Scorching summer reads

The Cloisters Katy Hays

The Secret History for a new generation - a tale of toxic obsession, corrosive friendships, and the ruthless pursuit of power. Ann Stilwell, an ambitious young art historian is drawn into a close-knit circle of researchers at the Met’s Cloisters Museum – a world of privilege that’s turned upside down by a sudden death and the discovery of a mysterious deck of 15th century tarot cards.

We All Want Impossible Things CATHERINE NEWMAN

A heart-wrenching yet laugh-out-loud celebration of living and dying, and an affirmation of friendship at its imperfect and radiant best. Edi and Ash have been best friends for over forty years, seeing each other through life's milestones. Now comes the biggest milestone of them all... 

Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow Gabrielle Zevin

Two children meet in a hospital gaming room. When they spot each other again eight years later, their collaborations make them superstars. Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow takes us on a dazzling quest as it examines the nature of identity, creativity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play and, above all, our need to connect.

Carrie Soto Is Back Taylor Jenkins Reid

In spite of it all: Carrie Soto is back, for one epic final season. Six years after her retirement from tennis, Carrie finds herself sitting in the stands watching her record be taken from her by a brutal, stunning, British player named Nicki Chan. At thirty-seven years old, Carrie makes the monumental decision to come out of retirement for one last year in an attempt to reclaim her record.

Lessons in Chemistry Bonnie Garmus

Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. In fact, Elizabeth Zott would be the first to point out that there is no such thing.

But it's the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute take a very unscientific view of equality. Except for one: Calvin Evans, the lonely, brilliant, Nobel-prize nominated grudge-holder who falls in love with - of all things - her mind. True chemistry results.

Shrines of Gaiety Kate Atkinson

Gangsters and politicians, peers and dancing girls, rubbing shoulders in a dazzling new world. This world is Soho in the 1920s, full of glitz and glamour. But beneath the dazzle of Soho's gaiety, there is a dark underbelly, a world in which it is all too easy to become lost...

The Secret History Donna Tartt

The original American campus novel... When Richard Papen joins an elite group of clever misfits at his New England college, it seems he can finally become the person he wants to be. But the moral boundaries he will cross with his new friends - and the deaths they are responsible for - will change all of their lives forever. 

All The Broken Places John Boyne

The sequel to the best-selling The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. Gretel is faced with a chance to expiate her guilt, grief and remorse and act to save a young boy - for the second time in her life. But to do so, she will be forced to reveal her true identity to the world. Will she make a different choice this time, whatever the cost to herself?

Grand Noelle McCarthy

The astonishing debut memoir about mothers and daughters, drinking, birth and loss, running away and homecoming from prize-winning writer and broadcaster Noelle McCarthy. A story of the invisible ties that bind us, of bitter legacies handed down through the generations, and of the leap of faith it takes to change them.

How to Loiter In a Turf War Coco Solid

A fiercely funny and strikingly honest novel about friendship, identity and gentrification. It’s a day in the life of three friends beefing with their own city, Tamaki Makaurau. Like nothing you’ve read before, How to Loiter in a Turf War is a lucid, genre-bending, cinematic work of fiction.

Lessons Ian McEwan

The mesmerising new novel from Ian McEwan, bestselling author of Atonement. The world is forever changing. But for so many of us, old wounds run deep. Lessons is an intimate yet universal story of love, regret and a restless search for answers.

Lucy by the Sea Elizabeth Strout

In March 2020 Lucy's ex-husband William pleads with her to leave New York and escape to a coastal house he has rented in Maine. Lucy reluctantly agrees, leaving the washing-up in the sink, expecting to be back in a week or two. Weeks turn into months, and it's just Lucy, William, and their complex past together in a little house nestled against the sea.

No Plan B Lee Child, Lee Child and Andrew Child, Andrew Child

The latest Jack Reacher thriller, centred around a staged suicide, a secret conspiracy and an elaborate plot that leaves no room for error. When the threat is Reacher, there’s No Plan B...

The Orphans Fiona McIntosh

An unforgettable story about a unique bond between two children that will echo down the years and teach them both about the real meaning of life, of loss, and of love.

The Bullet That Missed Richard Osman

A decade-old cold case leads the Thursday Murder Club to a local news legend and a murder with no body and no answers. Can the gang solve the mystery and save Elizabeth from her new foe before the murderer strikes again?