MICHAEL SEARS’ (HALF OF MICHAEL STANLEY) SUMMER READING PICKS
Here’s one for summer. The first line paints the scene: ‘The October sun is as hot as the blood of the angry mob.’ In Femi Kayode’s Lightseekers, set in Nigeria, three young men are mercilessly beaten before being set alight. The question is not who committed the crime, but who was behind it and why. One of the grieving fathers hires Philip Taiwo, an investigative psychologist who specialises in the motives behind crimes and mob violence. He soon finds he’s taken on far more than he bargained for. A great piece of Sunshine Noir!
On a hot day you may prefer something to cool you down. In Snow, John Banville takes us to the Irish countryside in the last days before Christmas 1957. Detective Inspector St John Strafford is called to investigate a gruesome murder of a priest at Ballyglass House. Strafford is no Hercule Poirot, but while we watch him piece it all together, we enjoy the complex characters drawn with beautiful prose and flashes of humour, and watch as the snow deepens, eventually shrouding Strafford’s sergeant. We won’t forget our visit to Ballyglass House.
WEST CAMEL’S SUMMER READING PICKS
I love a big, chunky novel to get my teeth into on holiday, and nearly always take something Victorian, long and wordy with me. Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell fits the bill perfectly: interlocking families, beautiful characterisation, psychological insights, plus people to root for, people to detest, and lots of comedy and tragedy. And it’s unfinished!
I always like to take some short stories with me, too – often fitting them in around other reading. Diane Cook’s collection Man V. Nature will make you look at your fellow beach-goers in new ways. Reminiscent of Margaret Atwood’s speculative fiction in some of the dystopian tales, and Lorrie Moore in the odd takes on domestic dramas, every story is strange, arresting and perfectly crafted.
Another must for me on holiday is a good graphic novel or comics collection. Everyone should read something from the Hernandez Brothers’ Love and Rockets series at some point in their lives – and there’s a massive selection to choose from. I’d recommend starting near the beginning: Jaime Hernandez’s The Girl from Hoppers sees punks Maggie the Mechanic and her girlfriend Hopey, and their friends – including female wrestlers and wannabe space heroines – getting into trouble in a Mexican suburb of L.A.. Gilbert Hernandez’s Human Diastrophism takes us to Palomar, a rural town in an unnamed Central American country, where we meet hammer-wielding Luba and her neighbours as their town is ravaged by a serial killer. These comics changed the genre forever, and as one critic put it, you’ll ‘fall in love with the ink on the page’.
MATT WESOLOWSKI’S SUMMER READING PICKS
I’m not a fan of summer – the heat, the light, it really doesn’t benefit a pale attic-dweller like me. This summer, I found the perfect antidote – The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex. This is a wonderful, haunting tale of three lighthouse keepers. It’s based on the Flannan Isles mystery of 1900 – but it’s so much more than that. This tale of loss, of longing and of isolation amid the rise and fall of an indifferent sea will whisper winter winds around your heart.
