A summer reading list – minus the sunbed-snobbery!

Fill your beach bag with books you actually want to read, not to be seen reading

Thanks for subscribing to The Shift. If you're already a paying member, thank you. If not, and you'd like to get this newsletter in your inbox every week, plus unlocked access to the archive, community and more, why not join The Shift?

What do you want on the beach? Me, I want entertaining, transporting and maybe a teeny weeny bit of informing. (Only a teeny bit, though.) But what do you get from most of the summer reading lists that swamp the internet (or the papers, if you still read them) right about now? The kind of books you might leave on your sun lounger (along with your towel) to show just how erudite you are, while also hogging prime turf around the pool. I don’t know about you, but the show-offy nature of literary summer reading round-ups is giving me the ick. Who are these people who only want to read Aristophanes or books about the history of masculinity on holiday? Let me know, I’ll be sure to give them a swerve!

As Janey Godley put it in this week's The Shift podcast, we all need a bit of light and shade, whether or not we’re on a sun lounger. (Janey's personal reading choices ranged from Lesley Thomson's The Detective's Daughter and Sarah Pinborough's Insomnia to anything at all by Jenny Colgan and Marian Keyes.) 

So here’s my pick, minus the snoot! A page-turner every single one.