{"id":14808,"date":"2025-07-22T06:21:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T06:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/14808\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T06:21:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T06:21:14","slug":"the-best-summer-beach-reads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/14808\/","title":{"rendered":"The best summer beach reads"},"content":{"rendered":"

When you’re on holiday, reading shouldn’t feel like a slog. To really relax, “ditch boring” and “prioritise pleasure”, said Daisy Buchanan in The Guardian<\/a>. Instead of taking a hefty tome on your next trip, try bringing a “comforting” novel you’ve read before or look for something that will give you a “dose of delight”. Most importantly: “if you don’t like the book you’re reading, you don’t have to finish it”. Here are some of the best beach reads to help you unwind this summer.<\/p>\n

Bryant & May by Christopher Fowler<\/p>\n

On my last break “I made a new discovery”, said Camilla Tominey in The Telegraph<\/a>. Christopher Fowler’s books about two “Golden Age detectives in a modern world” \u2013 Arthur Bryant and John May \u2013 who head up the Peculiar Crimes specialist police division, are “beautifully written whodunnits”. The novels have all the elements of a “great holiday page-turner” from “plot twists” to “compelling dialogue” and, crucially, “a sense of humour”.<\/p>\n

After Julius by Jane Howard <\/p>\n

I came across Jane Howard “criminally recently”, said Joumana Khatib in The New York Times<\/a>, and enjoyed this family saga so much I’m planning to read her better-known multi-book series, “The Cazalet Chronicles”, next. Howard’s “ruthless social observations and wit” are admirable, and she has a knack for capturing the “experience of precarity, whether emotional, financial, social, in incredibly fine detail”.<\/p>\n

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The Island of Missing Trees by Elif Shafak <\/p>\n

Elif Shafak’s “vivid” love story stayed with me long after I finished it, said Rebecca Astill in The Telegraph. The action follows the “clandestine relationship” between Kostas, a Greek Cypriot, and Defne, a Turkish Cypriot. Shafak is excellent at sketching Cyprus’ “sun-drenched tavernas” in illuminating detail and she “never shies away from the pain of the civil war”. This is the perfect summer read if you’re after a “pool or beach-side page-turner that still has a bit of grit”.<\/p>\n

Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico <\/p>\n

This highly “perceptive” book about a pair of freelance digital creatives living in Berlin in the 2010s is “this year’s sleeper hit”, said Henry Wong in Empire<\/a>. In his scathing fourth novel<\/a>, Latronico deftly “taps into very modern anxieties and frustrations, while retaining a sense of humour”. A must-read.<\/p>\n

The Pumpkin Eater by Penelope Mortimer <\/p>\n

Set in 1960s London<\/a>, this semi-autobiographical novel documents the life of Mrs Armitage \u2013 “one of the most compelling characters I’ve ever read”, said Anna Caffola in Vogue<\/a>. Married four times and “crushed” under the weight of motherhood, she is “unhinged” and “screamingly funny”. I’ve read Mortimer’s book several times in “quick gulps” and I always get the same “jolt of energy” from her “unbridled, perilous prose”.<\/p>\n

One Yellow Eye by Leigh Radford <\/p>\n

“The laughs are pitch black” in Leigh Radford’s novel “One Yellow Eye”, said Siobhan Murphy in The Times<\/a>. In it, she tackles the “unusual” question: “what would you do if the love of your life became a zombie?” Radford paints an “affecting portrait” of biomedical scientist Kesta as she desperately searches for a cure to save her husband, Tim, who is “secretly sedated and tied to the bed in their flat”. Wonderfully tense and “snort-inducingly funny”, it’s a propulsive read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When you’re on holiday, reading shouldn’t feel like a slog. To really relax, “ditch boring” and “prioritise pleasure”,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[457,96,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-14808","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-books","8":"tag-books","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}