The books we’re packing for our summer holidays, from thrillers to romances

These tomes offer pure escapsim (iStock/The Independent )

Alongside your passport, swimwear and SPF, a good beach read is an essential on your holiday packing list. Helping you switch off and relax, there a few better feelings than escaping into the pages of a book while stretched out on a sun lounger (Aperol Spritz, optional).

But what makes a good summer book? For some, it’s revisiting the comforting reads that they associate with a certain place and time, while for others, it’s diving into exciting debuts, page-turning thrillers or classics set in the destination you’re sojourning in.

Above all, you want to enjoy yourself – and you don’t want to waste valuable sun lounging time on a bad book. Luckily, the IndyBest team is on hand with their literary recommendations for summer 2024.

From a century-spanning William Boyd tome to a Dolly Alderton essay collection and a classic Patricia Highsmith thriller, these are the best summer books that deserve a special spot in your suitcase.

‘Any Human Heart’ by William Boyd, published by Penguin: £9.19, Amazon.co.uk

I envy you if you’re yet to devour William Boyd’s Any Human Heart. Just as enjoyable on its first read as it is on its second (or even third), the cult novel follows Logan Mountstuart’s life that stretches across the 20th Century. Spanning an anything-but-ordinary existence as a writer mingling with Hemingway in Paris, a spy during the Second World War recruited by none-other than Ian Fleming, an art-dealer in the swinging Sixties and much more, Boyd explores familial, romantic and platonic love his signature warm and witty voice. A modern classic, it’s a masterclass in story telling that’s just as joyous as it is emotional (be warned), and the perfect companion on your sun lounger this summer.

‘Margo’s Got Money Problems’ by Rufi Thorpe, published by Sceptre: £14.09, Amazon.co.uk

Rufi Thorpe’s debut Margo’s Got Money Problems is already set to be adapted by Big Little Lies director David E. Kelley, with Elle and Dakota Fanning and Nicole Kidman signed on. It tells the story of Margo, a child of a Hooter’s waitress and ex-Pro-wrestler, who finds herself aged 20 and pregant. As a single mother lacking options, she starts an OnlyFans account with the help of her drug addicted father and flatmate Suzie and soon becomes an online phenomenon. Described as a hilarious and human account of motherhood, sex work and womanhood, it’s won over readers around the world. I’ve bought into the hype and have purchased for my upcoming holiday.

‘The Secret History’ by Donna Tartt, published by Penguin: £9.19, Amazon.co.uk

Part psychological thriller and part story of disaffected university students, Tartt’s tome follows a group of clever misfits at an elite New England college and the chain of events that led to the death of a classmate. Although from a lower-class family, newbie Richard is accepted into the clique of students who are all under the cult-like influence of their charismatic Greek classics professor. When one member of the group threatens to reveal the group’s role in the murder, tensions rise and the second half of the novel explores the psychological consequences of hiding such a terrible secret. Offering pure escapsim, Tartt boths thrills and intrigues the reader.

Daisy Lester, Senior eCommerce Writer

‘Dear Dolly’ by Dolly Alderton, published by Fig Tree: £8.19, Amazon.co.uk

I read this book last summer on holiday in Croatia after falling in love with Dolly’s now infamous 2018 memoir, ‘Everything I know about Love’. It’s a collection of entries from her Sunday Times Style agony aunt column, which covers everything from friendship to careers and, of course, love lives. An easy and insightful read, the book’s plotless nature makes it a great one to dip in and out of in between fun-filled vacation excursions. You’ll naturally find yourself relating to the queries of both those writing in and Dolly’s comforting, non-judgemental big sister advice. It doesn’t try too hard to be all-knowing or too existential, instead walking the line between self-help and having a chat with a friend. Additionally, the scenarios that readers write in make for great conversation topics over evening cocktails.

‘Butter’ by Asako Yuzuki, published by Fourth Estate: £12.68, Amazon.co.uk

I have yet to read this one but can’t wait to pick it up this summer. It sounds like the perfect mix of crime thriller, twisted feminist fantasy and gourmet cooking – what more could you want? The plot follows a chef as she sits in a Japanese detention centre, accused of murdering lonely businessmen after seducing them with her cooking. Once a scrappy journalist begins to break down her walls through a, seemingly, shared love of food we begin to learn more about obsession, romance, misogyny and the layered relationship between Japan and food.

Ella Duggan, Freelance Production Journalist and Writer

The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith: £8.49, Amazon.co.uk

With the critically acclaimed Netflix series Ripley causing a stir earlier in the year, American novelist Patricia Highsmith’s wily anti-hero Tom Ripley has captured a new generation of fans.The first book in the series, which was originally published in 1955, tells the story of Tom Ripley, a young, aimless man from New York who is offered a lot of money by the wealthy father of Dickie Greenleaf to go to Italy and persuade him to return to America. Tom integrates himself with Dickie and his girlfriend Marge on the sunny Italian coast, and becomes enamoured with the Mediterranean lifestyle. But when Tom’s relationship with Dickie becomes more and more unsettling, Marge begins to suspect that Tom isn’t everything he claims to be. Things turn deadly and Tom has to go on the run from the Italian police. The book’s vivid portrayal of towns and cities across Italy coupled with a nail-biting narrative will draw you into Tom Ripley’s twisted universe.

Samuel Mathewson, Assistant Audience Editor

‘A Woman in the Polar Night’ by Christiane Ritter, published by Pushkin Press: £11.95, Amazon.co.uk

If you find yourself sweltering by a pool this summer, forget dipping in the water to cool off. Instead, dive into this captivating memoir, which follows painter Christiane Ritter as she decides to join her hunter-trapper husband in the Arctic Circle, where the mercury falls as low as -35C. Just reading about the icy, sub-zero conditions is enough to make your temperature drop. Spending a year living in an isolated hut in Spitsbergen – an island in the Svalbard archipelago – Ritter endures everything from dwindling supplies to the threat of polar bears. From unblinking daylight and glittering glaciers in summer to never-ending nights and severe storms in winter, Ritter marvels at her surroundings and discovers what it takes to survive so far north. What makes the author’s Arctic adventure even more awe-inspiring is the fact it took place in the 1930s, without any of the hi-tech gear used by polar explorers today.

Like all the best travel writers, Ritter transports readers to the otherworldly landscape she encounters. Even if your own travels are more likely to involve swimwear and sangria than snow boots and sea ice, you can’t help but be drawn in by Ritter’s grit and good humour. The “unimaginable world of splendour and beauty” she describes is enough to make you want to say goodbye to sun loungers in Saint-Tropez, in favour of eking out an existence in a frozen shack in Svalbard. Well, almost – on second thought, perhaps it’s better to stick to reading about it by the pool.

Angharad Moran, Senior Production Journalist

‘My Husband’ by Maud Ventura, published by Penguin: £9.09, Amazon.co.uk

I’m about halfway through Maud Ventura’s My Husband, translated from French by Emma Ramadan, on Audible, and I can’t wait to get back to it and see where it’s headed. Neurotic and completely preoccupied with her husband even after years of marriage, the protagonist of the novel is, to put it lightly, obsessed with her relationship. She’s in love with being in love, in the worst way possible, and it consumes her to the point of constantly second-guessing his love, and orchestrating and manipulating their lives to attain perfection. It’s unnerving and, at points, quietly hilarious. A dark, utterly strange novel, it reads like gliding through butter, making it the perfect psychological thriller to pick up and rip through over days by the pool.

Lois Borny, Production Journalist and Writer

‘Men without Women’ by Haruki Murakami: £6.99, Amazon.co.uk

In seven short stories, Haruki Murakami leads the reader through the lives and stories of men who have loved and lost women in some way in their lives, and the lasting impact that each of these relationships hold. Although translated from Japanese, so I’m not reading it in its original form, Murakami has a unique way of storytelling that makes all of his books so easy to read. This one felt especially impactful in the way that it examined completely different relationships with completely different types of people and, while remaining fully their own stories, brought together an overall message of appreciation for women and their impact on men. I took Men without Women with me on a beach holiday this year and it was a perfect holiday read in it being a short, easily digestible book with vivid imagery and depth. There was a sense of calm that I had while reading this book, as I’ve experienced with other Murakami books, that keep the author at the top of my list in stories to reach for.

Niki Cottrell, Freelance Social Media Assistant

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