What the GH team recommend to read this Summer

I’m planning to read The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins, but I’m halfway through another book at the moment so it’s on the waiting list! I’m looking forward to it because it has been recommended by a friend who’s opinion I value as we both loved Gone Girl!
Katie Mortram, Junior Researcher

I am going to read The Girl On A Train – I know it's been out for a while but I haven't got round to it yet. I've heard countless stories from my friends who have read it about how they accidentally stayed up into the early hours and almost missed their tube stop because they couldn't put it down – so I know it's going to have me gripped.
Emma-Louise Pritchard, Web Writer

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I picked up Tipping the Velvet a year or so ago, after my auntie chatted excitedly about the rather risqué TV adaptation! Later that year, a friend, Liz spied it on my bookshelf and insisted I read it at once! I did as ordered and thoroughly enjoyed Sarah Waters writing style. However, I never managed to get beyond the second chapter as the copy I own is hard-back and I could never be bothered to lug it with me on my daily commute.
 
This summer, I'm determined to crack it! I've already allocated space in my luggage allowance for my two-week family holiday in the Med.  I'm looking forward to finally getting lost in this tale of a bygone and mysterious world – a side of Victorian life we're seldom privy to. I love this era and am excited about learning more about attitudes to class, gender and sexuality – uninterrupted.
Cassie Eade, Deputy Design Director

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I'm really looking forward to reading Harper Lee's new book. I love To Kill a Mockingbird, especially the feel of the Deep South in America, it really takes me away from soggy summer days in London. I'm also excited to read something that's brand new that everyone's getting excited about (before I go back to reading Swedish thrillers on the train into work). I'm also thinking of rereading some of my Stephen King books, I might need to revisit Salem's Lot (spooooky!)
Vicki Crowe, Editorial Intern 

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I am very much looking forward to reading My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante, volume one of what are known as the Neopolitan novels – only recently translated in to English and supposed to be brilliant!
 Lindsay Nicholson, Editorial Director

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This summer I’m planning to read Any Human Heart by William Boyd. I loved the TV adaption and have been meaning to read it ever since but the book seems to slip through my hands whenever I get hold of it! After starting it once, I gave my husband’s copy to a homeless man who said he’d always wanted to read it! 
 
My husband loves the book so much that he asked one of his friends to read an extract of it at our wedding. He wrote to William Boyd, telling him and thanking him for the story and the author responded immediately wishing us well for the big day. For our first year wedding anniversary, to signify paper, I bought a copy to replace the one I’d shared. 
 
I can’t wait to sit in the sunshine on holiday and step into the moving story of Logan Mountstuart. I’ve heard I’ll need some hankies at the ready!
Suzannah Butcher, Cookery Editor

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I'm looking forward to getting stuck into The Elegance of the Hedgehog by French novelist Muriel Barbery. I like the sound of the upstairs-downstairs viewpoints: the meanderings of a concierge deliberately hiding her radiant intelligence and a precociously bright girl who lives in one of the upscale Parisian apartments. I'm guessing my vocabulary will also improve with this one!
Meike Beck, Cookery Director

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This Summer I'm planning to read Instrumental by acclaimed pianist James Rhodes. It almost wasn't published after Rhodes' ex-wife took an injunction on the book.  It won't be an easy read as it details the abuse he suffered as a child but I've heard it's incredibly powerful.
Joanne Finney, Books Editor

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When we go off to Crete this summer, I'll be re-reading coming of age novel Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan. I read it years ago for my French A level in French. While I enjoyed it, I remember being very grateful for the slimness of the volume! But I hadn't realised that I was reading a heavily edited translation first published in the 50s! Now Penguin Classics have just released a new uncensored translation, I can't wait to find out what was so racy about it!
Caroline Bloor, Consumer Director

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