I love hearing people talk about their favorite books! Sometimes the way social media constantly pushes the new makes me feel a bit anxious. It’s very reassuring to hear people talking about the things that have stuck with them over time.
That’s good to hear and I hadn’t thought about it that way before. That said I do tend to love new fiction more, I used to love modern classics most, so it could change again.
I remember 1976 well. Sunburn, heat stroke & lots of hard work. I loved The Proof of Love Instructions for a Heatwave The Trouble With Goats and Sheep 🍀👋💐☘️☕️📖📚📕
I'm perfectly find with mentioning books several times per year or however many times it's warranted. It's impossible to keep up with every video and recommendation, so a repeat is always welcomed. Great recommendations, as always!
I think I’ll try and do some more hindsight mentions of books I already have and repeat mentions of new favourites or books I really like going forward.
I hope you like The Summer Without Men, I really enjoyed it. As Barbara Kingsolver is on everyone’s mind these days I’d also recommend her Prodigal Summer. Loved that one.
Ha. Barbara’s might just be on my ‘summer’ themed reading vlog pile. It’ll be my fourth book of hers this year if I get to it. The Summer Without Men is the patreon book club pick for next month so will be reading it quite imminently.
Thank you, Simon!☀️I love this video and certainly don’t mind your reminding us of your favourite books every once in a while😊The Trouble with Goats and Sheep is very likely to disrupt my tentative summer reading plans (The Song of Achilles and A Thousand Ships are part of them). I’ve also added Summer by Edith Wharton (I enjoyed very much The Age of Innocence) and Instructions for a Heathwave (loved Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait). Have a great summer!🍹🍨📚☀️
Oooh The Song of Achilles and A Thousand Ships are really good. Though maybe a break to the 1976 summer heatwave between could be fun 😉 Glad you enjoyed the video!
I have that on my potential ‘summer’ titles Reading Vlog TBR. Though I’ve read quite a lot of Barbara in quite a short space of time and want to savour them and space them out. Lol
Love this themed video! I need to get to the Maggie O’Farrell and Tiffany McDaniel books you mentioned - Betty and On the Savage Side are brilliant. Malibu Rising by TJR is a fab summer read for me ☀️
summerwater!!! such a good book. i recommend it a LOT. perfect slow burn. the tension created it brilliant. also, i'm excited to read some wharton with you soon! i can't wait for her biting style haha. never worry about talking about your favourite books often, i love when people do that. it feels like we get to know someone a little more when they share their love of something!
I’ve just read heatwave 😘👌 really well written teenage protagonist. I like hearing about books more than once - sometimes I hear about one and think ooh must get that and then forget. But also my reading tastes and desires change so I might not have thought something was for me the first time you talk about it but feel differently the next time I hear about it. One of the best things about this channel is your passion shines through with the discussion rather than just ‘I’m reading this and I’ve read that’.
I think I’m going to read Heatwave this weekend. Feels like the right time. Such a lovely thing to say about my passion. I need to get it for my May and June wrap up, it’s not quite there yet lol.
Thanks for all those reccos Simon! I love hearing about books that aren't new releases, when I think of all the books that have already been written it just makes me want to dive into them instead of looking towards all the new ones. I adored You Make A Fool Of Death With Your Beauty 😍 and yes I'd love to read more gothic summer books, I've just finished Rebecca 😍 and an now wanting more of that creepy yet summery vibe 😁
Oooh I’m hoping to find some summer gothic treats over the next few weeks and months and reporting back. Rebecca is a corker. Not sure I’ve ever found something quite like it… though many authors have tried.
Thanks as always for sharing, and its good to have your recommendations from your favourites and ones your looking forward to. I loved the Joanna cannon book and have loved her others but still have tidy ending to read. one book i sort of think is Summer gothicky (sorry about the spelling 😊) is bitter orange by Claire fuller i absolutely loved it, its set in the summer of 1969 in a dilapidated house I’m not going to say anymore!
You’re the second person to recommend Bitter Orange to me. I need to crack on and read all the Claire Fuller books I haven’t. Hope you enjoy A Tidy Ending when you get to it.
I agree with all of the comments I've read so far. Mention the books as often as they crop up, that in itself reminds me that you've mentioned it before and I had forgotten it existed. Books, books, books😂
I have Summerwater on my TBR and am currently finishing Brutes, which I got on your recommendation. I'm quite fascinated by it and it feels summerly gothic to me!
Great suggestions! Love hearing about books that have a little less buzz about them. Sinister summer makes me think of Midsommar, although sadly I can’t think of any books with that vibe!
That’s kind of not a shame… I hated Midsommer with an absolute passion. In fact I can think of a book that have me those vibes… Cursed Bloody Bread. Hahaha.
I'm currently reading Maggie O'Farrell in order of publication 😁 Just finished The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox - wow, what a book. I can't stop thinking about it
That’s the first book of hers I read. My Gran gave it me when I was staying at hers when there was a storm that caused a power outage, read it by candle light. A corker.
I’m reading Summer now. The writing and descriptions of nature are gorgeous. It’s easy to get lulled in but then you remember it’s Edith Wharton and she doesn’t write cozy books.
Ha. She doesn’t. I think people too often think she’s a cosy kind of writer but that’s all an initial act from Ms Wharton, the darkness starts to glimmer.
Summerwater is now on my summer tbr! You always recommend some great books that are not popular on the rest of booktube. I appreciate it, bc I think our tasts align more
A great summery feeling thriller series is the Ripley series (the one that starts with The Talented Mr. Ripley) by Patricia Highsmith. I am re-reading it this summer, and would highly recommend. Another good one would be The Feast by Margaret Kennedy, which is light thriller, but takes place in a hotel on the Cornwall coast. It's a modern classic, and and not gothic (it's quite cozy) but a good time.
Ooooh I’ve wanted to read the Ripley series for ages so that’s a really good call. I have loved all the Highsmith I’ve read so far. I also have The Feast on my TBR too.
Fun to hear you chat about Singapore while watching this video from Singapore. 🙂Just ordered a copy of The Summer That Melted Everything. I can't seem to finish watching a video from you or your mum without buying yet another book. Oops! ☺ Thanks for another great list of recommendations. Cheers!
So many brilliant books, I never get bored of hearing about books. I read The Proof of Love after you recommended it. I really hate flying and I read the whole book on the return flight from Cyprus last year and didn’t think about flying at all, it was such a good book, thank you❤️📚
So pleased that you loved The Proof of Love. It’s a gripping yarn isn’t it! Glad it got you through the flight. A Louise Welsh did that for me on a flight back from Cyprus.
When I read Edith Wharton's "Summer" I absolutely loved it. I hope some day you'll visit her house in The Berkshires (western MA.) I know she had a big house outside of Paris too, but I've visited The Mount a few times and it helps me put her novels in context. Also I lived in Greenwich Village for years and know the brownstone architecture of the houses where she spent her formative years. Happy reading.
I’m really looking forward to Edith’s ‘Summer’. Maybe Mum, who also loves Edith, and I should try and go to the house in The Berkshires at some point as a big trip. Lol.
the Sarah Moss one sounds interesting - must give that a look. I remember 1976 and going to pick my children up from school and arriving like a grease spot - eeeuw. We didn't drive to school in those days so it was a trudge. Ah I enjoyed the goats and sheep one very much and it is a different sort of read for me. Interesting video. thanks.
Siri Hustvedt is great! I read Blazing World last summer and planning to read another of hers this summer, either Summer without men or The Sorrows of an American.
Absolutely loved this video! I added several of your suggestions to my TBR, and I must mention I loved THE SUMMER THAT MELTED EVERYTHING; have you read her next book BETTY? If not, I highly recommend it!
The first four on your list I’ve read and really enjoyed ☀️☀️ The summer that melted everything sounds good . My next read will be the girls of summer by Katie Bishop and a summer book I’d recommend would be Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau 📚📚📚
I worked( teenager) in a seafront shop during '76, the ❤ladybirds were so thick on the walls you couldn't see the walls, you had to walk over carpets of them. and they bit a lot.
Loved Summerwater. The chapter you refer to, which I have just reminded myself was called Zanzibar, made me laugh out loud. I have Proof of Love. Tempted to read that next. Recently read Still Life. Absolutely loved it. Claude was so funny. What about Claire Fullers Bitter Orange for a bit of gothic summer reading
I read Instructions for a Heatwave and enjoyed it, left me hoping for a sequel, starting O'Farrell's This Must Be the Place. The Catherine Hall will be placed on the list.
I love sinister summer reads. I know I've read many over the years, but the only ones that come to mind are Rebecca (du Maurier), Summer House With Swimming Pool (Koch) and Accidental (Smith). If any of the others bubble into my brain I'll add to this list.
Love Rebecca. My favourite book. Loved The Accidental, my first Smith. Which is along the lines of Hot Milk and Swimming Home by Deborah Levy. I haven’t read Summer House with Swimming Pool but maybe it’s time.
I think summer gothic happens when the heat becomes so significant that it is almost a plot point, hence the number of novels set in the summer of 1976. So any good novel where the characters are undone by the heat would work. My most happy recent summer read was The Fortnight in September by RC Sherriff, which I thought conjured up the essence of summer holidays and was an absolute treat.
Interesting Cindy! I hadn’t thought about how the intensity of the heat makes it gothic. Some of those 1976 books do have that, not all but definitely a few. Oooh I’ve not read the Sherrif.
I’m going to pick up Proof of Love purely because if it wasn’t recommended by you I probably would never feel compelled to read it. Monsters by Emerald Fennell is a good summer read and Foxlowe by Eleanor Wasseberg was great though it reminds me of morning sickness in the summer heat now 😅
Hope you enjoy The Proof of Love when you get to it. Foxlowe is a fab book, I’ve a quote in the paperback! Monsters I have on the TBR. Actually that would be a perfect summer gothic read.
I enjoy the UK heat wave of 1976 as a setting too. Isn't Proof of Love a book with that setting too? And also The Water Children by Anne Perry. I hadn't been to England yet in 1976, but I remember the heat wave because it made the news here in Canada.
Hi Simon , great topic. Hmmm.....summer reading, always puts me in mind of A level history revision for some reason ( about as 😱 as it gets). More wonderfully, Brideshead Revisited, which I do, each summer. Ethan Frome left me 😟🤐 in a good way. On the ' summer gothic' idea. As I've enjoyed James Lee Burke's crime writing, set in the Deep South and Grady Hendrix' Southern Bookclub's Guide to 🗡️🧛 ( Georgia?) and the movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.... thought I'd try some William Faulkner and other 'Southern Gothic' novels. Themes seem to be include stifling heat, social tensions, crimes and general creepy, atmospheric writing. Maybe with an 🐊 thrown in ( or is that Florida?). I need to read more to suggest titles, but maybe an area to check out/ ask for recs? ☀️🥀🏚️
I really liked Brideshead Revisited when I read it quite a few years ago. It almost set me off on a Waugh kick, not sure why it didn’t actually. Oooh the Hendrix is a great idea. Who doesn’t love a🐊 too?
Brilliant vlog Simon. Summer themed reading that is titillating the taste books. Can't wait to head to some of those. Agree that UK summers can be wet. Heading to York any inde book shop recommendations please?
Hope you enjoy the ones you get to when you get to them. I have to say I’ve not been book shopping in York. The most bookish thing I’ve done there is have afternoon tea with Ariel. Lol.
You just made me want to reread The Summer Without Men! It’s so good. I hope you do get to it and can’t wait to hear all your thoughts. Loved this list! So many new books to get to
Northanger is a new YA Gay graphic novel about Texas teen boys maybe falling in love on a ranch in summer who are obsessed with scary movies and there may be a murderous mystery too, it’s a rift on Jane Austen.
Mentioning the same books more often is something I've been thinking about lately. I noticed that when I started booktube I kept mentioning the same books so much that people associated them with me. But lately I barely manage to film as many videos and especially tags as I would like to, so I mainly just talk about a book in a wrap up. Which is fine, but then don't we all also want to push our favoirte books onto as many people as possible? Support the authors and create more talk around the book? I haven't fidured out how to do that as it also feels like repetetive content. And yet... So go ahead and talk about the same books. Personally I also like the reminders that I still haven't picked up a particular book yet.
Yeah, I think it’s something that I need to get in the habit of doing more often. It doesn’t even have to be absolute favourites, could just be really good ones that match a time or year or readathon or something.
I never get tired of people talking about their favourite books - it's always great to hear people talk about what they love 📚💜
Good to know. Thank you.
I love hearing people talk about their favorite books! Sometimes the way social media constantly pushes the new makes me feel a bit anxious. It’s very reassuring to hear people talking about the things that have stuck with them over time.
That’s good to hear and I hadn’t thought about it that way before. That said I do tend to love new fiction more, I used to love modern classics most, so it could change again.
I love recommendations, especially for older books not just the current releases.
Hopefully this was just the right mix 😉
Nooooo, its Friday 12.30am. I need sleep but here is Simon! Oh well sleep can wait! Love from Thailand x❤
Whoops 😉
I remember 1976 well. Sunburn, heat stroke & lots of hard work.
I loved
The Proof of Love
Instructions for a Heatwave
The Trouble With Goats and Sheep
🍀👋💐☘️☕️📖📚📕
Hooray. So pleased you loved those three.
Loved Heatwave! So atmospheric, you can feel the heat both literally and figuratively. Kind of heartbreaking.
Ooooh looking forward to it even more now.
I'm perfectly find with mentioning books several times per year or however many times it's warranted. It's impossible to keep up with every video and recommendation, so a repeat is always welcomed. Great recommendations, as always!
I think I’ll try and do some more hindsight mentions of books I already have and repeat mentions of new favourites or books I really like going forward.
Hi Simon V excited by the patch of sunlight behind u, 4gotten what the sun is like in non-stop rainy NZ. Loved the Moss and O' Farrell!
Ha. That sunshine made me feel like it was the perfect time to make this video. It’s mostly rained since. Hahaha.
I really enjoyed, You made a fool of Your Death with your beauty. Some great recommendations Simon, thankq
Awwww thanks Elaine!
I loved The Trouble with Goats and Sheep and also Heatwave was great. Some great recommendations 😊
Glad to hear you liked the summer selection.
Thanks so much for this video. I've been wanting to shop my shelves and I own Instructions for a Heatwave! Perfect. 😊
I hope you enjoy it!
Heatwave is so good!
Really looking forward to it. Might actually read this weekend.
@@SavidgeReads I feel like I need to make it an annual summer read!
I hope you like The Summer Without Men, I really enjoyed it. As Barbara Kingsolver is on everyone’s mind these days I’d also recommend her Prodigal Summer. Loved that one.
Ha. Barbara’s might just be on my ‘summer’ themed reading vlog pile. It’ll be my fourth book of hers this year if I get to it. The Summer Without Men is the patreon book club pick for next month so will be reading it quite imminently.
Thank you, Simon!☀️I love this video and certainly don’t mind your reminding us of your favourite books every once in a while😊The Trouble with Goats and Sheep is very likely to disrupt my tentative summer reading plans (The Song of Achilles and A Thousand Ships are part of them). I’ve also added Summer by Edith Wharton (I enjoyed very much The Age of Innocence) and Instructions for a Heathwave (loved Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait). Have a great summer!🍹🍨📚☀️
Oooh The Song of Achilles and A Thousand Ships are really good. Though maybe a break to the 1976 summer heatwave between could be fun 😉 Glad you enjoyed the video!
One of my favourite summer books is Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver, it is so lush and sensual.
I have that on my potential ‘summer’ titles Reading Vlog TBR. Though I’ve read quite a lot of Barbara in quite a short space of time and want to savour them and space them out. Lol
Love this themed video! I need to get to the Maggie O’Farrell and Tiffany McDaniel books you mentioned - Betty and On the Savage Side are brilliant. Malibu Rising by TJR is a fab summer read for me ☀️
I loooved Malibu Rising… so much so I have a quote in the paperback. It’s a proper summer corker. As is Carrie Soto.
Hi Simon, I've just finished The Offing by Benjamin Myers, which I thought was a perfect spring/summer read. ❤
Yes. That’s a fabulous summer book. Almost chose it, not sure why I didn’t. Ha.
The swallows and amazons children’s books always remind me of summer
I only ever read the first one as a kid and remember really, really enjoying it.
Oh I've read The Heatwave. I picked it up in the Waterstones sale as I was intrigued. It is so so good!!
Oooh looking forward to it all the more now.
summerwater!!! such a good book. i recommend it a LOT. perfect slow burn. the tension created it brilliant.
also, i'm excited to read some wharton with you soon! i can't wait for her biting style haha.
never worry about talking about your favourite books often, i love when people do that. it feels like we get to know someone a little more when they share their love of something!
Simon if you haven’t read The First Day of Spring yet that book has some serious Heatwave vibes. It was my favourite book last year!
Ooh who is it by? Sounds springy to me 😉
I’ve just read heatwave 😘👌 really well written teenage protagonist.
I like hearing about books more than once - sometimes I hear about one and think ooh must get that and then forget. But also my reading tastes and desires change so I might not have thought something was for me the first time you talk about it but feel differently the next time I hear about it.
One of the best things about this channel is your passion shines through with the discussion rather than just ‘I’m reading this and I’ve read that’.
I think I’m going to read Heatwave this weekend. Feels like the right time. Such a lovely thing to say about my passion. I need to get it for my May and June wrap up, it’s not quite there yet lol.
Thanks for all those reccos Simon! I love hearing about books that aren't new releases, when I think of all the books that have already been written it just makes me want to dive into them instead of looking towards all the new ones. I adored You Make A Fool Of Death With Your Beauty 😍 and yes I'd love to read more gothic summer books, I've just finished Rebecca 😍 and an now wanting more of that creepy yet summery vibe 😁
Oooh I’m hoping to find some summer gothic treats over the next few weeks and months and reporting back. Rebecca is a corker. Not sure I’ve ever found something quite like it… though many authors have tried.
Thanks as always for sharing, and its good to have your recommendations from your favourites and ones your looking forward to. I loved the Joanna cannon book and have loved her others but still have tidy ending to read. one book i sort of think is Summer gothicky (sorry about the spelling 😊) is bitter orange by Claire fuller i absolutely loved it, its set in the summer of 1969 in a dilapidated house I’m not going to say anymore!
You’re the second person to recommend Bitter Orange to me. I need to crack on and read all the Claire Fuller books I haven’t. Hope you enjoy A Tidy Ending when you get to it.
I agree with all of the comments I've read so far. Mention the books as often as they crop up, that in itself reminds me that you've mentioned it before and I had forgotten it existed.
Books, books, books😂
Hahahaha. Noted, noted, noted. 😉
I have Summerwater on my TBR and am currently finishing Brutes, which I got on your recommendation. I'm quite fascinated by it and it feels summerly gothic to me!
Ooooh yes! Brutes is summer gothic, why didn’t I think of that. Hahaha.
So many great books and some are sitting on my shelves 😮 😂
Hooray!
Absolutely love Tiffany mcdaniel. Betty is heartbreaking as is the savage side. Enjoy xx
I am looking forward to the reread and then heading to those two.
Great suggestions! Love hearing about books that have a little less buzz about them.
Sinister summer makes me think of Midsommar, although sadly I can’t think of any books with that vibe!
That’s kind of not a shame… I hated Midsommer with an absolute passion. In fact I can think of a book that have me those vibes… Cursed Bloody Bread. Hahaha.
@@SavidgeReads Let's not relive that one!!!
I heard you talking about some great books, but honestly kept getting distracted by the amazing Spice Girls!🧂🎶
Hahahaha. Rightly so. ✌🏻
I'm currently reading Maggie O'Farrell in order of publication 😁 Just finished The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox - wow, what a book. I can't stop thinking about it
That’s the first book of hers I read. My Gran gave it me when I was staying at hers when there was a storm that caused a power outage, read it by candle light. A corker.
I’m reading Summer now. The writing and descriptions of nature are gorgeous. It’s easy to get lulled in but then you remember it’s Edith Wharton and she doesn’t write cozy books.
Ha. She doesn’t. I think people too often think she’s a cosy kind of writer but that’s all an initial act from Ms Wharton, the darkness starts to glimmer.
Summerwater is now on my summer tbr! You always recommend some great books that are not popular on the rest of booktube. I appreciate it, bc I think our tasts align more
Awwwww that’s lovely of you to say! Hope you enjoy Summerwater.
A great summery feeling thriller series is the Ripley series (the one that starts with The Talented Mr. Ripley) by Patricia Highsmith. I am re-reading it this summer, and would highly recommend.
Another good one would be The Feast by Margaret Kennedy, which is light thriller, but takes place in a hotel on the Cornwall coast. It's a modern classic, and and not gothic (it's quite cozy) but a good time.
Ooooh I’ve wanted to read the Ripley series for ages so that’s a really good call. I have loved all the Highsmith I’ve read so far. I also have The Feast on my TBR too.
Yup, cannot go wrong with Ripley. Absolute page turners 🤓
Fun to hear you chat about Singapore while watching this video from Singapore. 🙂Just ordered a copy of The Summer That Melted Everything. I can't seem to finish watching a video from you or your mum without buying yet another book. Oops! ☺ Thanks for another great list of recommendations. Cheers!
Hahahaha. We’re sort of sorry but not really. Hahaha. 💸📚
@@SavidgeReads 😏📚🥰
So many brilliant books, I never get bored of hearing about books. I read The Proof of Love after you recommended it. I really hate flying and I read the whole book on the return flight from Cyprus last year and didn’t think about flying at all, it was such a good book, thank you❤️📚
So pleased that you loved The Proof of Love. It’s a gripping yarn isn’t it! Glad it got you through the flight. A Louise Welsh did that for me on a flight back from Cyprus.
When I read Edith Wharton's "Summer" I absolutely loved it. I hope some day you'll visit her house in The Berkshires (western MA.) I know she had a big house outside of Paris too, but I've visited The Mount a few times and it helps me put her novels in context. Also I lived in Greenwich Village for years and know the brownstone architecture of the houses where she spent her formative years. Happy reading.
I’m really looking forward to Edith’s ‘Summer’. Maybe Mum, who also loves Edith, and I should try and go to the house in The Berkshires at some point as a big trip. Lol.
the Sarah Moss one sounds interesting - must give that a look. I remember 1976 and going to pick my children up from school and arriving like a grease spot - eeeuw. We didn't drive to school in those days so it was a trudge. Ah I enjoyed the goats and sheep one very much and it is a different sort of read for me. Interesting video. thanks.
Pleasure. Glad you enjoyed it and brought back some *sticky* memories.
Siri Hustvedt is great! I read Blazing World last summer and planning to read another of hers this summer, either Summer without men or The Sorrows of an American.
Ooooh pleased to hear that she’s a good’en. I am looking forward to giving her a whirl.
Summer by Edith Wharton was one of my favorites in college. I want to revisit that one.
Maybe this summer is *the* time.
I think bookish banana 🍌 could catch seems more apt for carrots specific to reading. 😊
Hahahaha. Maybe I need to start using it more and get it in the booktube vocabulary 🍌
Absolutely loved this video! I added several of your suggestions to my TBR, and I must mention I loved THE SUMMER THAT MELTED EVERYTHING; have you read her next book BETTY? If not, I highly recommend it!
No. Lol. As I mentioned I really want to read both her follow up books but feel like I really need to reread her debut first. Not sure why… but I do.
Loved video who was Norman you spoke of at beginning
Oh blimey. I can’t remember. I’ll try to remember to watch it back and check.
The first four on your list I’ve read and really enjoyed ☀️☀️ The summer that melted everything sounds good . My next read will be the girls of summer by Katie Bishop and a summer book I’d recommend would be Mary Jane by Jessica Anya Blau 📚📚📚
Oooh I’ll look Mary Jane up. Thanks! Good to hear there were some hits in this summery mix.
The Lido by libby page is a great summer read. I just finished The Guncle by Steven Rowley, which takes place over a summer. 5 stars to both.
Oooh. Noted. I’ve heard of both and been meaning to read The Guncle for aaaaages.
I worked( teenager) in a seafront shop during '76, the ❤ladybirds were so thick on the walls you couldn't see the walls, you had to walk over carpets of them. and they bit a lot.
Oooooh. It sounds as gothic and creepy as Graham Joyce made it in his book.
Loved Summerwater. The chapter you refer to, which I have just reminded myself was called Zanzibar, made me laugh out loud. I have Proof of Love. Tempted to read that next. Recently read Still Life. Absolutely loved it. Claude was so funny. What about Claire Fullers Bitter Orange for a bit of gothic summer reading
Still Life is a wonderfully summer book too. I have Bitter Orange. I need to read much more of Claire Fuller’s work!
I read Instructions for a Heatwave and enjoyed it, left me hoping for a sequel, starting O'Farrell's This Must Be the Place. The Catherine Hall will be placed on the list.
Hope you enjoy the Catherine Hall when you get to it. I hadn’t thought about a sequel possibility for Instructions, interesting idea!
I love sinister summer reads. I know I've read many over the years, but the only ones that come to mind are Rebecca (du Maurier), Summer House With Swimming Pool (Koch) and Accidental (Smith). If any of the others bubble into my brain I'll add to this list.
Love Rebecca. My favourite book. Loved The Accidental, my first Smith. Which is along the lines of Hot Milk and Swimming Home by Deborah Levy. I haven’t read Summer House with Swimming Pool but maybe it’s time.
I think summer gothic happens when the heat becomes so significant that it is almost a plot point, hence the number of novels set in the summer of 1976. So any good novel where the characters are undone by the heat would work. My most happy recent summer read was The Fortnight in September by RC Sherriff, which I thought conjured up the essence of summer holidays and was an absolute treat.
Interesting Cindy! I hadn’t thought about how the intensity of the heat makes it gothic. Some of those 1976 books do have that, not all but definitely a few. Oooh I’ve not read the Sherrif.
Recommending The Hawkline Monster: A Gothic Western...a novel by Richard Brautigan
Oooh thank you. I’ll look that one up.
I have Instructions for a Heat wave on my Physical TBR but I don’t know when I am going to read it
The right time will come I’m sure.
I sitting drawing a complete blank when it comes to my favorite summer reads... I don't think I have one.🤔
📚🥰📖
Not to worry. Hahaha.
I’m going to pick up Proof of Love purely because if it wasn’t recommended by you I probably would never feel compelled to read it.
Monsters by Emerald Fennell is a good summer read and Foxlowe by Eleanor Wasseberg was great though it reminds me of morning sickness in the summer heat now 😅
Hope you enjoy The Proof of Love when you get to it. Foxlowe is a fab book, I’ve a quote in the paperback! Monsters I have on the TBR. Actually that would be a perfect summer gothic read.
Micheal McDowell The Elementals is the height of summer gothic
Oooh I’ll look it up thank you!
I enjoy the UK heat wave of 1976 as a setting too. Isn't Proof of Love a book with that setting too? And also The Water Children by Anne Perry. I hadn't been to England yet in 1976, but I remember the heat wave because it made the news here in Canada.
The Proof of Love is one of my summer of 1976 recommendations in this video 😉 Had no idea that that summer made the news worldwide.
@@SavidgeReads My bad! Somehow I missed you mentioning Proof of Love. I don't know if it made the news worldwide, but definitely in Canada
Hi Simon , great topic. Hmmm.....summer reading, always puts me in mind of A level history revision for some reason ( about as 😱 as it gets). More wonderfully, Brideshead Revisited, which I do, each summer. Ethan Frome left me 😟🤐 in a good way.
On the ' summer gothic' idea. As I've enjoyed James Lee Burke's crime writing, set in the Deep South and Grady Hendrix' Southern Bookclub's Guide to 🗡️🧛 ( Georgia?) and the movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.... thought I'd try some William Faulkner and other 'Southern Gothic' novels. Themes seem to be include stifling heat, social tensions, crimes and general creepy, atmospheric writing. Maybe with an 🐊 thrown in ( or is that Florida?). I need to read more to suggest titles, but maybe an area to check out/ ask for recs? ☀️🥀🏚️
I really liked Brideshead Revisited when I read it quite a few years ago. It almost set me off on a Waugh kick, not sure why it didn’t actually. Oooh the Hendrix is a great idea. Who doesn’t love a🐊 too?
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Brilliant vlog Simon. Summer themed reading that is titillating the taste books. Can't wait to head to some of those. Agree that UK summers can be wet. Heading to York any inde book shop recommendations please?
Hope you enjoy the ones you get to when you get to them. I have to say I’ve not been book shopping in York. The most bookish thing I’ve done there is have afternoon tea with Ariel. Lol.
A dangling bookish banana
You just made me want to reread The Summer Without Men! It’s so good. I hope you do get to it and can’t wait to hear all your thoughts. Loved this list! So many new books to get to
Should’ve been my channel name 🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌
Thank you for making me so keen to read it!
Northanger is a new YA Gay graphic novel about Texas teen boys maybe falling in love on a ranch in summer who are obsessed with scary movies and there may be a murderous mystery too, it’s a rift on Jane Austen.
Ooooh. That sounds good. I need to read the original at some point to be fair.
@@SavidgeReads Me too!
Mentioning the same books more often is something I've been thinking about lately. I noticed that when I started booktube I kept mentioning the same books so much that people associated them with me. But lately I barely manage to film as many videos and especially tags as I would like to, so I mainly just talk about a book in a wrap up. Which is fine, but then don't we all also want to push our favoirte books onto as many people as possible? Support the authors and create more talk around the book? I haven't fidured out how to do that as it also feels like repetetive content. And yet...
So go ahead and talk about the same books. Personally I also like the reminders that I still haven't picked up a particular book yet.
Yeah, I think it’s something that I need to get in the habit of doing more often. It doesn’t even have to be absolute favourites, could just be really good ones that match a time or year or readathon or something.
I was born in 1976.
Oooh that fateful summer ☀️