What I’m reading for the summer

I wish I could go back a summer and read my favourite book of last year again: Andrew O’Hagan’s Secret Life: Three True Stories of the Digital Age. If you haven’t though, I’d recommend it. However, assuming time-travel isn’t on the itinerary this year, I’m packing fiction, essays and a single book of poetry – The Radio by Leontia Flynn – in my suitcase.

See What Can Be Done, Lorrie Moore’s collection of essays, criticism and commentary is sharp, wideranging and insightful. I would call it ‘enjoyable’, but she has banned the word on grounds of laziness. After being out of favour for a long time, collections of short stories are now in plentiful supply, and a wild card which arrived in the post today is The Rental Heart and Other Fairytales by Kirsty Logan, which looks to be a quirky, steam-punk take on classical folklore. I’m looking forward to finishing Stinging Fly Stories, the wonderful anthology edited by Sarah Gilmartin and Declan Meade. Finally, one of my most satisfying reads of the summer is Melatu Uche Okorie’s debut collection This Hostel Life which tells the stories of migrant women in the direct provision system.