Read:
IF THERE was ever a time to lose yourself in a good book, it is now.
Summer means long lazy days on the beach or by the river or pool… better still, on the veranda swinging in a hammock. Reading is synonymous with all that.
Here are just a few suggestions for a good read as you laze away your summer days on the Sunshine Coast.
Immerse yourself in the Sunshine Coast with Last Day in the Dynamite Factory, a novel by acclaimed local author, Annah Faulkner. Set in Brisbane and Coolum this is a compelling story of middle-aged architect Chris Bright in search of his biological father, whose identity turns out to be just one of many secrets Chris’ life has been built on. The gorgeously descriptive passages of Brisbane and Coolum will stay with you long after you finish this beautifully written novel.
The Last Crocodile Hunter – A Father and Son Legacy. Who doesn’t love anything to do with the late Steve Irwin? This book, movingly written by his father Bob Irwin, tells the Steve Irwin story as it happened right from the very beginning. Told with love and honesty and with myriad delightful anecdotes from a father who has grieved much and loved a lot, this is a top read.
Annie’s mother is a serial killer and Annie must turn her in and take on a new family and name… but blood is thicker than water. Good Me Bad Me by Ali Land is a page-turning psychological thriller which will absorb you for hours and have you forgetting everything else until the very last page. A disturbing, dark and gripping read.
Want something lighter? The Pretty Delicious Café by Danielle Hawkins is your choice – a delicious, romantic and witty novel set in New Zealand. Great one-liners, self-deprecation, romantic complications and a pretty New Zealand seaside town are ingredients for a delicious read.
A bit of crime fiction to dip into? The Dry by Jane Harper is the most popular crime novel in Australia at the moment. Set in a small fictional Victorian town, you can taste the drought dust and feel the blanketing heat of this gripping story where a small town houses big secrets. Who really killed the Handler family will grip you from the prologue and have you putting everything else aside until you find out at the end. This is a crackling debut novel. The film rights have been bought by Reese Witherspoon’s production company.
How about a deliciously comic and wicked story told from the viewpoint of an unborn baby? Nutshell by Ian McEwan is narrated by a foetus who overhears his mother plotting to kill her husband with her husband’s brother who she is having an affair with. It is the unborn baby’s sophisticated voice and droll sense of humour that is so captivating in this book. A wonderfully witty and urbane tale of murder, betrayal
and deceit.
An easy fun read is Full Bore by the ever-popular William McInnes. In his unique and delightful style, William rambles on about our Aussie obsession with sport and pop culture. If you like to laugh and cringe at the same time, this is one for you.
Tony Park always entertains in his books about Africa, and Red Earth is one of his best. On the outskirts of Durban, Suzanne Fessey fights back during a vicious carjacking. She kills one of the offenders but the other escapes with Suzanne’s baby strapped in the back seat. You won’t be able to turn the pages fast enough in this new thriller.
If you love an author who chats directly to you in a breezy and very funny style, then Sarah-Kate Lynch is your girl. The Kiwi author has penned many works of fiction but in Screw You Dolores she talks to us about her
Year of Me, the year she turned 50 and decided to take a year off, travel, live in Paris and generally indulge herself – and along the way find out if that elusive key to happiness really does exist. A fun read written with engaging frankness.
Summer is the perfect time to immerse yourself in a good book.
