3 4 Friday: Reading in the Sun

Given the recent dramatic turn-around with the weather, our three picks today have a distinctly 'summer reading' theme (not to mention great picks for bookgroups). All three new out in paperback...

Patrick Gale's ‘A Perfectly Good Man’ is the journey of a Cornish parish priest's life from youth to late middle age (but not written in that order) leaving plenty of room for suspense, shifting relationships and an ending both bitter and warm. Gale is a master storyteller, and you feel you know his characters from the inside. It’s all delivered with a perfect compassion and a lesson not to judge too soon. Recommended reading if you are heading off to Cornwall for a break...

Victoria Hislop’s ‘The Thread’ will doubtless find its way into plenty of beach bags and she returns to Greece for this tale that sweeps through decades of modern Greek history and the terrible events that conspire to keep her central love-story protagonists apart.  Her stories manage to turn tangled and controversial history into popular fiction, focusing on period romance and family relationships, so you don’t feel you are having a history lesson. But this particularly has a pleasingly complex story... 

Finally, 'beautiful and magical' is how Ellie sums up 'The Night Circus' by Erin Morgenstern. Here's what she says: "I was really caught up in this story even though it's quite a slow unfurling of events. It's a really impressive and imaginative debut. The circus as we know it is transformed in this story where two magicians are tied together in a challenge at which the circus is at the centre. It's beautiful, dreamlike writing and I definitely recommend it - particularly if you want to read something a bit different and special. It's a book to savour. Enjoy!"

So - do you have any new summer reading you'd like to recommend? Thanks to Headline, we have a reading copy of 'The Book of Summer' to give away. Leave a recommend below - and we'll select one person in a draw on Monday to receive it...