Holiday reading?

[RosieH]

Similar to, but different from, what's ED reading...

My ticket is booked and I have ?20 of Waterstones vouchers burning a hole in my pocket - anyone recommend a great beach read?

I rather fancy something frothy and delectable to keep my weighty tomes in sparkling company...

[citizenED]

"Pictures at an Exhibition" by Philip Gale. I'll count it as marginally frothy since it got a recommendation from Ricard et Jude - but in all honesty it is pretty serious tale. So cleverly plotted and full of great characters.

[SeanMacGabhann]

One day by David nicholl. I think.

Everyone else has read it so you may as well

[citizenED]

Well I haven't read that Sean, but I read that it was good and also that "...everyone has read it...." It also falls into Rosie's frothy category.

[PeckhamRose]

The End of Mr Y by Scarlett someone.

You can borrow my copy if you like.

A clever piece about a PhD student who comes across a secret to do with her ex profressor and goes back in time via some weird concoction and solves a mystery and it's brilliant and I started reading it again as soon as I finished!

I am also following this thread for ideas. I have a week in France coming up with no internet connection and probably not even vodafone either. The book needs to be fabulous...!

[LadyTaTa]

I second 'One Day'.

Penny Vincenzi's latest is an excellent beach read apart from it's a bit heavy to hold (I think it's called The Best of Times' or something like that). If you'd like something naff and entertaining Harriet Evans' 'A Hopeless Romantic' is harmless fun although the first chapters were a bit slow. 'A Spring Affair' by Milly Johnson was excellent froth, better than Harriet.

I think the best beach read ever is Penny Vincenzi's 'The spoils of time' trilogy. Oh, so addictive. In the unlikely event that you've never read 'Cloud Atlas' my David Mitchell that is an excellent book as well.

I can't help but mention my favourite book, Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami. I reckon it could just about scrape in as a beach read :))

[RosieH]

Ooh, Murakami, good shout - I think I've read all of his, but might trawl the list to make sure.

One Day, I've never even heard of, let alone read, so I will definitely take a look. Although you should know Sean, that being a contrary sort, much like your good self, I have never read Captain Corelli's Mandolin, so everyone else's reading it is something of a turn off.

Notes from an Exhibition I have read and enjoyed, but you're right Citizen, I think it might have lacked the element of froth, of joie de vivre I'm hoping for.

PR, just looked up The End of Mr Y, and this from the Indie: "I don't know any other book that has made me, or anyone, simultaneously ponder the mating logistics of rodents, turn-of-the-century homeopathy and the consequences of time travel." Sounds brilliant and bonkers.

[SeanMacGabhann]

I'm not contr... Oh

[HonaloochieB]

Apathy For The Devil - Nick Kent.

The Hollywood Omnibus - PG Wodehouse.

The Very Best Of Linda Smith.

Watch Your Back - Donald E. Westlake (in fact any of his 'Dortmunder' novels, actually any of his books at all).

Any of the 'Burglar' novels by Lawrence Block.

The Beatles - Hunter Davies (the fourtieth anniversary edition).

All of the 'Hitler' books - Spike Milligan.

I reckon these'll keep the balance between compulsively readable and not being so nauseating as to have to 'appear' on a daytime chatshow or Vanessa Phelps's radio Saturday love-in/shitefestival.

These are books that'll make you look like you 'know a bit' and that you might have 'half an idea' about various things and suchlike, but won't stop anyone coming up and asking 'Fancy a beer'?

Don't know about your good self RosieH, but that's really the only reason I read in public.

Let me know how you get on.

[????]

You're not wrong there Honnie. I spent a whole summer in the South of France trying to read Satre's Age of Reason in the belief it might give me some french lady action...in reality dear old Stephanie from Dundee wouldn't have given a shite if it had been Archer....although I have fond memories (of Steph not Satre).

[RosieH]

Sartre's got me some action in the past - zut alors, etre-pour-soi indeed

[legalbeagle]

Satre has never got me any action at all! Gabriel Garcia Marquez, on the other hand.......

[RosieH]

Ah, Marquez could be the very thing

[legalbeagle]

Well, for compelling but not too lengthy, how about "Of love and other demons".

[????]

I feel we're missing an opportunity for a "Dickens" joke...can someone please set it up?

[brum]

I'm reading Marquez now. Not on a beach but being compelled none-the-less. Action assured.

[Nero]

'Nothing to Envy' by Barbara Demick is a Samuel Johnson winner and a great read, chronicling the lives of several North Koreans who managed to defect to the South. It puts a human face on a largely faceless country.

[ClareC]

I've just read 'the kite runner', that was a really good book!

[dukesdenver]

How about an 'old-fashioned' blockbuster like Peyton Place or The Thorn Birds? And I second that Penny Vincenzi emotion - perfect summer reads (and you can tone up your arms at the same time).

[felt-tip]

The Kindly Ones - Jonathan Littell is a perfect summer read. Bright, breezy and full of saucy action.

[RosieH]

felt-tip, I think you're playing with me - "Littell said he wanted to focus on the thinking of an executioner and of origins of state murder,showing how we can take decisions that lead, or not, to a genocide."

Saucy action in a concentration camp? I'm in!

[felt-tip]

It's much saucier than you'd imagine. But I wouldn't recommend it while sat on Playa Las Americas. It's more suited for a dark month on your own in a mildewy basement.

I did enjoy Change of Climate by Hilary Mantel on a recent holiday, mind.

[HonaloochieB]

???? Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> You're not wrong there Honnie. I spent a whole

> summer in the South of France trying to read

> Satre's Age of Reason in the belief it might give

> me some french lady action...in reality dear old

> Stephanie from Dundee wouldn't have given a shite

> if it had been Archer....although I have fond

> memories (of Steph not Satre).

Quids, I bet when Steph approached you it was the 'Hell, it's another people' line that hooked her.

Never fails to make one look strangely interesting, that.

[HonaloochieB]

???? Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I feel we're missing an opportunity for a

> "Dickens" joke...can someone please set it up?

Q. What might the stage name be of a late 19th century orphan who flees a life of crime, gets set up with a kindly old fellow and then pursues his lifelong ambition of being a world-class contortionist?

[HonaloochieB]

A. Allover Twisted.

The sorry truth is I am here all week. Be good to your waitress, but frankly even she wants me dead.