What I packed to read on holiday this summer and why.

What on earth could be more luxurious than a sofa, a book and a cup of coffee? — Anthony Trollope
What better time to indulge a passion for reading without any feelings of guilt than on holiday? To distort Trollope’s phrase slightly, what could be more luxurious than a sun lounger, a book and one’s poolside tipple of choice? And how much easier has the Kindle made this indulgence? Gone are the days when at least half of my suitcase would be filled with paperback books, now I don’t even have to make the decision as to what to read until I arrive at my destination, although as part of the pleasure is lingering over my strategic choices, I generally like to do this before I depart.
Not all were summer sizzlers, or page- turners, in fact, a couple proved to be a little disappointing, but discovering Joanna Cannon’s first book The Trouble with Goats and Sheep was a delight, as was Ken Costa’s Know Your Why, at a time when purpose and identity have never been more urgent to a generation grappling with unprecedented change.
The general principle with this summer’s choices was books that as a family we could read, share and discuss. So, my selection works for adults and young teens alike, or so I thought until I began Ian McEwan’s The Comfort of Strangers. If you didn’t like 50 Shades of Grey this one is not for you!
I will never cease to be amazed by books. Seriously. Just think about it: thousands of people read the same book but in each one’s mind the characters look different and the setting changes and we’re all reading the same thing but it’s so unique to each of us. That is insanely cool. — findinghomeinabook
I was looking forward to Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer, the story of the fall of Saigon and the aftermath of the Vietnam war, having grown up in the 60s and 70s and watching those first TV pictures in my living room in west Sheffield. Sadly though, I thought the first -person style of writing made this quite a difficult read, and I had little empathy with the protagonist, a Vietnamese captain educated in the because the author failed to develop his character. I had no idea made him tick or of his motivations or objectives. As the book progressed, I became less enchanted, there was too much killing, I felt very disconnected from the narrative and the long torture sequence at the end was tiresome. It did, however, offer some interesting insights as to how it must feel to be part of the tug of war between 2 conflicting cultures.

Helen Dunmore’s Birdcage Walk, set in the febrile days of the French Revolution, certainly gets hold of the spirit of the age. It’s not a murder mystery, but the opening scene casts a shadow over everything that follows, suffusing the novel with an uneasy menace. I was hoping for a little more historical fact on the events of the French Revolution, this appears to be the promise on the sleeve, but its effect on the novel’s protagonists is too tangential, and any threat more theoretical than real. Still, it has a good pace and after a middle section focusing on the domestic preoccupations of the age which, despite the reviews I really enjoyed, the narrative tightened and the ominous unsettling territory returned for a page-turning ending.
My 12-year-old son who has not seen the film, read Lion. I can vouch for it being a good read however because it seemed to keep him off screens and social media until he’d finished it. This is what he said:
Sarro is only 5 years old when he left his home town in India with his older brother Guddu and his family was worried when he wasn’t home after a month had passed. Young or old, Lion is a greatly powerful book which has something to make you happy, sad and touched. It is a perfect summer read for the beach.
No summer reading selection would be complete without a Sebastian Faulkes, and Where my Heart Used to Beat ticked all the boxes for me. Set partly on an Island off the South Coast of France, not too far, or too dissimilar from the one on which I was reading it, the book has all the ingredients to educate, entertain and surprise. Faulkes takes us on a journey through the great days of the 60s and back into the trenches of the Western Front with romance and intrigue and almost unbearable tragedy, it’s a pleasure from start to finish.
In the spirit of Desert Island Discs, if I have to pick just one book though, it would be Lisa Genoa’s Still Alice. I’m not sure whether it is because I’m facing head on some of the issues tackled in my own life that it resonated so deeply. It is a wonderfully sensitive story that, although fictional, is a truthful and respectful depiction of life with Alzheimer’s. This depiction, from the point of view of the sufferer, is not quite unique (Emma Healey’s Costa Award winningElizabeth is Missing), but certainly the lion’s share of information written about Alzheimer’s is from the point of view of the caregiver. Earlier this summer, I attended a panel discussion about the Rediscovery of Inspiration in Film and the Arts (Focus 2017), at which one of the panel members revealed he was midway through a new stage adaptation of the book, so I’m interested to see how this will play out and who will feature. Coming soon to the West End and you heard it here first!
Please share with me anything you particularly enjoyed reading this summer and I do love a good recommendation.

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Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com on August 29, 2017.