So, what will you be reading this summer? (From Worcester News)

So, what will you be reading this summer?

8:50am Thursday 10th July 2008 in

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FROM the day we learn to read, new worlds open up for us. Whether thick dusty tomes of learning are your thing, or you prefer to devour glossy magazines, online news sites or text messages, words hold the promise of knowledge and entertainment.

But with increasingly busy lives, actually sitting down and reading a book can be a luxury possible only during summer holidays.

Little wonder then that book clubs, like the one run by television presenters Richard and Judy, have proved so popular.

A recommendation from the golden couple and a book can almost be guaranteed to rocket to the top of the summer’s bestsellers list.

This year, their recommendations include The Outcast by Sadie Jones, a tale of trauma pulling apart the 1950s suburban idyll of a happy family, and The Private Lives Of Pippa Lee, the debut novel from writer-director Rebecca Miller.

Also on the list is Addition by Toni Jordan, a romantic comedy narrated by Grace, who suffers from obsessive-compuslive disorder and can’t stop counting. She has to decide whether she is willing to upset her routine by embarking on a relationship with a man she meets in her local café.

Of course, there is also the summer quota of paperbacks from well-known writers, including Jackie Collins, Robert Harris, Rose Tremain, Terry Pratchett and Lynda La Plante.

But what are people a little closer to home planning on reading this summer?

This year’s Miss Worcester, Rosabella Styles said despite a busy diary of engagements, she enjoyed reading when she had the chance and opted for inspirational books.

Miss Styles, from Cradley, near Malvern, said: “At the moment I’m reading Young, Brave And Beautiful by Tania Szabo. It’s a book about a second world war heroine, Violette Szabo, written by her daughter. It’s a book I would advise for any woman who wants to be inspired. “It’s not too serious or depressing, it’s a story about a brave woman who gave her life in service.”

Other books coming out this summer include: The Beach House by Jane Green (Michael Joseph, £16.99)

The story of a free-spirited woman who rents out rooms in her beach house for the summer and finds a single mother and recently separated father among her guests.

Attachment by Isabel Fonseca (Chatto & Windus, £15.99)

A smart and sexy first novel centred on a journalist who opens an erotic e-mail intended for her husband and goes undercover in search of answers.

The Broken Window by Jeffery Deaver (Hodder & Stoughton, £16.99. Available July 24) Quadriplegic criminologist Lincoln Rhyme is back with sidekick Amelia Sachs and investigating a case in which his cousin has been accused of murder – but the evidence is just too good to be true.

History Of Modern Britain, by Andrew Marr (Macmillan, £8.99)

Accessible insight into the events and personalities that have shaped Britain since 1945, now in paperback.

Girl In High Heels, by Ellouise Moore (Ebury, £6.99)

A true story of the author’s life as a London stripper.

If any of these sound remotely interesting, why not seize the chance this summer and pack a book or two alongside your swimming costume?

LUCY HODGSON

Mayor of worcester

“I would recommend Ian McEwan’s Atonement. It’s absolutely excellent. I’m recommending it to everybody I can. It’s well worth a read.

Otherwise, Tony Parsons latest book Slam which is about a young boy and girl who had a child very early which I’m in the process of reading.”

EOIN COLFER

Best-selling children’s author

“At the moment I’m re-reading Douglas Adams’s Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy series, which I haven’t read since I was a teenager. I’d forgotten how good they were and funny. They are short so they are good beach books. You can just put it in your backpack and read one a day.”

LIAM BYRNE MP

Minister for West Midlands

“It’s a bit sad actually – I’m planning to read a biography of one of Britain’s most successful entrepreneurs, William de la Pole. He was a humble bloke from Hull who made the equivalent of millions in the wool trade. Much of the wealth created by that trade paid for the beautiful churches in Worcester.”

CHARLIE GREEN

Britain’s got talent contestant

“My favourite is JK Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I like this book because it is the final book of the seven Harry Potter books in the series and it has a really good ending. It answers all the questions I have been wanting to know from the previous book The Half Blood Prince.”