Authors recommend the books you need to read this summer
From sublime children’s books to contemporary adult novels, six of Australia’s best and busiest authors reveal their go-to reading list for the summer.
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Summer holidays and a good book – is there a better combination?
The only problem can be choosing between all the fantastic titles at your bookshop or library.
So we asked the experts – some of Australia’s best and busiest authors, from the HarperCollins and HQ publishing stables – for their tips on what to read in any category.
Books to change your life: Holly Ringland
Ruby Moonlight – Ali Cobby Eckermann
I read Ruby Moonlight in 2014. The inconsolable yearning it left me with still lingers. This generous and warm verse novel doesn’t pull any punches in telling Ruby’s story of survival after her family is massacred by white settlers. Wandering through Ngadjuri land, Ruby encounters an Irish trapper whose loneliness matches her own. The writing of their story is breathtaking. I wish I could visit 16-year-old me and press a copy into her hands. Ruby Moonlight is a profoundly affecting book that reminds me how individual and universal our need for love is.
It’s Been A Pleasure, Noni Blake – Claire Christian
At the end of 2020 when the world was locked down, I struggled to read anything. But I was drawn to pick up this open-hearted, blazing spark of a novel … and didn’t put it down until I finished. Noni Blake knows she wants more: more adventures, more joy, more romance, more orgasms, more pleasure … more everything. I absolutely relished every page I got to spend with her as she figured out how to get it; and it reminded me of the inherent power there is to be found in keeping ourselves cracked open to the possibilities in taking agency of our own lives.
This Is Not A Book About Benedict Cumberbatch – Tabitha Carvan
I was wholly captivated by this nonfiction book in the same way it feels to be immersed in a beloved novel: the warm, powerful and often-hilarious narrative is about women and what we love, about what happens to women’s passions after we leave adolescence. How the space for joy in our lives is squeezed ever smaller as we age, and why. Most importantly, it’s about what happens if we subvert that narrative and simply love something like we used to. I read this book at the end of 2021 when I was burnt out, seeking solace. Reading it was a near-medicinal experience.
Leap – Myfanwy Jones
I read Leap in 2015 when it was published, and find it floating through my thoughts still. It’s a beautiful urban fairytale about human and animal nature, and the transformative power of grief. While at its heart is a searing absence, this story is propelled by an exhilarating life force, and the hopeful promise of redemptive love. And it has a breathtaking twist that I only realised two days after I read the last page. Chef’s kiss. Myf Jones’ new novel, Cool Water, is coming in 2024 and is full of harrowing beauty, and hope.
The Hummingbird Effect – Kate Mildenhall
This is top of my summer reading list, and I cannot wait to get to it. Mildenhall’s third novel is described as an epic, kaleidoscopic story of four women connected across time and place by an invisible thread and their determination to shape their own stories. A Guardian reviewer called it ‘a work that compels its reader to consider gentleness, poetry and a deeper care for others as vital, urgent skills required for our collective survival.’ Count me in.
Holly Ringland is the best-selling author of award-winning novels, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart and The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding. Her most recent book, The House That Joy Built, is Holly’s first nonfiction title.
New Year, New You: Zac Perna
Atomic Habits – James Clear
I think for decades to come, Atomic Habits will dominate the New Year New You genre. It’s timeless in nature and contains no fluff and all value in outlining how one’s habits and systems are the key to change – as opposed to the idea of simply goal-setting. I read this book when it first arrived in 2018 and it’s still one that I pick up from time to time.
Scarcity Brain – Michael Easter
This is my most recent read and I enjoyed every part of it. Michael Easter theorises that humans have an evolutionary mechanism to thinking the way we do, which no longer serves us as well today. He dives in to the root cause of bad habits and how self-awareness is the key to breaking the ‘scarcity loop’, where we always crave more, and living a life of abundance. This was such an interesting and balanced book filled with stories and information. One that I struggled to put down.
Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity – Dr Peter Attia and Bill Gifford
This is on my list of books to read next. Dr Peter Attia is a well-known physician and, I’m betting, will be the first person to live to 1000. His extensive work on longevity discusses the path to living a longer life and he effortlessly bridges the gap between scientific explanation (that far too often goes over the heads of myself and many others) and easily understandable action items.
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking – Samin Nostrat
I don’t usually leisurely read cookbooks for the information – however this book is one of my all time favourites. Nostrat teaches what exactly makes delicious food so delicious and will be your counter to simply smothering your meal in tomato sauce and hoping for the best. Understanding how to make food tasty with ease will make it far easier to cook and prepare your own healthy meals to start your new year-new body off on the right foot.
Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life – Hector Garcia Puigcerver & Francesc Miralles.
I may be extremely biased in that I have always been a lover of Japanese culture, but this book was quite transformative when I first read it and I have read it again since! It blurs the boundaries between work and play and explores the Japanese concept of Ikigai, which loosely translates to one’s ‘reason for being’. This book can be the beginning of the search for yours.
Zac Perna is a global phenomenon in the world of fitness, entrepreneurship and social media and is the author of Good Influence.
Crime and Thrillers: Dervla McTiernan
Lola in the Mirror – Trent Dalton
I adore the open-heartedness and bravery of Trent Dalton’s writing, and Lola in the Mirror just concreted that adoration into a permanent thing. This book made me cry and laugh and poke my husband on the shoulder about ten times so I could read bits out to him. It’s the perfect present – for someone else or for yourself.
After That Night – Karin Slaughter
Sara Linton is a doctor in the emergency room when a young woman is brought in with injuries that bring back dark memories. This book is so sharply written, so tough and compelling and unflinching, but just full of compassion. Karin Slaughter is one of the very best of us, and I one hundred per cent promise that this book delivers an epic read.
The Hush – Sara Foster
Set in a near-future dystopia where the British government has used a plague of unexplained stillbirths to justify increasing control of women’s fertility and the stripping away of their human rights. Midwife Emma is right at the coal face of the problem, but everything gets more personal when her daughter, Lainey, suspects she might be pregnant. Shades of 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale, but with a fresh, frightening take all of its own. A brilliant, brilliant book and perfect for book clubs.
The Soulmate – Sally Hepworth
Sally Hepworth has more talent in her little finger than most of us have in our whole bodies. Her books have a lightness of touch and a contemporary tone that draw you in and get your guard down and then … bam! There’s a twist that turns everything you thought you knew on its head. Gabe and Pippa live beside a cliff that has a dark reputation as a place for suicide. Gabe has talked many people back from that ledge. Until the night that everything changes. A masterclass in shifting perspectives and the slow unspooling of information.
The Outsider – Stephen King
Terry Maitland, popular English teacher and Little League coach, is accused of a truly horrific crime (this book is not for the faint of heart). There’s an abundance of DNA evidence proving his guilt, not to mention a long line of witnesses. He has to be guilty. Except that he has an iron-clad alibi proving he was seventy miles away. ‘Unputdownable’ is wildly overused, but I started this book and did nothing else for two days until it was done. Just brilliant.
Dervla McTiernan is the internationally best-selling author of four novels, including NYT Thriller of the Year, The Murder Rule. Her latest stand-alone novel, What Happened to Nina? will publish in March.
War and Peace and History: Grantlee Kieza
The Man Next Door – Mike Colman
One of Australia’s finest writers drew the inspiration for this classic collection of newspaper articles from his childhood living next door to Ray McMillan, one of the crew on the Hudson bomber that sunk the Awazisan Maru in World War II. McMillan’s story is the first of 14 beautifully crafted tales by Colman, who won a Walkley Award for the third “The Tree of Life” which began with him observing a memorial at the base of a kauri pine in a park near his Brisbane home – a memorial to a lost flyer killed in a mission over occupied Europe.
Australia’s Yesterdays – edited by Cyril Pearl
The book that really inspired my own fascination with Australian history, this is a coffee table tome produced by Reader’s Digest, examining every aspect of Australian life and culture from the 1800s up until the early 1970s. My grandmother bought me a copy of Pearl’s masterpiece about 50 years ago when I was 12 and I was utterly fascinated. I still am.
Duty Nobly Done – Adam Holloway
This is the extraordinary story of 11 family members who served in the Great War and told by one of their descendants. Holloway weaved together stories from his family’s letters, diaries and memories. He skilfully shows how the brash confidence of Australian youth soon gave way to the harsh realities of a nightmare surrounded by death and madness, fear and despair.
Before I Forget – Geoffrey Blainey
Professor Geoffrey Blainey has been one of the country’s most celebrated historians and writers since his debut work The Peaks of Lyell almost 70 years ago. That book explored the origins of the Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company in Queenstown, Tasmania. At 89, the man deemed a National Living Treasure by the National Trust penned “Before I Forget’’, a beautifully written memoir of the first 40 years of his own history, conjuring wonderful memories of Australia from the 1930s on.
The Last Navigator – Paul Goodwin
The author’s father Gordon Goodwin flew 32 missions with the Pathfinders, on bombing raids into Germany, and 65 missions with Bomber Command over enemy territory. Having survived a traumatic childhood, Gordon was ready for anything in the war and his calm, unflappable nature helped him later in his long career with Qantas. In the days before satellite communications the airline needed dedicated navigators to guide long-haul aircraft by the stars.
Grantlee Kieza OAM is the best-selling author of numerous Australian historical titles and biographies. His most recent are Flinders and The Remarkable Mrs Reibey. Next April he will release a biography of the famous WWII nurse Vivian Bullwinkel.The Last Navigator – Paul GoodwinThe author’s father Gordon Goodwin flew 32 missions with the Pathfinders, on bombing raids into Germany, and 65 missions with Bomber Command over enemy territory. Having survived a traumatic childhood, Gordon was ready for anything in the war and his calm, unflappable nature helped him later in his long career with Qantas. In the days before satellite communications the airline needed dedicated navigators to guide long-haul aircraft by the stars.
Summertime Storytime for Younger Readers: Sarah Ayoub & Alice Pung
A Lion in the Night – Pamela Allen
I’ll never tire of this 1985 classic picture book, and have read it to all my children over the years. Daylight savings makes bedtime feel like an injustice in summer, so this story of a baby who makes a wish when she’s been put to bed while it is still light – only to find herself on a thrilling adventure courtesy of the stuffed lion she goes to bed with – reminds them that there’s so much fun to be had even in their dreams. Reading all the delicious things the lion eats at breakfast is a highlight too! SA
Pig the Pug – Aaron Blabey
My children are obsessed with the Pig the Pug series which is also an easy read for parents because it’s neither a chore or a bore. Pig has all the traits and characteristics we don’t want to see in our children, so having them read about the consequences of being spoiled, selfish, sore losers and grubby through a dog and his hilarious mishaps is a great way to impart some valuable lessons in a really fun way. There are a few in the series now which makes gift-giving simple, and the fact that I am supporting an Australian creative is a plus. SA
Waiting for the Storks – Katrina Nannestad
Katrina’s work is always powerful and this book is no exception. I don’t like it when adults cleave children’s literature into things that are beautiful and kind and things that are dark and unpalatable – all these things coexist in the true world and it is an affront to the many children in Australia who’ve survived wars. Waiting for the Storks is a powerful story about courage in the face of adversity and children surviving a world made by adults to thwart their spirit. AP
Shirley Marr – A Glasshouse of Stars
This is a gentle, poetic book about an immigrant child, seen through her eyes, as her burgeoning understanding of the world increases. It is also sad, and real, but the magic that seeps through the pages is just enough to imbue the young reader with hope but not so far-fetched that it transgresses into fairy-tale fantasy. AP
The Ramona Series – Beverley Clearly
Beverley Clearly lived up to 104, a legend of middle-grade literature all over the world. Ramona first appears in the early 1950s, and the final book about her was written in 1999. In almost half a century this little four-year-old girl grows up to be the age of 12. What is fascinating is that while she ages, her parents also change: in the 1950s her mother was a stay-at-home mum, then in the books written in the 1970s she gets a job, and in the 1980s her father quits smoking and retrains to be a teacher. The times change, but the girl remains the same mischievous heroine. AP
Sarah Ayoub is a journalist, best-selling author and academic. Her latest book, How to Be a Friend, is out now. Alice Pung is an award-winning author whose first middle-grade book, Millie Mak the Maker, was released in September.
Originally published as Authors recommend the books you need to read this summer