Writers help summer reading conundrum with their favourites
Looking for a good book these holidays? Look no further as some of our favourite writers suggest their favourites.
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It’s that time of year when thoughts turn to books – giving and receiving them as gifts, reading them on the beach or in airconditioned comfort, and recommending top titles to family and friends.
With so many great books out there, sometimes the first challenge is deciding where to start. So, we’ve asked some of our favourite writers – a few of them also famous for other achievements – to suggest their favourites. Get inspired!
JOCK SERONG
The best book I’ve read this year
The Silver River, by Jim Moginie. Beautifully written and such a pleasure to find the searcher behind the band member. Moginie finds ways to stay sane, and to devote himself to his craft while the mad juggernaut of Midnight Oil crashes its way around the planet. A reminder of what fame takes out of people, and an exploration of the agonies and comforts of adoption. I’ve heard the songs all my life, and now I’m hearing them differently.
My all-time top summer reading recommendation
Love and Terror On the Howling Plains of Nowhere, by Poe Ballantine. I had you at the title, didn’t I? Incredible. And the story is tender, funny, sinister and infuriating. Poe is adrift in small-town America, flipping burgers, trying to write. He meets oddballs and one of them is murdered, and nobody seems to care – so he asks all the questions himself. This is part memoir, part novel and part true crime.
The book of mine that I’d like you to enjoy
I love all my books like children, but there are seven of them, which means they have to wear each other’s clothes for financial reasons. Perhaps you could tryCherrywood: it’s my latest, so I’m still interested to know what you think, whereas the other ones are old enough to fend for themselves now.Cherrywood has a paddle-steamer, a wandering pub, and some riddles about love and time – and everyone likes defaming commercial lawyers … don’t they?
The book I’d like to give as a gift
Stranger Than Fiction: Lives of the 20th Century Novel, by Edwin Frank. It’s a new work of literary criticism that takes a “long” 20th century, from Dostoyevsky in 1864 to Sebald in 2011, and examines a list of about 30 novels that helped shape the era, or at least explained it. Apparently full of references to books you always meant to read but never have.
NIKKI GEMMELL
The best new book I’ve read this year
Orbital, by Samantha Harvey. I’ve never read anything like it. It’s a contemplation of our ravishingly beautiful, fragile planet, from the perspective of six astronauts on the International Space Station. It’s so wise and so moving.
My all-time top summer reading recommendation
Question 7, by Richard Flanagan. An empathetic examination of masculinity, parenthood, mortality and what it means to be Australian. It’s a book to read slowly, to savour.
The book I’d like to give as a gift
Anything by Annie Ernaux, Deborah Levy, Elena Ferrante or Anne Carson – my blazing quartet of favourite writers. Levy has a new nonfiction book out; the others, I’m impatiently waiting for their next tomes.
The book of mine that I’d like you to enjoy or give as a gift
My latest novel, Wing. It’s a literary thriller that’s a love letter to young women and the older women who watch over them. It’s getting women talking, book clubs are jumping on to it, friends are passing it to friends, mothers to daughters, etc. As a writer, I absolutely love to hear that.
DR KARL KRUSZELNICKI
The best new book I’ve read this year
The Forest Wars, by David Lindenmayer. I vaguely knew that the Australian Indigenous people had, over thousands of years, modified the Australian landscape to be like an open all-year-round supermarket where food could be easily obtained. But I had no idea of the subtleties of how this was done. This book has the answers to manage the Australian landscape so much better for everyone involved – including the farmers.
My all-time top summer reading recommendation
Surely You’re Joking, Mr Feynman. Richard Feynman did things his unique own way – and that went for winning the Nobel Prize in physics, helping develop the atom bomb and explaining science in a basic way. He was very much both a jokester and a true genius. He learnt safecracking and would – for fun – switch super-secret nuclear-weapon files from one locked safe to another locked safe.
The book I’d like to give as a gift
Anything by Bill Bryson – or, even better, a book that would make me laugh out loud.
The book of mine that I’d like you to enjoy
My marriage proposal was over the phone. “Hi, honey, I’m in a cheap hotel room in Asia injecting opiates into the buttocks of a fit, young yoga teacher. Why should I not inject into the buttocks? Where should I inject (I’m really tired and can’t think straight) and will you marry me?”. Then the line went dead (it was a very cheap hotel). We eventually did have a scientific wedding, inside the Arctic Circle, on the longest day of the year when the sun did not set – as a metaphor that the love would not set on our marriage. This, and many other tales are in my 48th book,A Periodic Tale: My Sciencey Memoir.
LINWOOD BARCLAY
The best new book I’ve read this year
Long Island, by Colm Toibin. My introduction to Toibin was the wonderful movie Brooklyn, based on his novel about a young Irish woman named Eilis Lacey who restarts her life in 1950s New York. I wanted to read the book, which was equally captivating, and upon learning that Long Island picks up on Eilis’s life two decades later, I had to read it. Toibin’s writing is beautifully understated, and his insights into character razor sharp.
My all-time top summer reading recommendation
What better time to dig into a doorstopper of a novel from one of the most prolific authors of our time? The hook behind Stephen King’s 11/22/63 is one of his best. Suppose you could go back in time and stop the Kennedy assassination? And if you did, would it really change the course of history for the better? A what-if tale that’s as full of heart as it is fantastical.
The book I’d like to give as a gift
I’m a huge fan of Roz Chast, a cartoonist for The New Yorker. Her quirky illustrations make me think as much as they make me laugh, and her latest book, I Must Be Dreaming, in which she explores her surreal night-time imaginings, promises to do both. A couple of years ago, I received Ken Follett’s stunning novel Never, about a world on the brink of catastrophe, and this year, well, I need Roz.
The book of mine that I’d like you to enjoy
My 2012 novel Trust Your Eyes. It’s a thriller about a mentally troubled, map-obsessed man who thinks he’s seen a murder on a Google Street View-type site. It’s an homage to my favourite movie, Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, as well as a kind of tribute to my late brother.
JEFFREY ARCHER
The best new book I’ve read this year
I am a huge admirer of Bill Browder, who has received a knighthood for services to those in prison for a political crime. He is particularly famous for being friends with Russian dissidents, including Sergei Magnitsky. His first book, Red Notice, not only went to No.1 on the New York Times bestseller list, but captured the imagination of people all over the world. It is not only beautifully written, but extremely important, and should be on everyone’s reading list.
My all-time top summer reading recommendation
For the past 20 years, my favourite book has been Beware of Pity by Stefan Zweig. Zweig was born in Vienna and from an early age was clearly a great intellectual. My own love of storytelling makes him very special to me, because he combines the gift of storyteller and writer. If you want a starter, read his novella, Chess.
The book of mine that I’d like you to enjoy
From a young age, I enjoyed art and storytelling and particularly admired F. Scott Fitzgerald, John O’Hara, Guy de Maupassant, Roald Dahl and W. Somerset Maugham, but if I had to choose only one, it would be a short story by H H Munro (Saki) called Sredni Vashtar, which by any standards is a masterpiece. I have written 92 short stories and my favourite is Cheap at Half the Price, hotly pursued by Who Killed the Mayor?
PAT CUMMINS
The best new book I’ve read this year
Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman. I like how he talks about the finite nature of life, but gives tools and perspectives to make the most of each day. I finished the book feeling more empowered and certain on how and with whom I want to spend my four thousand weeks!
My all-time top summer reading recommendation
I think summer is about getting lost in the page-turning novels. My summers as a kid were spent reading Harry Potter and the Tomorrow When The War Began series. Easy-to-read John Grishams, Jack Reachers and Alex Cross are the ones I normally turn to nowadays to get lost in a story.
The book of mine that I’d like you to enjoy
That would be Tested. I wrote this book over the past 18 months. I enjoy the nonfiction books that challenge the way you think, but I also find many not as gripping as a novel. With Tested, I wanted to share the stories of 11 amazing people, and provide actionable outtakes you can implement in your own life. I feel lucky I got to write the nonfiction book that I’d love to read.
DERVLA McTIERNAN
The best new book I’ve read this summer
Liane Moriarty’s Here One Moment. The premise is that on a plane from Hobart to Sydney, a woman stands and walks down the aisle, telling everyone how and when they’re going to die. From there we’re off, following both the woman and the passengers as they struggle to deal with the fallout of her actions. Full of smart, sharp insights into people and how and why they behave the way they do. Surprisingly funny and a perfect summer read.
My all-time top summer reading recommendation
Stephen King’s Outsider. The master turns his hand to crime fiction (with a paranormal twist) in this utterly devastating story about the murder of an 11-year-old boy and the resulting investigation. The killer is seen and recognised by multiple witnesses (he’s the local little league coach, and everyone knows him). Except he didn’t do it. How? In Stephen King’s hands, Outsider becomes a heartbreaking, genuinely compelling story that I, for one, have never been able to forget.
The book I’d give as a gift
All The Colours Of The Dark, by Chris Whitaker. A teenage boy is abducted and kept in a pitch-black room, seemingly alone, until he feels a hand in his. Her name is Grace. When he escapes, there is no sign that she ever existed and he sets off on an epic quest to find her. So many of the writers and readers I respect most have put this book on their “best of” lists, so I am dying to read this one.
The book of mine that I’d like you to enjoy – or give as a gift
What Happened to Nina? Nina and Simon are young and in love when they go away for the weekend and only Simon comes home. With a police investigation under way and Simon under suspicion, the two families become embroiled in a battle to get to (or perhaps hide) the truth. This is a book you’ll want to give to a friend because when you’ve finished reading it, you’re really going to want to talk about it!
NICOLA MORIARTY
The best new book I’ve read this year
Red River Road by Anna Downes. This one kept me hooked from the first page and I had absolutely no chance of predicting the outcome. Throughout this tense and twisty story, the reader is transported to the Coral Coast of WA and given an insight into the darker, seedier and, at times, lonelier and dangerous underside of #van-life, looking beyond the shine of beautifully curated social media images.
My all-time top summer reading recommendation
Anybody Out There, by Marian Keyes. I adore every single book Marian writes, but this one stole my heart many years ago. It’s one of those books that stays with you, and I recall absolutely sobbing my eyes out as I read it for the first time.
The book of mine that I’d like you to enjoy – or give as a gift
You Need to Know. This one came out in 2021 but, as it’s set during Christmas, it feels right to recommend it at this time of year. Jill, her three sons, their wives and children are driving in convoy on Christmas Eve. On the way to their holiday house, a terrifying car accident devastates them all. But someone unexpected was in one of the cars. No one is searching for them. And their time is running out.
The book I’d like to find under the Christmas tree
What happened to Nina, by Dervla McTiernan. I am a huge fan of Dervla’s Cormac Reilly crime thriller series and I’ve been hearing amazing things about this one since it hit the shelves in March. It sounds absolutely riveting.
MAGGIE ALDERSON
The best book I’ve read this year
As soon as I’m asked this question I forget every book I’ve ever read, but a recent novel I really enjoyed is a reworking of Pride and Prejudice by Indian novelist Vedashree Khambete-Sharma, called What Will People Think? It’s set in Mumbai in the 1970s, it’s very funny and I found the insights into Marathi community and Hindu life fascinating.
The book I’d like to give as a gift
When Will There Be Good News by Kate Atkinson, because I’m re-reading the entire Jackson Brodie series before I start the new one, Death at the Sign of the Rook. I admire Atkinson so much for the way she nails the sweet spot between commercial and literary fiction.
The book of mine that I’d like you to enjoy
My new novel, Would You Rather. It has a dark start at the funeral of the heroine’s husband – made even more dramatic because only she knows that an hour before he died, he’d told her he was leaving her for another woman. But out of this trauma comes opportunities for her and other characters to build exciting new lives for themselves. I think it’s a great summer read, with tensions, twists, humour – and love stories.
Originally published as Writers help summer reading conundrum with their favourites
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