Summer Reading Lists
We've gathered together our intended reading for the summer, and the combined lists reveal the Scottish Book Trust staff to have wide, ambitious, occasionally populist tastes that offer a healthy balance of old and new. You can read our comments on the books as we get through them - just click on the linked titles in each person's list.
We would love to hear your reading plans too - add your comments below.
So in no particular order, this summer we will mostly be reading:
Heather Collins, Acting Children's Programme Coordinator
The Pregnant Widow - Martin Amis
Underworld - Don DeLillo
The Terrible Privacy of Maxwell Sim - Jonathan Coe
The Ultras - Eoin McNamee
The Enemy - Charlie Higson
The Brooklyn Follies - Paul Auster
Rowan the Strange - Julie Hearn
Michael Merillo, Venue Manager
Plague of Knives by James Silke
GR-20 and Corsica, the high level route – A Cicerone Guide by Paddy Dillon
Wyrmeweald: Returner’s Wealth by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell
The Black Lung Captain by Chris Wooding
The City and the City by China Melville
The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters by GW Dahlquist
The Braided Path Trilogy (aka the Weavers of Saramyr, The Skein of Lament, and The Ascendancy Veil) by Chris Wooding
Francesca Brennan, Early Years Logistics Manager
Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
The Death of Bunny Munro by Nick Cave
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Withering Tights by Louise Rennison
The Swimming-Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst
Our Town by Thornton Wilder
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi
Civil War Hospital Sketches by Louisa May Alcott
Be Near Me by Andrew O’Hagan
The School at the Chalet by Elinor M. Brent-Dyer
Chicken with Plums by Marjane Satrapi
Tracy Lowe, Early Years Training Coordinator
Damp Squid: The English Language Laid Bare by Jeremy Butterfield
Shapes for Sounds: Why alphabets look like they do, what has happend to them since printing was invented, why they won’t ever change and how it might have been by Timothy Donaldson
Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The zero tolerance approach to punctuation by Lynne Truss
The Pursuit of Love by Nancy Mitford
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson
Caitrin Armstrong, Writer Development Manager
The Cardturner - Louis Sachar
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest - Steig Larsson
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie - Muriel Spark
The Songwriter - Beatrice Colin
Losing It - ed. Keith Gray
Zeitoun - Dave Eggers
The Seven Basic Plots - Christopher Booker (I dip in and out of non-fiction and it will probably take me the rest of the year to finish this)
Craig Turner, Operations & IT Administrator
Ubik by Phillip K Dick
Dark Tower III – The Wastelands by Stephen King
Buell Official Service Manual for XB Lightning Models (2007)
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
Preacher by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon
The Dirt by Motley Crue
Olivier Joly, Press & Pr Officer
And This Is True by Emily Mackie
Watch Your Mouth by Daniel Handler
Boomsday by Christopher Buckley
The Death of Bunny Munro by Nick Cave
Imperial Bedrooms by Bret Easton Ellis
Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
Lovers & Losers by Paul Burston
Chris Newton, Acting Children's Events Manager
The Ask and the Answer, Patrick Ness – I must get this read as the final book in the series comes out this summer and I’ve heard that it is brilliant. We are taking him out on tour later this year too, which is almost as exciting!
The Girl who Kicked the Hornets Nest, Steig Larsson – Another series that i started and then never finished. I've had this since Christmas and only read 100 pages but I have promised myself that when the sun comes out I will sit in my garden and read this.
World Cup Wall chart – According to my 1989 video 'Smiths Greatest Moments of World Soccer', the World Cup is the greatest sporting event in the world. I still believe that to be true. I will be reading, studying and filling in my wallchart as the tournament progresses.
Paul Gallagher, Website Editor
The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway
The Soloist by Steve Lopez
The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
The City & the City by China Miéville
The Moon's a Balloon by David Niven
Clare Rodgers, Live Literature Coordinator
Death in Venice: Thomas Mann – embarrassed to admit I have not read this. Recent trip to the floating city has inspired me…
Half of a Yellow Sun: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Way to Paradise: Mario Vargas Llosa – my partner read this recently (he is obsessed with Gauguin) and says I must too!
Complete Poems: E E Cummings – a good friend recently wrote one of his poems in a card to me and it dawned on me I don’t know his work at all….
Just in Case: Meg Rosoff – the only one of her books I have yet to read – have not been disappointed yet
The Art of Possibility: Ben Zander
Kenya: An Eye Witness Travel Guide – in anticipation of a trip later this year
Jasmine Fassl, Children's Programme Manager (Maternity Cover)
Sunrise by Michael Koehlmeier
The Women by T C Boyle
Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K Dick
Paper Towns by John Green
Claire Stewart, Marketing Coordinator
Yann Martel - Beatrice and Virgil
Truman Capote - The Complete Stories
Ian Svenonius – The Psychic Soviet
Georges Perec – Life; A User’s Manual
Michael Smith - The Giro Playboy
Not Fade Away – Jim Dodge
Gary Becker and Richard Posner - Uncommon Sense: Economic Insights; from marriage to terrorism
Julia Collins, Finance Manager
The Glass of Time – Michael Cox
We are all Made of Glue – Marina Lewycka
The Angel’s Game – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Knots and Crosses – Ian Rankin
The Unmade Bed – Francoise Sagan
Caroline McLeod, Early Years Programme Manager
Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer
Where Angels Fear to Tread by E M Foster
The Plug-In Drug by Marie Winn
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Jeanette Harris, General Manager
Night of the Golden Butterfly by Tariq Ali – the final novel in the Islam Quintet of historical novels. Then I plan to read the other four during the year.
The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson – to complete my reading of the trilogy.
The Fanatic by James Robertson – which I have been meaning to read for a long time.
Kate Caldwell, Children's Programme Assistant
Solar by Ian McEwan
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
Wyrmeweald by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
So Much For That by Lionel Shriver
Koren Calder, Young Adult Project Coordinator
Chris Evans – It’s Not What You Think
Sir Richard Branson – Losing My Virginity: the Autobiography
Starhawk - The Fifth Sacred Thing
Anne Micheals – The Winter Vault
Marion Bourbouze, Head of Marketing & Audience Development
The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
We are all Made of Glue by Marina Lewicka
The Death of Bunny Munro by Nick Cave
Choke Chain by Jason Donald
The Enchantress of Florence by Salman Rushdie
Zeitoun by Dave Eggers
Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
Sophie Moxon, Head of Programme
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet – David Mitchell
The Knife of Never Letting Go – Patrick Ness
How Fiction Works – James Wood
Plenty – Yotam Ottolenghi
Pynter Bender – Jacob Ross
For Esme with Love and Squalor and other stories – JD Salinger
The Essential First Year - Penelope Leach
Philippa Cochrane, Learning & Education
The Book of Night Women by Marlon James
Choke Chain by Jason Donald
Bryant and May on the Loose by Cristopher Fowler
American Rust by Philip Meyer
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell – audio book
The True Deceiver by Tove Jansson
The Girl who Played with Fire by Steig Larsson – audio book
Helen Croney, Early Years Communications Coordinator
Solar - Ian McEwan
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen - Paul Torday
The Jeeves and Wooster Stories – P.G. Wodehouse
The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
Lady Chatterley’s Lover – David Herbert Lawrence
The Importance of Being Earnest – Oscar Wilde
Candace Watermeyer, Learning Resource Coordinator
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Charlotte Gray by Sebastian Faulks
The Timewaster Letters by Robin Cooper
Choke Chain by Jason Donald
Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
Catriona Wallace, Early Years Programme Assistant
An Instance of the Fingerpost - Iain Pears
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
Our Tragic Universe - Scarlett Thomas
The Ice People - Maggie Gee
W, or the Memory of Childhood - Georges Perec
The Ask and the Answer - Patrick Ness
The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman
Here is a link to my blog, which simply talks about the books I have read.
www.scriniumplenum.blogspot.com
All the best
Thanks Owen, you might be interested to check out our new monthly online book group, Book Talk - the first podcast just went live this week, and we'd love to hear your thoughts on this month's featured book. Paul (Scottish Book Trust)
Bunny Munro is the kind of loser everybody hates - He is an awful man with no redeeming features whatsoever - and despite that, The Death of Bunny Munro is a fantastic read - I could't put it down - this is partly due to Nick Cave's gift for storytelling and characterisation. I saw/heard Nick Cave read from it and his voice stayed with me all the while.
Interestingly, this the third book dealing with father-son relationships I have read in the last few months - not by choice by the way - after Jason Donald's Choke Chain and Emily Mackie's And this is true, and all three left a strong impression on me.
Highly recommended.
I desperately wanted to dislike this book. Alas it was not to be. Within the first few chapters I was hooked, partly due to my interest in the dastardly world of publishing but perhaps more importantly my penchant for the ‘locked room’ murder scenario. I was intrigued by the dysfunctional Vanger family and their secrets, enjoyed seeing the story unravel through the eyes of the unlikely double-act of Blomkvist and Salander, and the horribly violent passages just made me read quicker in the early hours of the morning. Brilliantly written it was not, but I have the next one lined up and ready to go as soon as I get through the rest of my summer reading list!
CW
A good friend of mine gave me this book for my birthday with the simple instruction 'read it'. Trusting his judgement implicitly (for his other present was a copy of Borges’ Labyrinths which I devoured) I began to read this extraordinary book. W, or the Memory of Childhood is part autobiography, part fiction in which Perec explores his traumatic past through two interweaving narratives that slip between imagination and reality.
The autobiographical writing is a series of fragmented memories which are annotated, questioned and rewritten which consequentially left me questioning whether any of my own memories of childhood are true. In contrast the fictional part is an adventure story that starts with a quest for a missing boy but becomes a detailed account of the Island of W, where the rules of sport are the rules of life. The society of W is so precisely imagined that I couldn’t help feeling this in fact was the reality. W is revealed as a frightening and dark place where the population must compete for their very survival in brutal, inhumane sporting events. I was left feeling shaken and ashamed not to have noticed the underlying exploration of Nazi concentration camps until I well into the book.
It’s difficult to say that I enjoyed such a harrowing book, but I did. I’ll be interested to hear what Claire Stewart has to say about a different book by Perec (Life; A User’s Manual) which is on her Summer Reading list.
CW
So – two birds with one stone.
I am currently reading Ben Zander’s ‘The Art of Possibility’ which I have now really got into after a sluggish start (was not sure it was going to be my thing at all).
Really interesting way of looking at the world and one of those reads where you know you knew – but needed someone to remind you.
Will probably comment again once I have finished it.
Also been reading , Kenya: an eye witness travel guide. I have been making my way through this brilliant guide in order to plan my honeymoon and the final stages have just been put in place. I cannot wait to watch elephants meander, lie on a snow white beach and see the world in Technicolor again!
One of my new favourite poets! I have been dipping in and out of this all summer and have not come across a poem that has not made some impact (a chuckle, a sigh or even a weep!) – everyone should have a copy on the bedside table!
‘if you like my poems let them
walk in the evening,a little behind you
then people will say
"Along this road i saw a princess pass
on her way to meet her lover(it was
toward nightfall)with tall and ignorant servants.’
I wouldn't normally rush to read a play, but I saw a production of 'Our Town' earlier this year after two elderly Greenwich Village-ites saw me lurking tentatively outside their local theatre and assured me that this production was 'the best Our Town they'd ever seen.' The story -that of seemingly simple lives played out in a small town- stuck with me, but I wanted to remind myself of the language and dialogue which had captured my attention in the intimate theatre with excellent acting and no set. Reading the play with no New Hampshire accents ringing in my ears just isn't the same, but will do for now.
I'd said goodbye to Georgia Nicholson (Confessions of Georgia Nicholson series) with a pretty heavy heart, and a twisted and confused loyalty was telling me that I wouldn't enjoy the exploits of Tallulah Casey and her performing arts college friends anywhere near as much. At first I held firm, regressing to teenage-hood as I churlishly tried not to laugh at the account of a 'mummers play' in the local pub and the trip to find a branch of Tophshop in the tiny hamlet which is home to Dother Hall. It didn't last - Louise Rennison's hilarious writing style and her insights into the trauma of teenage life had me hooked. Suddenly, three hours had passed, the book was finished and I was experiencing extreme 'Withering Tights' withdrawal symptoms. I'm at least 15 years too old to read this book, but it did help me identify an in-joke about The Smiths!
At a recent Young Writers Awards meeting I swapped book recommendations with our fantastic mentor Cathy Forde. In return for my suggestion (the Princess Bride) Cathy recommended Brooklyn. I hadn’t read any of Colm Toibin’s work before, but I love his use of language and the way his characters relate to one another, and I was still thinking about the ending 3 days later. And I see that Francesca loved it too!
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