Holiday reads required....

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
I'm heading off on holiday soon and would like some suggestions regarding books to take along.

I'm a pretty fast reader (last year saw me starting and finishing the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy - amongst others - although I did have 5 days to kill in Warsaw on my own while Mr SHK attended a conference).

Any suggestions? Being a holiday read something nice trumps something really good but sad...
 

MissTillyFlop

Evil communist dictator, lover of gerbils & Pope.
One Day - David Nichols (Not shite like film, I promise)
A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
We are all made of glue - Marina Lewycka


 

swee'pea99

Squire
My book club all loved A Tale of Love & Darkness by Amos Oz. It's a big chunk of book too, so it'll keep you going. Not sure I'd call it 'nice' (and it has its sad moments) but overall it's wonderful and life-affirming.
 

martint235

Dog on a bike
Location
Welling
If you're going anywhere near Greece, "In the Dolphin's wake" by Harry Bucknall isn't bad. It's about his trip round the Greek Islands by ferry.

Or the Summer of my Greek Taverna is an educational story for all those of us who have wanted to buy a bar abroad.

(Can you tell I'm wishing I was on holiday by my current reading list???)
 

Fab Foodie

hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
Location
Kirton, Devon.
'The Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks'
If you're a biological scientist you'll be aware of HeLa cells. This is the story of the woman from whence they came was never told, until now...
I was gonna do a seperate thread. Very moving and thought provoking:

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor black tobacco farmer whose cells—taken without her knowledge in 1951—became one of the most important tools in medicine, vital for developing the polio vaccine, cloning, gene mapping, in vitro fertilization, and more. Henrietta’s cells have been bought and sold by the billions, yet she remains virtually unknown, and her family can’t afford health insurance.

Soon to be made into an HBO movie by Oprah Winfrey and Alan Ball, this New York Times bestseller takes readers on an extraordinary journey, from the “colored” ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to stark white laboratories with freezers filled with HeLa cells, from Henrietta’s small, dying hometown of Clover, Virginia, to East Baltimore today, where her children and grandchildren live and struggle with the legacy of her cells. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks tells a riveting story of the collision between ethics, race, and medicine; of scientific discovery and faith healing; and of a daughter consumed with questions about the mother she never knew. It’s a story inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we’re made of.
 

pawl

Legendary Member
If you like your authors who write thrillers that are reasonably local to your area . Stephen Booth action based in Derbyshire. Peter Robinson action based Yorkshire Dales.Amazon have a good selection.Ihave bought sevaral cheaply at a book stall in my local market
 
Any of the Detective Roy Grace novels by Peter James. (avoid the non-Grace novels by him though!). All based in and around Brighton, some with international themes eg child trafficking. They are a great read and well-plotted.

FF - sounds fascinating but a bit grim for a 'holiday' read?
 

MacB

Lover of things that come in 3's
John Irving is a bit hit and miss for me, certainly never been drawn back for a re-read of any of his books.

I'm currently reading Hitch22, the Christopher Hitchens tome, about a third of the way through and I'm still enjoying it.
 
Top Bottom