August 8, 2016, by Lucy Bray

Summer Reads 2016

There are few things that top sitting in the British sunshine with a cold beverage and a good book. Here’s what UoN Library staff have been reading this summer:

Lucy McBurnie, Customer Services

After browsing through Amazon Books’ bargain section on my Kindle I came across ‘The Husband’s Secret’ by Liane Moriarty. The main storyline is that an elderly lady is still grieving over the murder of her daughter twenty something years previously and she is convinced she knows who the killer is – a man who works at the same school as her. It’s an easy read and sucks you in quite quickly with realistic characterisation. I like the way that the different characters stories are woven together to create one big picture. There are several plot twists throughout which kept me interested and overall I really enjoyed it!

Katherine Beers, Strategy & Planning

I’m reading the Golden Age by Jane Smiley and am totally obsessed, kind of can’t put it down don’t want it to end! I love a family saga although the appearance of an extensive family tree at the start can sometimes put me off, basically because I can never remember who anyone is and can’t be bothered to keep checking. There are branches of the family that cover all types of social/economic set ups so as a way of talking about recent history and politics it works really well. Anyway I am loving it and if anyone wants to borrow it would be happy to lend it. There is a useful review on the Guardian website.

Lauren Gough, Strategy & Planning

I’ve recently read The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield – very well written and enjoyable read. Not the most intricate/complex plot you’ll come across but certainly a good yarn! I’ve also recently read The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley after hearing a review of it possibly on Radio 4 (*flushes with embarrassment*) – again I really enjoyed reading it, it’s nothing very deep although I will say the ending left me a little wanting! I’m currently reading the Luminaries by Eleanor Catton. It’s set in New Zealand during the frontier/gold panning times; I’m currently getting a little lost in the plot, but there are over 400 more pages for me to try to work out what’s going on!

Helen Whitehead, Learning Technology

This summer I am reading books in the Long Earth series by Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter. The later books are unfortunately posthumous in relation to Terry Pratchett, an author much missed. The original basis for the series was Pratchett’s unpublished short story “The High Meggas”, which he wrote as a starting point for a potential series while his first Discworld novel, The Colour of Magic, was undergoing publication.
The Long Earth books are a science fiction series based on the premise that there are millions of alternate Earths that people can “step” through either using innate ability or with the help of a simple technology. The different ecologies that can be encountered as the worlds become more different are fascinating, and much of the books cover the moral and political consequences of the discovery. I’ve previously read The Long Earth and The Long War, have just finished The Long Mars and am taking The Long Utopia on holiday. The fifth and final book, The Long Cosmos, was published at the end of June.
It took me a while to get into the series, as there are number of separate and interconnected story threads, but it’s a fascinating read in the best tradition of the science-fiction “What if?” question.

For more ideas you can check out our Summer Reads posts from last year.

Now over to you! Let us know what are your favourite #summerreads2016?

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