What I’m reading for the summer

Summer holidays, for me, are a time to try and read more non-fiction. And so, I am halfway through Hilary Mantel’s 2003 memoir

Giving Up The Ghost, which is fascinating – forensically observant, funny, sometimes sad, and driven by a strong sense of justice, by which I mean the rights of those who are not powerful – children, sick people, poor people – to be listened to.

But, it can’t all be hard work, and so I am also reading Caitlin Moran’s How To Be Famous, and trying to slow myself down and not finish the entire book in a sitting. That’s tough — it is pretty much compulsively readable. I also have Andrea Mara’s One Click, because I loved her first, The

Other Side Of The Wall, a fabulously chilling thriller. The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin is packed and ready to go, because various people I trust have told me that I will love it, and Louise O’Neill’s Almost Love, because I know I’ll love it. And then, back to the non-fiction: it is time I finished Julian Barnes wonderful writing on art, Keeping An Eye Open. Luckily, they are essays, so it’s OK to dip in and out. n Emily Hourican’s new novel The Blamed is out now, published by Hachette Ireland