There’s no better place to read than the beach (Image: Getty)
As we approach summer, you may be beginning to think about what book you’re going to take on holiday with you. As an avid reader, particularly in the summertime or while on holiday, I consider myself to have an eye for a good beach read. The type of book that you can get lost in for hours, that will transport you to a different world, era or destination.
There is something sentimental in looking at the books on your shelf and remembering where you were when you read them and the memories that resurface alongside them. This makes choosing a holiday read that bit more important. So, with that being said, here are my top three holiday books that I’d urge you to read.
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Anthony Bourdain spent a lot of his life travelling (Image: Getty)
Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
What better book to read than one written by world-class chef and travel documentarian Anthony Bourdain? He delves into his life and career combined, touching on travel and specifically when not to order the fish. I highly recommend that everyone read this book in their lifetime.
The book’s synopsis reads: “Over two decades ago, the New Yorker published a now infamous article, “Don’t Eat Before Reading This,” by then little-known chef Anthony Bourdain. Bourdain spared no one’s appetite as he revealed what happens behind the kitchen door. The article was a sensation, and the book it spawned, the now iconic Kitchen Confidential, became an even bigger sensation and megabestseller. Frankly confessional, addictively acerbic, and utterly unsparing, Bourdain pulls no punches in this memoir of his years in the restaurant business.
“Fans will love to return to this deliciously funny, delectably shocking banquet of wild-but-true tales of life in the culinary trade, laying out Bourdain’s more than a quarter-century of drugs, sex, and haute cuisine. Including a handwritten introduction and annotations done by Bourdain about a decade after the book was originally published, this edition also features previously unpublished photos to accompany the now-classic text.”
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins
If non-fiction isn’t your thing, Sunrise on the Reaping might be for you. Diving back into the Hunger Games world will provide you with that perfect feeling of escapism if that is what you like a holiday read to signify, while also having grit and giving you something to think about.
The book’s synopsis reads: “When you’ve been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?
“As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honour of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.
“Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.
“When Haymitch’s name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He’s torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who’s nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he’s been set up to fail. But there’s something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.”
Emily Henry is the author of People We Meet on Vacation (Image: Getty)
People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry
And if a romance is what you’re after, then People on Vacation is a great friends-to-lovers trope to keep you turning the pages as you relax in the sun.
The book’s synopsis states: “Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.
“Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together.
“Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven’t spoken since.
“Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees.
“Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong?”
