12 books to read this summer
Looking for a good new book or three to take away with you this summer? The Skinny boards the #summerreads bandwagon…
It’s that time of year again, when all the major publications seem to think you enjoy six weeks of summer holiday and can spend it doing nothing but reading 1000-page novels, sinking cocktails and lazing about by your infinity pool.
We’ve come up with a summer reading list that we hope is a lil’ more realistic, taking in some recent faves and brand new titles, plus a couple of short story and poetry collections to dip into on that long weekend in Whitby. Without further ado, here are The Skinny’s pick of summer reads for 2016.
The Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante
If you’ve been waiting for the right moment to tackle Ferrante’s four-book opus – the biggest literary phenomenon of the last couple of years, alongside Karl Ove Knausgaard’s My Struggle series – then a summer of political turbulence might be the time. Much has been made of Ferrante’s keyhole-intimate understanding of the central relationship, between lifelong friends Elena and Lila, but perhaps more fascinating is her depiction of 20th-century Naples as it convulses its way through decades of violence, corruption and revolution. It’s an important portrayal of men, women and politics; and the characters will never leave you. Published by Europa Editions, out now