Summer is the perfect time to catch up on the reading you haven’t found time for during the beginning of the year. Sometimes it can be hard to decide from all the fantastic books that are out there and to give you some inspiration we have put together a list of what the English team at Oxford are reading/ planning to read this summer.
Do you already know what you’re going to read this summer? Why don’t you share them with us in the comments below?
Kirsty Stanfield, Commissioning editor
I’m currently finishing The Gap in Time by Jeannette Winterson (a modern retelling of The Winter’s Tale). My next reads will be some non-fiction (which is a rarity for me): Shakespeare and Company, Paris: A History of the Rag & Bone Shop of the Heart and The Witches: Salem, 1692 by Stacy Schiff, and possibly Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood (a modern retelling of The Tempest). Too many books, too little time!
Lionel Bolton, Head of Secondary English and Languages publishing
I will be reading A Man Called Ove by Fredrick Backman once I’ve finished The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene (though it is quite heavy going) and then One of Us by Jeannie Waudby (which isn’t heavy going). After I’ve finished these I will read The Regional Office is Under Attack by Maual Gonzales.
Rebecca Geoghegan, English Teacher and blogger
I’ll be reading The Girl Who Killed the King of Sweden over the summer. I take part in a book club with friends and that’s our chosen summer read. I really enjoy the pared down style of the Swedish author Jonas Jonasson who also wrote The Hundred -Year -Old Man who Climbed out of the Window and Disappeared. I’m hoping for the same dry humour and crazy escapades.
My recommended reads this summer would be His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman. Rumoured to soon be a BBC adaptation, this adventure story about Lyra and Will’s journey to adulthood is on an epic scale – with talking bears and the devil himself! – but still manages to capture the intricacies of teenage emotions. Highly recommended by all who have read it – and most of those have read it more than once, including me!
Katie Lowe, English publisher
I’m planning on reading my book group books: American Gods by Neil Gaiman and also Their Finest by Lissa Evans.
Jill Carter, English teacher and blogger
I usually view summer as a time to tackle something really thick. Other than clotted cream, this has, in the past, included The Luminaries which is absolutely spectacular if you have the courage to start something which is read 800+ pages. Once ‘in’ it, I felt I was on the journey of places and events alongside the characters and I was happy to travel a long, long way thanks to Eleanor Catton’s delightful style and fantastic plot.
This summer I intend not to be ruled by this silly convention I have created. I plan to start with the latest Rose Tremain, The Gustav Sonata. A bit like a sea swim, Rose Tremain never disappoints me.
On an entirely different level and for entirely different reasons, I also plan to chase down the latest Ben Aaronovitch The Hanging Tree and revel in another romp through the craziest magical-mystery-detective-crime story.
Fiona Lloyd-Williams, English Marketing Manager
I have just finished Where the World Ends by Geraldine Mccaughrean, which is a wonderfully evocative tale of survival set on the remote St Kilda stacs, in 1727, and so my next read will be The Museum of Extraordinary Things by Alice Hoffman, bought purely because of the title and the cover!
It was also suggested that the team read some Jane Austen this year, and after reaching out to Twitter, Persuasion appears to be the top recommendation, and is therefore next on my list!
Madelene Boberg, Marketing Administrator
I am currently reading What’s Eating Gilbert Grape by Peter Hedges, I really enjoyed the film version but do not remember Gilbert being so rude… At the same time I am also re-reading J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, because can you ever be too old for Harry Potter?