Top 10 Books for Lazy Summer Reading

Little Bee: A Novel

by: Chris Cleave

Amazon Price: $3.00 (as of 06/04/2012)
List Price: $15.00

I bought this book because, firstly I liked the cover (I am fickle like that) and secondly there wasn't really any information in the blurb on the back as to what this book was about. Intrigued I bought it and read it in a day, it is absolutely brilliant. So, as the book cover gives very little away, I won't either! All I will say is that it follows a Nigerian girl who is an illegal immigrant in the UK, it is an interesting insight into the lives of immigrants. Little Bee is touching, funny, sinister and you will be mulling it over for weeks after finishing the book. Buy it!

Riders

by: Jilly Cooper

Amazon Price: $15.09 (as of 06/04/2012)
List Price: $15.95
Used Price: $0.20

I had to feature a Jilly Cooper novel here, and what better than her first "bonk buster", Riders. First published in 1985, this book became an immediate best seller and is still very popular today with the added cache of being set in the late 70's and 80's without seeming out of date. In a nutshell the book is about the glamorous world of show jumping, and the people who compete to a high level in this sport. The main character is the roguish Rupert Campbell Black, but you will find that the plot doesn't just focus on him but revolves around many other characters too like the mysterious Jake and the feisty Fenella. This is the ultimate perfect beach read, Jilly Cooper is an excellent writer and her research and depth into the plots of this book is remarkable. Pure escapism!

Click here to read my full review of Riders!

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Seven Fires of Mademoiselle

by: Esther Vilar

Amazon Price: $0.01 (as of 06/04/2012)
List Price: $17.75
Used Price: $0.01

Set during the days of JFKs presidency, this story is written through the eyes of Carlota, the daughter of the Argentine ambassador in Washington. Her nanny is "Mademoiselle" a stunningly beautiful woman who attracts any man she meets, but is not interested in any of them.

At Christmas, Carlota's homemade decorations catch fire, and the fire brigade is called. Mademoiselle could have had her pick of all the hunky firemen, but it is the short bald fire chief that she immediately falls passionately in love with. He shows no sign of reciprocating her love for him, and so Mademoiselle and Carlota embark on fire raising adventures to capture his heart. This is an enchanting and beautifully written story, which will change the mind of any love cynics out there!

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Cider with Rosie (Nonpareil Book)

by: Laurie Lee

Amazon Price: $6.90 (as of 06/04/2012)
List Price: $15.95
Used Price: $2.92

This beautifully poetical book was first published in 1959 and is an autobiography of the Laurie Lee's childhood, the first in a trilogy of memoirs. The reader learns about the writer's growing up in this small village in Gloucestershire just after the First World War, it is written in such a descriptive and evocative way that you feel part of his childhood too. This particular line from "Summer and Winter" should be enough encouragement for you to go and read this book immediately!
"The grass was June high and had come up with a rush, a massed entanglement of species, crested with flowers and spears of wild wheat, and coiled with clambering vetches, the whole of it humming with blundering bees and flickering with scarlet butterflies."

A Room With a View

by: E. M. Forster

Amazon Price: $2.96 (as of 06/04/2012)
List Price: $6.95
Used Price: $1.01

The heroine on this story is Lucy Honeychurch, who travels on a "grand tour" for the first time to Florence, Italy with her overbearing cousin Charlotte. In Florence she meets George, an Englishman staying in the same hotel. The story takes us on a journey of Lucy's self awareness, reflecting the social changes of the period from the repressed moral values of the Victorians to the more liberal Edwardian age. This book also has one of the best kisses in literature - I won't spoil it for you, it is undeniably romantic!

A Guide to the Birds of East Africa

by: Nicholas Drayson

Amazon Price: $0.27 (as of 06/04/2012)
List Price: $13.95

This book is not a guide book to ornithology in East Africa! The story follows Mr Malik, a quiet widower who has been in love with Rose Mbikwa, the leader of the weekly East African Ornithological Society walk in Nairobi. When his arch enemy from his school day appears and starts showing an interest in Mrs Mbika, Mr Malik knows he has to make his feelings clear. This is such a charming and beautifully written book, with heartbreaking hidden secrets revealing themselves slowly as the book progresses. You will come away from reading this thinking "how lovely", and it really is.

I Love Capri

by: BELINDA JONES

Amazon Price: $0.01 (as of 06/04/2012)
List Price:
Used Price: $0.01

I Love Capri will make you want get on the first plane out to the beautiful island of Capri! Belinda Jones is brilliant at these travel chick lit books; she paints such a vivid picture of Capri and the Almafi Coast that you feel you are already there.

The story follows Kim, whose Italian Grandfather dies and leaves her mother a boutique in Capri. With reluctance, as she would rather be at home slobbing in her pyjamas, Kim accompanies her mother to Capri to wind up her Grandfathers affairs. Expecting two weeks of boredom with her mother, Kim instead finds herself being forced out of her comfort zone, confronting her moral values, relationships and ultimately her way of life back in England. This a light fun read, but with an added depth of serious themes of relationships, love and betrayal to give it a bit of meat to sink your teeth into. The ending to this book, for me, was totally unexpected and was very different to the typical chick lit ending.

Shantaram: A Novel

by: Gregory David Roberts

Amazon Price: $6.68 (as of 06/04/2012)
List Price: $14.99
Used Price: $4.75

This is one of the best books I have ever read, ever! I read it whilst travelling around India in May this year and loved the authors observations of India.

Gregory David Roberts is a fascinating man, he escaped from a maximum security prison in Australia and fled to India. Shantaram is his story of his time in India, where he lived in the Bombay slums, founded a free health clinic for slum dwellers, was imprisioned in a harsh Indian prison, recruited by the Bombay mafia and then fought with the mujaheddin fighters in Afghanistan. Such an amazing life and a truly gifted writer, Roberts wrote Shantaram in prison (he was recaptured in Germany and sent back to Australia in 1990) where the prison guards destroyed his two first versions of the book.

This is truly an inspirational and mind blowing novel. Check out Shantaram.com for more information on the author.

Bonjour Tristesse: A Novel (P.S.)

by: Francoise Sagan

Amazon Price: $6.54 (as of 06/04/2012)
List Price: $12.99
Used Price: $1.94

This means "Hello Sadness" in English about when a 17 year old girl's meddling with her father's love life goes to far. Set over the summer time on the French Riviera. This version of the book is translated from the French, but you can buy the French edition from Amazon. It is beautifully written with a tragic ending.

Click here to read my review of Bonjour Tristesse

Jamie Does. . .

by: J. Oliver

Amazon Price: $19.68 (as of 06/04/2012)
List Price:
Used Price: $26.77

A recipe book for a summer read may seem odd, but bear with me! This is a collection of Jamie Oliver's best recipes from his TV series "Jamie Does.." where he travels to 6 different countries - Marrakesh, Athens, Venice, Andalucia, Stockholm and the Midi Pyrenees region of France. With his typical enthusiasm and passion for great fresh food, there is bound to be a perfect recipe in here for you to cook and eat outside with friends or for a lazy summer afternoon.