Summer Reading Recommendations

It’s that time of year where life slows enough for us to pull out a book and read without the pressure of work. A mate asked for some summer reading recommendations. Here’s my non-extensive list of some must-reads for your summer. They are in no particular order.

Three Boys Gone by Mark Smith

Mark Smith’s new book Three Boys Gone is coming out on 31 December. I’ve read an early copy and it is great.

Three Boys Gone in set outdoor education on the west coast of Victoria. Grace, an outdoor educator working in the Catholic education system, is hiding from her past and keeping her relationship with a coworker secret. When three boys on an outdoor trip Grace is leading run into the stormy and treacherous ocean, Grace faces the dilemma of rescuing them and potentially drowning, or leaving them to the peril. Her decision upends her life as she grapples with the fallout and intense public scrutiny.

The tension is tight the entire way through the story and Smith does a great job of holding back from giving us everything.

Theory and Practice by Michelle DeKretser

Michelle DeKretser’s Theory and Practice will make you remember life in Melbourne in the late 80s. The protagonist has recently moved from Sydney to research Virginia Woolf’s novels. In bohemian St Kilda she meets artists, activists, students—and Kit. He claims to be in a ‘deconstructed’ relationship, and they become lovers. Meanwhile, her work on the Woolfmother falls into disarray. It’s a mesmerising account of desire and jealousy, truth and shame. It makes and unmakes fiction as we read, expanding our notion of what a novel can contain.

To Sing of War by Catherine McKinnon

Catherine McKinnon’s parents’ World War II stories inspired To Sing of War. The epic story is set in New Guinea, Japan and America. There’s a cast of characters, from soldiers in New Guinea, to scientists in America and citizens in Japan. The tension builds throughout the story in the lead up to ‘the’ bomb.

Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty

Has there ever been a Moriarty book that hasn’t delivered? This is no exception to her oevre. Pacy and thrilling. It begins on a plane from Tasmania to Sydney with a woman delivering messages to everyone on the plane about how and when they will die. And then they do.

The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies by Allison Goodman

Lovers of Bridgerton and Jane Austen will love this book. A high society amateur detective at the heart of Regency London uses her wits and invisibility as an ‘old maid’ to protect other women in a new and fiercely feminist historical mystery series ‘The Ill-Mannered Ladies’.

This book’s a great fun summer read.

Three Wild Dogs and The Truth by Marcus Zusac

This is a memoir from Marcus Zusac (of The Book Thief and one I really loved, Bridge of Clay) family’s adoption of three troublesome rescue dogs—a charming and courageous love story about making even the most incorrigible of animals family.

Girl Falling by Hayley Scrivenor

If you’re travelling up to the Blue Mountains this would be a great book to take with you. It asks the question of why would a best friend want to destroy their friend’s life. Finn and her best friend, Daphne, have grown up together in a small town in the Blue Mountains, NSW. Bonded by both having lost a younger sister to suicide, they’ve always had a close – sometimes too close – friendship. Now in their twenties, their lives have finally started to Daphne is at university and Finn is working in the Mountains, as well as falling in love with a beautiful newcomer called Magdu. This novel has a cracking pace.

The Burrow by Melanie Cheng

This is a delightful and tender small novel that explores grief and tragedy with deep tenderness. Amy, Jin and Lucie are leading isolated lives in their partially renovated, inner city home. Change terrifies them, despite their unhappiness. The family is forced to confront long-buried secrets when Jin buys Lucie a pet rabbit and Amy’s mother Pauline comes to stay.

Will opening their hearts to the rabbit help them to heal or only invite further tragedy?

Grace and Marigold by Mira Robertson

This book will be a great one if you want to be transported back to London in the 70s, or have grown up hearing some of the stories from Australians who travelled over there for their gap year.

It’ s 1974 when 20-year-old Grace arrives in London determined to shrug off her Australian past and reinvent herself. While embracing her new life in the Free Republic of Beltonia, a street of communal squats, she’ s haunted by the unbearable thought that she might be a lesbian – a fate she considers almost worse than death. Before long, she falls (secretly) in love with Marigold, upper class, enigmatic and avowedly straight. When Marigold mysteriously disappears without a trace, the search for her leads Grace to a life-changing epiphany.

Evoking the spirit of 1970s London through the world of squatting and political protests, street parties, encounter groups and gurus, and the mayhem of a rackety publishing outfit where Grace gets a job, Grace & Marigold is both witty and moving in its exploration of the inner turmoil, and ultimate liberation of a young woman’ s journey to self-acceptance.

Maggie’s Going Nowhere by Rose Hartley

I loved this book. Maggie’s Going Nowhere is a fierce and funny debut introducing a thoroughly relatable and offbeat heroine. If you enjoy Fleabag, you’ll adore Maggie. A great and fun read. \Maggie is a hot mess and going nowhere fast. Kicked out of uni, broken up with her boyfriend and kicked out of his house and cut of her mum’s will unless she sorts herself out. All the right elements of disaster, romance and humour.

Between Husbands and Wives by Susannah Glenn

Susannah Glenn’s debut novel Between Husbands and Wives is a domestic thriller that keep you guessing. It’s set in the Far North Queensland wilds, which adds great tension. A couple moves to Far North Queensland looking for a fresh start, but can they escape their past? A page-turning domestic thriller for fans of Sally Hepworth and Liane Moriarty.

The Season by Helen Garner

My suburb, Kensington, is Helen Garner’s The Season’s setting. I’m yet to crack it open, but I’m looking forward to reading this slim book as I’m sure I will recognise many of the people and places within. From the publisher: ‘It’s footy season in Melbourne, and Helen Garner is following her grandson’s under-16s team. She not only goes to every game (give or take), but to every training session too, shivering on the sidelines at dusk, fascinated by the spectacle.’

Our Strangers by Lydia Davis

I was put onto Lydia’s work by a lovely writer friend. She’s an Amercian writer and Our Strangers is full of sharp and short observations of life around her. It’s a book you can pick up and read whenever and wherever.

West Girls by Laura Elizabeth Woolert

This book was shortlisted for the Stella Prize this year. It’s bold and brave and asks the questions about what women do to hurt and love each other, what beauty is, and what it is to belong. While this book may not be for everyone, it is incredibly well written and good books make us think, which West Girls does well. The interlinked stories are set in Western Australia providing a fresh perspective for Australian literary fiction. Woollett does not shy from the dark places in sexuality, beauty, racism, relationships, classism and motherhood, and through the stories, she shines a sharp and sometimes jarring lens on female friendship and jealousy and the desire to fit in, and be loved and ‘beautiful’. Ironically, I lost a female friendship by reading this book and talking about it.

The Pyramid of Needs by Ernest Price

This is Price’s debut and it’s witty and funny. People who love Toni Jordan’s writing will love this novel. Darkly funny family drama about transphobia, political identity and family dynamics. This novel has it all: dysfunctional families, a parent who lives in a dream, a pyramid scheme, the wellness industry, a trans man continually being mis-gendered, rain, Noosa … What a great concoction for a darkly funny story.

The Years by Annie Ernaux

This is probably my standout novel for this year. It won the 2022 Nobel Prize. My mother was born the same year as Annie (1940) and while they were born in different countries, it felt like I was looking through my mother’s photos of her life and finding meaning in her and the times.

It’s written in this amazing individual/collective voice, going from ‘she’ to ‘we’ in a breath as though she’s able to find wisdoms and meaning for her whole generation. Reading it made me feel closer to and more distanced from Mum, and a feeling of breathlessness at how fast time passes and how my children will never understand what it is to have grown up in the years I have and at the good and bad of the decades and changes, at loss of wisdom and…

I stalled in finishing this as finishing it would bring me too close to knowing that life/book ends are inevitable and that in the after, all we have are our individual/collective memories.

The Crying Room by Gretchen Shirm

The Crying Room is deeply beautiful. The story of a family with its love and brokenness over many years made me ache, laugh and smile, and long to stay with it for longer. It is so clever and original. I hadn’t heard Shirm until this book and I will be seeking out more of her work.

Kind of, Sort of, Maybe…but probably not by Imbi Neeme

Imbi Neeme’s new novel ‘Kind of, Sort of, Maybe…but probably not’ is a gorgeous story. It’s set in 90s’ West Footscray and Fitzroy. Phoebe Cotton lives with misophonia (can’t bear the sound of people eating). She’s trying to find her tribe and Suze who is hoping J will one day realises that he loves her. The story has all the wonderful and wacky things of that time and place.

The Eleventh Floor by Kylie Orr

I loved Orr’s first novel and this one me on the edge to the end. It tackles the hard issues like sexual assault and the struggles of motherhood. Gritty and funny. From Goodreads: ‘The view is a killer … Darkly compelling and twisty psychological drama from a talented new Australian author. Perfect for readers who love Sally Hepworth, Pip Drysdale and Adele Parks.

Will one mother’s lie cost another woman her life? Sleep deprived, struggling and at breaking point, first-time mum Gracie Michaels books one night – alone – at The Maxwell Hotel. A king-size bed all to herself. No demands. With time to recharge she’ll be able to return to her family more like the unflappable mother she pretends to be. Instead, she wakes in a room she doesn’t recognise after an encounter with a man who is not her husband. Then she sees something she wishes she didn’t.

Gracie had not planned her hotel stay to be drawn into a crime, but when a distraught family appeals for information and a police investigation heats up, she is trapped in a maze of lies. To speak out jeopardises her marriage, but her silence threatens her son, her sanity and her safety. Will Gracie destroy her own family by telling the truth or devastate someone else’s by keeping her secrets?’

The Glass House by Anne Buist and Graeme Simsion

The Glass House is the first in the Menzie’s Mental Health series. From the publisher: ‘Psychiatry registrar Doctor Hannah Wright, a country girl with a chaotic history, thought she had seen it all in the emergency room. But that was nothing compared to the psychiatric ward at Menzies Hospital.’ This novel provides much insight into life behind the desk (or in the glass house) in a mental health institute. The novel has a great storyline that makes for a fast read. The sequel to this Oasis is coming out in February and I’m lucky enough to have a copy in my hands so I’ll be reading it over the break.

Want more?

If you’ve got a book you’d recommend to read this summer, drop it into the comments, and you can head over to my Goodreads to follow what I’m reading.