Summing up Summer: The Better Reading Team Chooses their Seasonal Highlights

We blinked and it’s over. It’s always sad saying goodbye to summer, although this year it’s perhaps somewhat of a relief. It’s been an extremely difficult summer for many Australians. But just before the mercury dips into autumn, we thought we’d reflect on some of our favourite reads of the season. Here’s the team summing up their favourite summer titles.

Melissa Wilson, Head of Marketing and Children’s Content

I really enjoyed The Other People. C.J. Tudor entwines three disturbing stories to create a very creepy but extremely compelling thriller. You are completely in the dark right until the very end and the premise that the story is based on is one that is chillingly plausible.

I loved Hannah Richell’s The River Home, a touching and heartfelt story of family, love, grief and the emotional connections that tie us to each other – and to places. It is a story that leaves the reader pondering their own life and experiences.

Jane Tara, Lifestyle Editor and Adult titles

Two big books are my summer standouts – one a beach read and the other a gorgeous read deemed to become a classic.

Marian Keyes has brilliantly tapped into the family dynamics with Grown Ups. She has the master skill of making a family’s day-to-day lives seem interesting! You could be walking into the Casey extended family gathering yourself, the way that Keyes includes you in the story.

My other choice is Michael Christie’s Greenwood. Once in a while a book comes along that is so exquisite, so delicious, so powerful… a book that compels you to think and feel deeply about life, the world around us and our purpose. Greenwood is such a book.

Honorary mention to A Murder at Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey. An absolute pleasure.

Bec Howard, Marketing Coordinator

So many to choose from! But if I had to choose two…

Rose Hartley writes a funny, fierce and raw debut with Maggie’s Going Nowhere. The characters are hilariously real and the situations completely believable! Delightfully snarky and funny.

Also, Jane in Love by Rachel Givney. At age twenty-eight, Jane Austen knows she should be seeking a suitable husband. But Jane needs to take some extreme measures in order to find the man of her dreams. These extreme measures magically land her in modern-day England.