria Hislop, which was published just in time a few weeks earlier, and like her debut novel The Island, is a wonderfully compelling summer novel. After the engaging but often bleak A Thousand Splendid Suns (but evocative of heat and sand, especially when lying in them), I discovered Jonathan Coe for the first time by reading the haunting and resonant The Rain Before it Falls (another of my Waterstone's bargains) during some tropical thunderstorms that aleviated the humidity somewhat. Lastly I read my free book from Waterstone's -the one I actually intended to buy- The Bastard of Istanbul by Eli Shafak, which was a consuming and often disturbing family saga set in Turkey. All of my summer reading choices were relatively light yet absorbing. I also discovered the best independent bookshop whilst on the Gulf Coast but I intend to devote a future blog post to that experience.
Last summer's book choices were perfect. I enjoyed them all immensely and the enjoyment of the holiday itself definitely influenced my enjoyment of the books and the pleasure I experienced in reading contributed to my overall happiness throughout the holiday.
From the photograph above you can see that I read A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, which I had received as a Christmas gift seven months previously and stored up as an ideal summer read. Before that I read one of my Waterstone's Summer 3 for 2 books (I love indulging in this offer for holiday reading), The Private Lives of Pippa Lee by Rebecca Miller (daughter of Arthur Miller and wife of Daniel Day Lewis; the motion picture due to be released this July), which was darker than I expected but had a witty and wise writing style that I really liked. I followed this up with the incredibly engrossing The Return by Victoria Hislop, which was published just in time a few weeks earlier, and like her debut novel The Island, is a wonderfully compelling summer novel. After the engaging but often bleak A Thousand Splendid Suns (but evocative of heat and sand, especially when lying in them), I discovered Jonathan Coe for the first time by reading the haunting and resonant The Rain Before it Falls (another of my Waterstone's bargains) during some tropical thunderstorms that aleviated the humidity somewhat. Lastly I read my free book from Waterstone's -the one I actually intended to buy- The Bastard of Istanbul by Eli Shafak, which was a consuming and often disturbing family saga set in Turkey. All of my summer reading choices were relatively light yet absorbing. I also discovered the best independent bookshop whilst on the Gulf Coast but I intend to devote a future blog post to that experience.
