![\"Ball\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/398.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIt is important to follow a balanced diet on holiday. Too many \u201cMy Wife\u2019s Sister\u2019s Husband\u2019s Psychopath\u201d, and you\u2019ll get confused and grumpy. Too much sugary romance and your teeth will fall out. Something too big and challenging you\u2019ve been meaning to get round to for ages will make you feel guilty and more liable to give in to scrolling, and if you take too many supposedly upmarket \u201cmust reads\u201d of the summer, you will simply prove to yourself just how much overhyped averageness there is out there, when all you want is something satisfying.<\/p>\n
You need to be able to chop and change depending on your mood, which means fiction and nonfiction. And finally, you need to be able to throw all of these rules out of the window if you find a sandy old water-stained copy of, for example, James Herbert\u2019s Domain in your holiday cottage and decide to devote yourself to 600 pages of post-nuclear mutant rat-strewn London, or choose to go for a full-on Maeve Binchy sesh.<\/p>\n
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My top tips for this summer? For the outward journey: Kathy Burke\u2019s smash-hit and brilliant autobiography A Mind of My Own<\/a>, a reminder of the absolute Britishness you are leaving behind. For that first post-ros\u00e9 afternoon when you are filled with warmth and benevolence towards the world and everyone in it: Whistler<\/a> by Ann Patchett.<\/p>\n For a wonderful immersive epic where everyone is also extremely boiling hot all the time: This Is Where the Serpent Lives<\/a> by Daniyal Mueenuddin. For cruising altitude day four when everyone else has gone to see some stupid boring hot cave and left you alone and you want something quality and capable of being finished in an afternoon: Glorious Exploits<\/a> by Ferdia Lennon. For the day everyone is doing your head in: Emma Cline\u2019s huge hit from a couple of years ago, The Guest<\/a>,<\/a> a thoroughly nasty piece of work and the best of all those \u201cneighbourhood psycho\u201d books.<\/p>\n Nonfiction palate cleanser day: OK, everyone is going to be reading the Maggie Haberman Trump book, but for the love of God could we possibly not think about him for one solitary five-second interval? That would be the definition of a holiday. If annoying Americans are still your bag, try Belle Burden\u2019s Strangers<\/a>, about a seemingly perfect, rich Wasp marriage unexpectedly going down the toilet.<\/p>\n For queueing at non-EU passport control and cursing Nigel Farage\u2019s \u00a35m: The Impossible Fortune<\/a> by Richard Osman. Forget the motley crew of celebrity impersonators that squelched along in his wake; Osman\u2019s lightness of touch and genuine comic ability means this slips down more easily than free limoncello. Bonnes vacances!<\/p>\n Freida McFadden<\/p>\n author of The Housemaid Caro Claire Burke<\/p>\n author of Yesteryear Taffy Brodesser-Akner<\/p>\n author of Fleishman Is in Trouble Alice Oseman<\/p>\n author of Heartstopper Mick Herron author of the Slough House series Nita Prose<\/p>\n author of The Maid Lisa Jewell<\/p>\n author of None of This Is True Andr\u00e9 Aciman<\/p>\n author of Call Me by Your Name Lucy Foley<\/p>\n author of The Guest List Erin Kelly<\/p>\n author of The Night Stairs Leigh Bardugo<\/p>\n author of the Ninth House series Matt Haig<\/p>\n author of The Midnight Library Florence Knapp<\/p>\n author of The Names Robert Harris<\/p>\n author of Conclave Rebecca F Kuang<\/p>\n author of Yellowface Mike Gayle<\/p>\n author of On We Go Bella Mackie<\/p>\n author of Claws Out! Curtis Sittenfeld<\/p>\n author of American Wife Harriet Tyce<\/p>\n author of Witch Trial Abir Mukherjee<\/p>\n author of The Burning Grounds author of The Death of Us Jennie Godfrey<\/p>\n author of The Barbecue at No 9 Shari Lapena<\/p>\n author of Getting Away With Murder Nick Harkaway<\/p>\n author of Karla\u2019s Choice author of The Girl on the Train author of The Map of Bones Adele Parks<\/p>\n author of Just My Luck Claire Powell<\/p>\n author of All In
One of my favourite reads of the year has been The<\/a> <\/a>Calamity Club<\/a> <\/a>by Kathryn Stockett. I\u2019ve been on a historical kick lately, and this novel set in the southern US during the Great Depression is historical fiction at its best. The audiobook is masterfully narrated and by the last chapter, I had tears in my eyes.<\/p>\n
In The Shampoo Effect<\/a> by Jenny Jackson a group of friends in their mid-30s in a tight-knit Massachusetts coastal town deal with secrets, romance and the fallout from a stunning betrayal. It\u2019s frothy and clever and perfect for a vacation.<\/p>\n
I brought Here in the Dark<\/a> by my New York Times colleague Alexis Soloski on vacation a couple of years ago. I couldn\u2019t put it down from the minute I started it, even missing a family dinner so I could continue reading. (Sorry, kids!) It\u2019s a modern noir about an acerbic theatre critic who finds herself caught up in a mystery, and I can\u2019t say enough about its voice, its humour, its darkness, its poignancy and the twists and turns that make it a truly original thriller. I loved it.<\/p>\n
Convenience Store Woman<\/a> by Sayaka Murata is about a woman whose only dream is to work at a convenience store and, like much of Murata\u2019s work, explores the inner world of a woman who feels deeply uncomfortable about the role she\u2019s forced into by society. It\u2019s short, it\u2019s strange, it\u2019s the perfect read for a trip away this summer \u2013 and a great introduction to Murata, if you haven\u2019t dipped in before.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1784977571_418_326.jpg\")
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Beaches are for walking along not reading on, but when the paddling\u2019s done and a sand-free environment\u2019s been found, Daniel Mason\u2019s Country People<\/a> is a treat. A failed academic and his family relocate to Vermont, where his PhD avoidance strategies involve increasingly alarming immersion in local folklore. An absurd, joyful delight.<\/p>\n
The Paper Palace<\/a> by Miranda Cowley Heller. August heat, a summer cabin in Cape Cod, and the unravelling of one woman\u2019s secrets. Elle is happily married with three kids, but her whole life is upended by an illicit encounter with a childhood friend. A charged generational saga about love, desire and loss \u2013 you\u2019ll need regular dips in the water to cool yourself as you read.<\/p>\n
The best page-turner I\u2019ve read this year is It\u2019s Not What You Think<\/a> <\/a>by Clare Mackintosh. She already lays claim to one of the genre\u2019s greatest twists in her 2011 hit I Let You Go and here Mackintosh is back to deliver multiple twists, short chapters and non-stop reveals in this scintillating read.<\/p>\n
<\/a>London Falling<\/a> by Patrick Radden Keefe is about a 19-year-old Londoner who desperately wants to join the world of super-wealthy Russian oligarchs, many of whom live in the capital. He manages to affect belonging to that class until he is finally exposed for who he really is \u2013 a smart, resourceful but hapless kid. The story is totally addictive, real, and I couldn\u2019t put it down.<\/p>\n
The Wedding People<\/a> by Alison Espach is an absorbing, transporting book that left me with a serious what-to-pick-next panic after finishing it. I took it on holiday last year and the summer setting makes it perfect: the waterfront hotel, the excursions on boats and in open-top cars, and also the unfurling sense of optimism. It\u2019s a paean to solo travel, to leaving it \u2013 quite literally in this case \u2013 all behind. But it\u2019s also a book with teeth, poignancy, depth and humanity, all qualities I look for in a top-notch summer read.<\/p>\n
The Pinnacle<\/a> by Abir Mukherjee is a satirical thriller set in a Mumbai skyscraper. A washed-up American actor is accused of killing his Bollywood starlet wife. It\u2019s got everything you could want from a book: belly laughs, unforgettable characters, a thumping plot and simmering political rage.<\/p>\n
The Last Baron<\/a> by Tom Sancton. Thick with loathsome individuals and rich with history, this heavily researched story of a 1970s kidnapping in Paris spans generations. It is wildly juicy, just be prepared for a Succession experience: you\u2019ll struggle to find anyone to root for but you won\u2019t be able to look away.<\/p>\n
The Infinite Sadness of Small Appliances<\/a> by Glenn Dixon is a weird, wonderful book about a vacuum cleaner that becomes sentient after hearing To Kill a Mockingbird read aloud. Said vacuum cleaner renames herself Scout and embarks on a quest to save the human she lives with. It\u2019s highly original and feels like a sign that \u2013 in the age of AI \u2013 the way out is through vivid human creativity.<\/p>\n
A will-they-won\u2019t-they romance is a much-anticipated holiday treat for me, and Annabel Monaghan\u2019s are guaranteed to make my cheeks ache from smiling and keep me reading until 2am. In Nora Goes Off Script<\/a>, screenwriter and single mum Nora falls for a leading actor when her house is co-opted as a film location.<\/p>\n
Graham Greene has accompanied me on a lot of holidays over the years, especially the novels set in hot climates. I recommend in particular The Power and the Glory<\/a>, The Honorary Consul<\/a> <\/a>and The Quiet American<\/a> \u2013 perfect reading for a sweltering beach, a deserted baggage hall, or a night-time veranda with a sickly blue light zapping the insects.<\/p>\n
I recently read and loved Anthony Doerr\u2019s Cloud Cuckoo Lan<\/a>d<\/a>. Like David Mitchell\u2019s Cloud Atlas, it\u2019s a testament to ridiculous hope and the power of stories that is also ridiculously, formally ambitious \u2013 its crosscutting storylines span centuries and continents. It\u2019s precisely the kind of book I needed to remind me how high human storytelling can soar.<\/p>\n
An MP has been murdered and a taunting message left in binary code: \u201cCatch me if you can.\u201d So begins Body of Lies<\/a>, the politically and technically prescient conclusion to Jo Callaghan\u2019s unique Midlands-set series featuring Kat and Lock, a human and AI detective pairing. Brimful of big ideas and heart, its action-packed finale is, to put it mildly, as moving as it is thrilling.<\/p>\n
The Enchanted April<\/a> by Elizabeth von Arnim. I read this recently and found it completely charming and brilliantly transporting. Four women, bored, lost, lonely and miserable respectively, take a villa in Italy for a month of respite. It\u2019s funny, tender and trots along at pace. But above all else, it\u2019s a novel about women and the community that springs up between them. A perfect beach read.<\/p>\n
Crash Into Me <\/a>by Robinne Lee is the ideal beach read not just because I literally was reading it on the beach earlier this week, though I was, or because the American cover features waves crashing on the sand, but because it\u2019s an irresistible mix of glamorous, thought-provoking and sexy. Jamaican-born, New York\u2011raised, France-dwelling photographer Cecilia is living temporarily with her famous director husband and kids in LA when she reconnects with Anouk, a model with whom she had a complex encounter 20 years earlier. Now the two women are middle-aged and equally tempted to protect and blow up their lives. This is Lee\u2019s follow-up to The Idea of You, and it\u2019s just as juicy.<\/p>\n
Nonesuch<\/a> by Francis Spufford is an absolute banger. Historical meets fantastical in this London blitz-set novel. The perfect combination of literary and compulsive page-turner, it reads like a dream. A bonus recommendation for Time to Burn<\/a> by Ellery Lloyd, which also starts in the blitz but adds a thoroughly contemporary, compelling time-travelling twist.<\/p>\n
My choice is The Shadow Step<\/a> by Mark Billingham, the latest in the Blackpool-set series featuring the wisecracking, ballroom-dancing detective Declan Miller. This one sees our hero running an investigation into the murder of a rather despicable young man, which quickly gets derailed by the kidnapping of a student. As with the others in this series, Billingham weaves a fiendish plot but also lets rip with the jokes. An absolute joy to read.<\/p>\n![\"Main](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/323.jpg\")
Abigail Dean<\/p>\n
I\u2019d recommend Main Characters<\/a> by Bobby Palmer. Seb and Clara meet in a Soho square, and an epic on-again, off-again romance begins. But their story is narrated by everybody except the main characters. Sometimes it\u2019s a close friend, but we also hear from people\u2011watchers, neighbours and colleagues. The result has the feeling of a short-story collection, with small, perceptive insights into a vast cast of characters, and the ways lives collide and divert. Make sure you have sunglasses to hand \u2013 I wept.<\/p>\n
This year, Dead Heat<\/a> by Sabine Durrant exceeded my unofficial \u201cbeach read\u201d criteria of 1) page-turning crime or thriller 2) set in hot weather. This elevated psychological thriller, which takes place over a Greek summer, gave me serious Patricia Highsmith vibes. It\u2019s classy, cinematic and truly thrilling.<\/p>\n
In Five<\/a> by Ilona Bannister, someone on a London train platform will die in five minutes when the train arrives. As the clock ticks down, you meet the characters who might die, and you get to know them intimately. If you want a completely immersive read, this is for you.<\/p>\n
If Lewis Carroll sat down with Mick Herron to write a thriller about memory and nightmare, you\u2019d get There Is No Antimemetics Division<\/a> by qntm. A funny, gripping and genuinely disturbing counter-espionage monster novel told in beach-friendly episodic style. What\u2019s not to love?<\/p>\n![\"Four](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/311.jpg\")
Paula Hawkins<\/p>\n
Four Terrible Parents<\/a> by Calla Henkel. Careering towards 40, two rock stars, an artist and a former banker decide the time has come to settle down, get married, and co-parent a child (while also renovating a hotel in South Carolina). Henkel\u2019s comedy-slash-thriller is so fiendishly plotted you might not even notice all she has to say about art, love, friendship and family.<\/p>\n![\"fenny](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/328.jpg\")
Kate Mosse<\/p>\n
Recently reissued, Fenny<\/a> by Lettice Cooper \u2013 first published in 1953 \u2013 is a coming-of-age story set in the Tuscan hills. Dripping with heat, the sound of cicadas and the smell of the pine trees, this is the story of a Yorkshire governess who pitches up at a villa outside Florence in the years before the second world war and falls in love with the country, the light, the Italian pace of life. Heartwarming, atmospheric, a perfect summer read.<\/p>\n
Mad Mabel<\/a> by Sally Hepworth. You may not have heard of this Australian-born, New York Times bestselling author yet, but I\u2019ve been reading her for years; I love everything she\u2019s written and I\u2019m waiting to see her to blow-up here. Her bittersweet, thrilling dramas are shot through with life-enhancing humour. Somehow Hepworth\u2019s Aussie sunshine floods off the page even when she\u2019s delivering dark twists and murders. In this novel, unapologetically grumpy, fiercely independent 81-year-old Elsie lives quietly in an Australian suburb, except everywhere she goes people die in mysterious circumstances.<\/p>\n
I couldn\u2019t get enough of Some Bright Nowhere<\/a> by Ann Packer, which is told from the perspective of a husband whose terminally ill wife asks him to move out so her best friends can move in. The literary equivalent of a friend telling an increasingly shocking story, it\u2019s an unexpected and deeply moving read.<\/p>\n