6:00pm Thursday 8th July 2010
By Andrew Ffrench
When packing your bags for your holidays this year leave plenty of space for books.
There’s a host of summer reads on offer to suit every taste.
Here’s some of the choices on offer, from light-hearted beach reads to deeper, darker stories.
* The Last Letter From Your Lover, by Jojo Moyes (Hodder & Stoughton, £12.99) Love, loss and adultery feature in the award-winning romantic novelist’s latest story, in which a journalist comes across a letter from 1960 in her newspaper archives written by a man asking his lover to leave her husband. The journalist then gets caught in the intrigue of a past love affair, perhaps because of her own romantic entanglements with a married man.
* Men I’ve Loved Before, by Adele Parks (Headline Review, £12.99) A couple find themselves divided by the prospect of a baby – he’s all for it, but she isn’t. It’s a perfect beach read from the women’s author who now has a huge fan base.
* Awkward Situations For Men, by Danny Wallace (Ebury, £11.99) Just out in paperback in time for your summer hols, this is a book about the embarrassing faux-pas and bewildering social situations Wallace has found himself in, from saying the wrong thing about a friend’s baby to finding himself accidentally following a woman down a dark street. He's even had an argument with a bishop over the internet. It’s cringe-making, hilarious stuff from the best-selling author of Yes Man.
* The Help, by Kathryn Stockett (Penguin, £7.99 paperback) The New York Times bestseller and long-listed for the Orange Prize 2010, this engaging tale, set in the Deep South in the 1960s, sees three Mississippi women quietly start their own revolution. Two are black maids, the other is a white visionary who defies her heritage and vows to make a difference, with their help. It's funny, sad, and totally compelling.
* Pictures Of Lily, by Paige Toon (Pocket, £6.99) Chick lit fans who want a good poolside read should look no further than this novel, which is almost as sparkling as the book cover. An engaged woman living in Sydney can't forget a former beau who stole her heart when she was 16, and when the past comes back to haunt her she has to make a heart-breaking decision.
* The Haunting Of James Hastings, by Christopher Ransom (Sphere, £6.99) This supernatural tale, from the best-selling author of The Birthing House, sees a widower, haunted by the death of his wife in a horrific accident, experience some spooky goings-on in his sprawling mansion when a gorgeous stranger enters his life. Then his late wife’s shoes reappear, streaked with mud and grime, as though unearthed from the grave. And that is only the beginning...
* The Burning Wire, by Jeffery Deaver (Hodder, £18.99) The best-selling thriller writer, who has more twists and turns in his plots than a helter-skelter, brings back Lincoln Rhyme to solve a case. This time New York is being held to ransom by an attack on Manhattan's electricity grid. The quadriplegic detective soon finds out that the killer has a unique weapon, which can be found in every home and office.
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