Early Summer Read

I am a bit early with my summer reads this year, because I just couldn't resist the temptation to pick up The Beach Café by Lucy Diamond when I saw it at the library the other week, it's a book that has been on my reading list for a while.
I like Diamond's way of getting straight to the point. In the first couple of pages you find out that Evie's aunt has died suddenly and she has left her cherished café in Cornwall to her. This part of the story is all on the back of the book anyway, so it is better to get it out of the way right away and we can then enjoy to learn something new about the characters.
It's a feel good story and I will definitely pick up some of Diamond's other books as well.
Josefine

Title: The Beach Café Author: Lucy Diamond ISBN: 978-0-330-52053-9

Summer Reading

I just picked up a leaflet at the library with this summer’s Richard and Judy selection. I don’t watch their show (mainly because I don’t have a working TV right now) but I must say that their selection of books is quite interesting. Some of my favourites that I have had my eyes on before are The Piano Teacher by Janice Y.K. Lee and Guernica by Dave Boling. Stephen Carter’s Palace Council seems quite interesting as well especially since there is currently a black president in the White House. Some of the others The Great Lover, Mystery Man and The Senator’s Wife didn’t appeal to me as much. I guess the charm of this book club, is their wide selection and you can find anything there.
Josefine

My recommendations: The Outcast by Sadie Jones

Summer reading II

It is this time of the year again. It is time for those lazy summer days spending the days in the hammock reading. Those lazy days when you have all the time in the world to enjoy a book and catching up on all the books you have neglected during the year.

My recommendation for this summer is to use your library. During the summer months at my local library, the expiration date for the books are longer, which makes it possible to go on long vacations without being stuck with late fees on my books.
Use your library to revisit old books you read in another period of your life and see what’s changed in them, or perhaps in you. If that isn’t interesting enough, take a leap into the unknown and find a new author or genre. If you can, unlike I, don’t make yourself go through a book if it is boring, put it down and find a new. This is a time for leisurely reading, not heavy plowing.
Josefine

My recommendations: The three musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

Summer reading

It’s been a little while since I wrote the last time. It is like this when it’s summer and there is much to do during a short period. Summers in Sweden are not very long and the days of really nice weather are easy to count and there is so much you want to cram into those days. Visits to the beach, picnics, running and most of all read. Reading in the summer for me consists of two occasions, the beach during the day and the garden in the evening. What and where do you read in the summer?

For the book industry, summer is the time when paperbacks are sold the most. In almost every bookstore in Sweden, there is an offer to buy four paperbacks and pay for three. There are definitely advantages to paperbacks, they weigh less than their hardcover sisters and they cost less, much less. Nowadays most books come out in a paperback version as well, sometimes even at the same time as the hard cover editions. Paperbacks are great for those lazy days on the beach when you grab a book just before you head out the door with your bath towel and flip-flops. Some of my favourite beach reads are Sophie Kinsella, Marian Keyes and Philippa Gregory. They are funny, easy read books that don’t require you to think too much. Another thing I like about them is that you can put them down between swims in the ocean and chats with your friends without getting lost.

During the long light evenings of Sweden I like to sit outside, when the weather allows it, and read in the evening. This is when I take out the more “heavy” books. The ones that are too mind wrecking to read in the heat and sun on the beach. Right now I am reading Winston Churchill’s history of England, which is quiet interesting. There are four volumes and I am only at the first, The Birth of Britain. It is certainly not objective, but it is an interesting read from one man’s perspective of the building of the great British Empire.
Josefine

My recommendations: For the beach: Sushi for beginners by Marian Keyes, for the evening: Eine frau in Berlin (A woman in Berlin) by Anonymous.