These are the titles we\u2019re tucking into our carry-ons, stuffing in our straw totes, and pulling out beach-side. Warning: they may lead to impromptu bookstore visits and long, wine-fuelled conversations with strangers. Below, find your literary itinerary.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1. Bonjour Tristesse <\/em><\/a>by Fran\u00e7oise Sagan<\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.russh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/bonjour-tristesse.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Arguably the definitive Euro summer read, this cult classic was penned by French writer Fran\u00e7oise Sagan when she was just 18. First published in 1954, it follows the sun-soaked holiday of C\u00e9cile, a precocious 17-year-old, and her charming, hedonistic father \u2013 until their idyll is interrupted by the arrival of his late wife\u2019s best friend. A tale of desire, jealousy and the cruelties of youth, it\u2019s recently found new life through Kaia Gerber\u2019s Library Science book club and an upcoming film adaptation by Durga Chew-Bose, starring Lily McInerny<\/a> and Chlo\u00eb Sevigny<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
2. Flesh<\/em> by David Szalay<\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.russh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/flesh-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The newly crowned winner of the 2025 Booker Award, Flesh<\/em> is the book all your literary muses have tucked into their beach bags this summer. Whether it’s Dua Lipa (who just interviewed Szalay for her Service95 podcast<\/a>), or even Stormzy<\/a> \u2013 the book has fans in high places. The story follows Istv\u00e1n as he moves through life from adolescence to old age; a spare and hypnotically written life in account.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
3. Rytual<\/em><\/a> by Chloe<\/span> Elisabeth Wilson<\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.russh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/rytual.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
For anyone who\u2019s ever been seduced by beauty marketing \u2013 this one’s for you. Rytual<\/em> peels back the high-gloss fa\u00e7ade of the beauty world to reveal something far more unsettling beneath. Melbourne poet Marnie Sellick introduces us to a young woman who lands a dream job at a cult beauty brand \u2013 only to find herself drawn into the gravitational pull of its alluring, all-powerful founder. But is it just branding, or something more insidious? Equal parts sharp and seductive, this is a story about image, influence, and the uneasy thrill of belonging.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
4. Bread of Angels<\/em> by Patti Smith<\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.russh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/bread-of-angels-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Smith’s latest book (only released a few weeks ago), is a memoir of her teenage years \u2013 a post-Second World War childhood and a radiant portrait of a soon-to-be-artist. It’s sort of like a\u00a0Just Kids\u00a0<\/em>prequel\/sequel (more conventionally memoir than M Train\u00a0<\/em>or Year of The Monkey<\/em>). A look at the earliest years of the celebrated rock poet.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
5. Antiquity<\/em><\/a> by\u00a0Hanna Johansson<\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.russh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/antiquity.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
For fans of Call Me By Your Name <\/em>and Bonjour Tristesse<\/em> \u2013 Antiquity<\/em> follows an unnamed narrator, a lonely woman in her thirties, who falls in love with chic older artist, Helena, after interviewing her for a magazine. Her obsession sees her join Helena and her teenage daughter, Olga, on holiday in the Greek city of Ermoupoli. At first, the narrator is seethingly jealous of Olga, but soon, however, this shifts to desire, at the prospect of becoming someone’s first, if perverse, lover.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
6. The Uncool<\/em> by Cameron Crowe<\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.russh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/the-uncool-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Almost Famous\u00a0<\/em>director finally drops his long-awaited memoir in early December, and as one of America’s most iconic journalists and filmmakers, it’s sure to be a bestseller. Considering\u00a0Almost Famous\u00a0<\/em>was semi-autobiographical, think of it as its essential counterpart: a raw exploration of his formative years in rock and roll.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
7. My Brilliant Friend<\/em><\/a> by Elena Ferrante<\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.russh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/my-brilliant-friend.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
No holiday reading list would be complete without Ferrante. If you\u2019ve never cracked open the Neapolitan Novels<\/em>, let this summer be the time. The first in the series introduces us to Lila and Elena, childhood friends in a working-class neighbourhood of Naples. Their bond is tender, brutal, jealous, and lifelong. It\u2019s impossible not to get swept away in Ferrante\u2019s world. Even Rachel Patton in The White Lotus<\/em> couldn\u2019t put it down \u2013 sunbaking poolside in Maui with My Brilliant Friend<\/em> in hand.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
8. Nova Scotia House<\/em><\/a> by Charlie Porter<\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.russh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/nova-scotia-house.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Fashion journalist and curator Charlie Porter turns inward for his first work of fiction \u2013 a quiet, painterly novel about rebuilding. When the protagonist inherits a remote cottage in Nova Scotia, he retreats there to make sense of grief, identity and the tangled threads of family. There\u2019s an attentiveness to detail here \u2013 of textiles, weather, meals \u2013 that reads like balm. Ideal for anyone craving solitude and introspection this summer.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
9. The Emperor of Gladness<\/em><\/a> by Ocean Vuong<\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.russh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/the-emperor-of-gladness.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Another new release from 2025: Vuong\u2019s long-anticipated second novel is a kaleidoscope of grief, memory, and queer longing. Set between post-war Vietnam and contemporary America, The Emperor of Gladness<\/em> is told in a fractured, dreamlike style that makes the ordinary feel mythic. With Vuong\u2019s signature lyricism, this book pulls you into the soft violence of love and survival.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
10. Sex and Lies<\/em><\/a> by Le\u00efla Slimani<\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.russh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/sex-and-lies.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
This collection of testimonies from Moroccan women \u2013 gathered by Slimani during a return to her home country \u2013 is unflinching, intimate, and radical. Through their stories, a portrait emerges of a society caught between repression and resistance. Paired with Slimani\u2019s own reflections, Sex and Lies<\/em> reads like a manifesto for bodily autonomy. A bold, necessary read for the long, hot days of summer.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
11. Raven Smith’s Trivial Pursuits<\/em> by Raven Smith<\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.russh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ravensmith-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
If you don’t already follow the hilarious and singular writer and internet commentator Raven Smith on Instagram<\/a>, you simply must. And now, he’s a Sunday Times Bestseller courtesy of his newly released book: Raven Smith’s Trivial Pursuits<\/em>. His exploration of the minutiae of everyday modern life and culture is irresistibly self-aware and a perfect remedy in trying times.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
12. Acid for the Children<\/em><\/a> by Flea<\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.russh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/acid-for-the-children.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Also in the memoir stack is that of Red Hot Chili Pepper’s bassist Flea. His 2019 book\u00a0Acid For The Children\u00a0<\/em>is so revealing and raw \u2013 you get such a sense of his cheeky humour, his jazz-inflected prose, and the fun, danger and mayhem he partook in as a raucous adolescent in 1970s and 80s L.A. It’s less an account of his days as a RHCP member, and more a window into his life before the fame \u2013 meeting Keidis, growing up in a bohemian, music-obsessed household, and the loneliness that came with always feeling he was a little different<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
13. Atmosphere<\/em><\/a> by Taylor Jenkins Reid<\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.russh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/atmosphere.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The latest from the Daisy Jones & The Six<\/em> author drops us into the orbit of a 1970s interior designer to the stars. There’s retro glamour, sweeping romance and a bittersweet look at the passing of time. It’s already a #1 bestseller and should follow in the footsteps of her other beloved novels as modern classics.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
14. Sunbathing<\/em><\/a> by Isobel Beech<\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.russh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/sunbathing.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
A RUSSH<\/em> favourite, Beech\u2019s debut is a meditation on loss, solitude and the slowness of healing. Set in a Tuscan farmhouse, it\u2019s the kind of book that soaks in \u2013 tender, sparse, and deeply human. If you\u2019re craving space to breathe, to think, to feel something quietly profound \u2013 this is it. We also chatted to Beech last year about her own favourite reads<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
15. Waiting for Britney Spears<\/em> by Jeff Weiss<\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.russh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/jeff-weiss-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
A pop culture read for fans of Von Dutch and The Simple Life, <\/em>Weiss’s semi-fictional memoir blurs fact and fancy to follow a young writer chronicling America’s sweetheart through Vegas superclubs and Malibu car chases.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
16. Lonely Mouth<\/em><\/a> by Jacqueline Maley<\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.russh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/lonely-mouth.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
This short story collection from the journalist and novelist behind The Truth About Her<\/em> offers sharp, funny, melancholic portraits of women on the cusp \u2013 of heartbreak, of reinvention, of clarity. Maley writes with a light touch and a journalist\u2019s eye, making these stories perfect to dip in and out of between swims.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
17. Deep Cuts<\/em><\/a> by Holly Brickley<\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.russh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/deep-cuts.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Hailed as one of the freshest new voices in Australian fiction, Brickley\u2019s debut maps queer love, creative ambition and cultural friction across cities and decades. It’s layered, sexy, and soaked in music references. Think Zadie Smith meets Sally Rooney… in a dive bar.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
18. Hot Milk<\/em><\/a> by Deborah Levy<\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.russh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/hot-milk.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Levy\u2019s scorching novel of mother-daughter entanglement, sunstroke, and sexual awakening is a must for the season. Set in a blistering Spanish village where a mysterious clinic promises cures, Hot Milk<\/em> is equal parts fever dream and philosophical probe. The book was also recently adapted as a dreamy film, which you can catch in select cinemas across Europe (in case you want to watch it after you’ve finished reading).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
19. Night People\u00a0<\/i>by Mark Ronson<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.russh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/night-people-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Pop’s most influential producer just published his raucous memoir detailing a life raised by hedonistic creatives, and his escapades amongst the 90s New York club scene. It’s earnest, heartfelt and recently green-lit for an upcoming feature film<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
20. Mr Salary<\/em><\/a> by Sally Rooney<\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.russh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/mr-salary.jpg\")
<\/em><\/p>\nIf you’re not much of a reader but still want some bound-together pages to throw into your beach bag, Rooney\u2019s short story about Suki and Nathan \u2013 childhood family friends with unresolved tension \u2013 is a concentrated dose of her signature themes: unspoken desire, complicated love, emotional restraint. A perfect 40-minute read, best enjoyed in one small sitting.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
21. Ruins<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>by Amy Taylor<\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.russh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/ruins-amy-taylor.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
This taut and addictive debut novel set in Athens was recently optioned for film with Vanessa Kirby and Sebastian Stan already set to play its leads. It’s a provocative, voyeuristic novel about a couple who, hoping to reconnect during a summer in Athens, become entangled with a mysterious young Greek woman \u2013 an encounter that sends their relationship spiralling into unexpected and explosive territory.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
22. The Trio<\/em><\/a> by Johanna Hedman<\/h3>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.russh.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/the-trio.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
A novel of intimacy, nostalgia and youth. The Trio<\/em> follows Thora, August and Hugo \u2013 inseparable as teens in Stockholm \u2013 whose lives become complicated by a shared summer in Paris and a secret that fractures their bond. Told from alternating perspectives across a decade, Hedman captures the ache of trying to hold onto something already slipping away.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
2. Flesh<\/em> by David Szalay<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
The newly crowned winner of the 2025 Booker Award, Flesh<\/em> is the book all your literary muses have tucked into their beach bags this summer. Whether it’s Dua Lipa (who just interviewed Szalay for her Service95 podcast<\/a>), or even Stormzy<\/a> \u2013 the book has fans in high places. The story follows Istv\u00e1n as he moves through life from adolescence to old age; a spare and hypnotically written life in account.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
3. Rytual<\/em><\/a> by Chloe<\/span> Elisabeth Wilson<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
For anyone who\u2019s ever been seduced by beauty marketing \u2013 this one’s for you. Rytual<\/em> peels back the high-gloss fa\u00e7ade of the beauty world to reveal something far more unsettling beneath. Melbourne poet Marnie Sellick introduces us to a young woman who lands a dream job at a cult beauty brand \u2013 only to find herself drawn into the gravitational pull of its alluring, all-powerful founder. But is it just branding, or something more insidious? Equal parts sharp and seductive, this is a story about image, influence, and the uneasy thrill of belonging.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
4. Bread of Angels<\/em> by Patti Smith<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Smith’s latest book (only released a few weeks ago), is a memoir of her teenage years \u2013 a post-Second World War childhood and a radiant portrait of a soon-to-be-artist. It’s sort of like a\u00a0Just Kids\u00a0<\/em>prequel\/sequel (more conventionally memoir than M Train\u00a0<\/em>or Year of The Monkey<\/em>). A look at the earliest years of the celebrated rock poet.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
5. Antiquity<\/em><\/a> by\u00a0Hanna Johansson<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
For fans of Call Me By Your Name <\/em>and Bonjour Tristesse<\/em> \u2013 Antiquity<\/em> follows an unnamed narrator, a lonely woman in her thirties, who falls in love with chic older artist, Helena, after interviewing her for a magazine. Her obsession sees her join Helena and her teenage daughter, Olga, on holiday in the Greek city of Ermoupoli. At first, the narrator is seethingly jealous of Olga, but soon, however, this shifts to desire, at the prospect of becoming someone’s first, if perverse, lover.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
6. The Uncool<\/em> by Cameron Crowe<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Almost Famous\u00a0<\/em>director finally drops his long-awaited memoir in early December, and as one of America’s most iconic journalists and filmmakers, it’s sure to be a bestseller. Considering\u00a0Almost Famous\u00a0<\/em>was semi-autobiographical, think of it as its essential counterpart: a raw exploration of his formative years in rock and roll.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
7. My Brilliant Friend<\/em><\/a> by Elena Ferrante<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
No holiday reading list would be complete without Ferrante. If you\u2019ve never cracked open the Neapolitan Novels<\/em>, let this summer be the time. The first in the series introduces us to Lila and Elena, childhood friends in a working-class neighbourhood of Naples. Their bond is tender, brutal, jealous, and lifelong. It\u2019s impossible not to get swept away in Ferrante\u2019s world. Even Rachel Patton in The White Lotus<\/em> couldn\u2019t put it down \u2013 sunbaking poolside in Maui with My Brilliant Friend<\/em> in hand.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
8. Nova Scotia House<\/em><\/a> by Charlie Porter<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Fashion journalist and curator Charlie Porter turns inward for his first work of fiction \u2013 a quiet, painterly novel about rebuilding. When the protagonist inherits a remote cottage in Nova Scotia, he retreats there to make sense of grief, identity and the tangled threads of family. There\u2019s an attentiveness to detail here \u2013 of textiles, weather, meals \u2013 that reads like balm. Ideal for anyone craving solitude and introspection this summer.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
9. The Emperor of Gladness<\/em><\/a> by Ocean Vuong<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Another new release from 2025: Vuong\u2019s long-anticipated second novel is a kaleidoscope of grief, memory, and queer longing. Set between post-war Vietnam and contemporary America, The Emperor of Gladness<\/em> is told in a fractured, dreamlike style that makes the ordinary feel mythic. With Vuong\u2019s signature lyricism, this book pulls you into the soft violence of love and survival.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
10. Sex and Lies<\/em><\/a> by Le\u00efla Slimani<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
This collection of testimonies from Moroccan women \u2013 gathered by Slimani during a return to her home country \u2013 is unflinching, intimate, and radical. Through their stories, a portrait emerges of a society caught between repression and resistance. Paired with Slimani\u2019s own reflections, Sex and Lies<\/em> reads like a manifesto for bodily autonomy. A bold, necessary read for the long, hot days of summer.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
11. Raven Smith’s Trivial Pursuits<\/em> by Raven Smith<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
If you don’t already follow the hilarious and singular writer and internet commentator Raven Smith on Instagram<\/a>, you simply must. And now, he’s a Sunday Times Bestseller courtesy of his newly released book: Raven Smith’s Trivial Pursuits<\/em>. His exploration of the minutiae of everyday modern life and culture is irresistibly self-aware and a perfect remedy in trying times.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
12. Acid for the Children<\/em><\/a> by Flea<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Also in the memoir stack is that of Red Hot Chili Pepper’s bassist Flea. His 2019 book\u00a0Acid For The Children\u00a0<\/em>is so revealing and raw \u2013 you get such a sense of his cheeky humour, his jazz-inflected prose, and the fun, danger and mayhem he partook in as a raucous adolescent in 1970s and 80s L.A. It’s less an account of his days as a RHCP member, and more a window into his life before the fame \u2013 meeting Keidis, growing up in a bohemian, music-obsessed household, and the loneliness that came with always feeling he was a little different<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
13. Atmosphere<\/em><\/a> by Taylor Jenkins Reid<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
The latest from the Daisy Jones & The Six<\/em> author drops us into the orbit of a 1970s interior designer to the stars. There’s retro glamour, sweeping romance and a bittersweet look at the passing of time. It’s already a #1 bestseller and should follow in the footsteps of her other beloved novels as modern classics.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
14. Sunbathing<\/em><\/a> by Isobel Beech<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
A RUSSH<\/em> favourite, Beech\u2019s debut is a meditation on loss, solitude and the slowness of healing. Set in a Tuscan farmhouse, it\u2019s the kind of book that soaks in \u2013 tender, sparse, and deeply human. If you\u2019re craving space to breathe, to think, to feel something quietly profound \u2013 this is it. We also chatted to Beech last year about her own favourite reads<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
15. Waiting for Britney Spears<\/em> by Jeff Weiss<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
A pop culture read for fans of Von Dutch and The Simple Life, <\/em>Weiss’s semi-fictional memoir blurs fact and fancy to follow a young writer chronicling America’s sweetheart through Vegas superclubs and Malibu car chases.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
16. Lonely Mouth<\/em><\/a> by Jacqueline Maley<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
This short story collection from the journalist and novelist behind The Truth About Her<\/em> offers sharp, funny, melancholic portraits of women on the cusp \u2013 of heartbreak, of reinvention, of clarity. Maley writes with a light touch and a journalist\u2019s eye, making these stories perfect to dip in and out of between swims.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
17. Deep Cuts<\/em><\/a> by Holly Brickley<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Hailed as one of the freshest new voices in Australian fiction, Brickley\u2019s debut maps queer love, creative ambition and cultural friction across cities and decades. It’s layered, sexy, and soaked in music references. Think Zadie Smith meets Sally Rooney… in a dive bar.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
18. Hot Milk<\/em><\/a> by Deborah Levy<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Levy\u2019s scorching novel of mother-daughter entanglement, sunstroke, and sexual awakening is a must for the season. Set in a blistering Spanish village where a mysterious clinic promises cures, Hot Milk<\/em> is equal parts fever dream and philosophical probe. The book was also recently adapted as a dreamy film, which you can catch in select cinemas across Europe (in case you want to watch it after you’ve finished reading).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
19. Night People\u00a0<\/i>by Mark Ronson<\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n
Pop’s most influential producer just published his raucous memoir detailing a life raised by hedonistic creatives, and his escapades amongst the 90s New York club scene. It’s earnest, heartfelt and recently green-lit for an upcoming feature film<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
20. Mr Salary<\/em><\/a> by Sally Rooney<\/h3>\n<\/em><\/p>\nIf you’re not much of a reader but still want some bound-together pages to throw into your beach bag, Rooney\u2019s short story about Suki and Nathan \u2013 childhood family friends with unresolved tension \u2013 is a concentrated dose of her signature themes: unspoken desire, complicated love, emotional restraint. A perfect 40-minute read, best enjoyed in one small sitting.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
21. Ruins<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>by Amy Taylor<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
This taut and addictive debut novel set in Athens was recently optioned for film with Vanessa Kirby and Sebastian Stan already set to play its leads. It’s a provocative, voyeuristic novel about a couple who, hoping to reconnect during a summer in Athens, become entangled with a mysterious young Greek woman \u2013 an encounter that sends their relationship spiralling into unexpected and explosive territory.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
22. The Trio<\/em><\/a> by Johanna Hedman<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
A novel of intimacy, nostalgia and youth. The Trio<\/em> follows Thora, August and Hugo \u2013 inseparable as teens in Stockholm \u2013 whose lives become complicated by a shared summer in Paris and a secret that fractures their bond. Told from alternating perspectives across a decade, Hedman captures the ache of trying to hold onto something already slipping away.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
3. Rytual<\/em><\/a> by Chloe<\/span> Elisabeth Wilson<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
For anyone who\u2019s ever been seduced by beauty marketing \u2013 this one’s for you. Rytual<\/em> peels back the high-gloss fa\u00e7ade of the beauty world to reveal something far more unsettling beneath. Melbourne poet Marnie Sellick introduces us to a young woman who lands a dream job at a cult beauty brand \u2013 only to find herself drawn into the gravitational pull of its alluring, all-powerful founder. But is it just branding, or something more insidious? Equal parts sharp and seductive, this is a story about image, influence, and the uneasy thrill of belonging.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
4. Bread of Angels<\/em> by Patti Smith<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Smith’s latest book (only released a few weeks ago), is a memoir of her teenage years \u2013 a post-Second World War childhood and a radiant portrait of a soon-to-be-artist. It’s sort of like a\u00a0Just Kids\u00a0<\/em>prequel\/sequel (more conventionally memoir than M Train\u00a0<\/em>or Year of The Monkey<\/em>). A look at the earliest years of the celebrated rock poet.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
5. Antiquity<\/em><\/a> by\u00a0Hanna Johansson<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
For fans of Call Me By Your Name <\/em>and Bonjour Tristesse<\/em> \u2013 Antiquity<\/em> follows an unnamed narrator, a lonely woman in her thirties, who falls in love with chic older artist, Helena, after interviewing her for a magazine. Her obsession sees her join Helena and her teenage daughter, Olga, on holiday in the Greek city of Ermoupoli. At first, the narrator is seethingly jealous of Olga, but soon, however, this shifts to desire, at the prospect of becoming someone’s first, if perverse, lover.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
6. The Uncool<\/em> by Cameron Crowe<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Almost Famous\u00a0<\/em>director finally drops his long-awaited memoir in early December, and as one of America’s most iconic journalists and filmmakers, it’s sure to be a bestseller. Considering\u00a0Almost Famous\u00a0<\/em>was semi-autobiographical, think of it as its essential counterpart: a raw exploration of his formative years in rock and roll.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
7. My Brilliant Friend<\/em><\/a> by Elena Ferrante<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
No holiday reading list would be complete without Ferrante. If you\u2019ve never cracked open the Neapolitan Novels<\/em>, let this summer be the time. The first in the series introduces us to Lila and Elena, childhood friends in a working-class neighbourhood of Naples. Their bond is tender, brutal, jealous, and lifelong. It\u2019s impossible not to get swept away in Ferrante\u2019s world. Even Rachel Patton in The White Lotus<\/em> couldn\u2019t put it down \u2013 sunbaking poolside in Maui with My Brilliant Friend<\/em> in hand.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
8. Nova Scotia House<\/em><\/a> by Charlie Porter<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Fashion journalist and curator Charlie Porter turns inward for his first work of fiction \u2013 a quiet, painterly novel about rebuilding. When the protagonist inherits a remote cottage in Nova Scotia, he retreats there to make sense of grief, identity and the tangled threads of family. There\u2019s an attentiveness to detail here \u2013 of textiles, weather, meals \u2013 that reads like balm. Ideal for anyone craving solitude and introspection this summer.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
9. The Emperor of Gladness<\/em><\/a> by Ocean Vuong<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Another new release from 2025: Vuong\u2019s long-anticipated second novel is a kaleidoscope of grief, memory, and queer longing. Set between post-war Vietnam and contemporary America, The Emperor of Gladness<\/em> is told in a fractured, dreamlike style that makes the ordinary feel mythic. With Vuong\u2019s signature lyricism, this book pulls you into the soft violence of love and survival.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
10. Sex and Lies<\/em><\/a> by Le\u00efla Slimani<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
This collection of testimonies from Moroccan women \u2013 gathered by Slimani during a return to her home country \u2013 is unflinching, intimate, and radical. Through their stories, a portrait emerges of a society caught between repression and resistance. Paired with Slimani\u2019s own reflections, Sex and Lies<\/em> reads like a manifesto for bodily autonomy. A bold, necessary read for the long, hot days of summer.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
11. Raven Smith’s Trivial Pursuits<\/em> by Raven Smith<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
If you don’t already follow the hilarious and singular writer and internet commentator Raven Smith on Instagram<\/a>, you simply must. And now, he’s a Sunday Times Bestseller courtesy of his newly released book: Raven Smith’s Trivial Pursuits<\/em>. His exploration of the minutiae of everyday modern life and culture is irresistibly self-aware and a perfect remedy in trying times.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
12. Acid for the Children<\/em><\/a> by Flea<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Also in the memoir stack is that of Red Hot Chili Pepper’s bassist Flea. His 2019 book\u00a0Acid For The Children\u00a0<\/em>is so revealing and raw \u2013 you get such a sense of his cheeky humour, his jazz-inflected prose, and the fun, danger and mayhem he partook in as a raucous adolescent in 1970s and 80s L.A. It’s less an account of his days as a RHCP member, and more a window into his life before the fame \u2013 meeting Keidis, growing up in a bohemian, music-obsessed household, and the loneliness that came with always feeling he was a little different<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
13. Atmosphere<\/em><\/a> by Taylor Jenkins Reid<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
The latest from the Daisy Jones & The Six<\/em> author drops us into the orbit of a 1970s interior designer to the stars. There’s retro glamour, sweeping romance and a bittersweet look at the passing of time. It’s already a #1 bestseller and should follow in the footsteps of her other beloved novels as modern classics.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
14. Sunbathing<\/em><\/a> by Isobel Beech<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
A RUSSH<\/em> favourite, Beech\u2019s debut is a meditation on loss, solitude and the slowness of healing. Set in a Tuscan farmhouse, it\u2019s the kind of book that soaks in \u2013 tender, sparse, and deeply human. If you\u2019re craving space to breathe, to think, to feel something quietly profound \u2013 this is it. We also chatted to Beech last year about her own favourite reads<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
15. Waiting for Britney Spears<\/em> by Jeff Weiss<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
A pop culture read for fans of Von Dutch and The Simple Life, <\/em>Weiss’s semi-fictional memoir blurs fact and fancy to follow a young writer chronicling America’s sweetheart through Vegas superclubs and Malibu car chases.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
16. Lonely Mouth<\/em><\/a> by Jacqueline Maley<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
This short story collection from the journalist and novelist behind The Truth About Her<\/em> offers sharp, funny, melancholic portraits of women on the cusp \u2013 of heartbreak, of reinvention, of clarity. Maley writes with a light touch and a journalist\u2019s eye, making these stories perfect to dip in and out of between swims.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
17. Deep Cuts<\/em><\/a> by Holly Brickley<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Hailed as one of the freshest new voices in Australian fiction, Brickley\u2019s debut maps queer love, creative ambition and cultural friction across cities and decades. It’s layered, sexy, and soaked in music references. Think Zadie Smith meets Sally Rooney… in a dive bar.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
18. Hot Milk<\/em><\/a> by Deborah Levy<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Levy\u2019s scorching novel of mother-daughter entanglement, sunstroke, and sexual awakening is a must for the season. Set in a blistering Spanish village where a mysterious clinic promises cures, Hot Milk<\/em> is equal parts fever dream and philosophical probe. The book was also recently adapted as a dreamy film, which you can catch in select cinemas across Europe (in case you want to watch it after you’ve finished reading).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
19. Night People\u00a0<\/i>by Mark Ronson<\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n
Pop’s most influential producer just published his raucous memoir detailing a life raised by hedonistic creatives, and his escapades amongst the 90s New York club scene. It’s earnest, heartfelt and recently green-lit for an upcoming feature film<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
20. Mr Salary<\/em><\/a> by Sally Rooney<\/h3>\n<\/em><\/p>\nIf you’re not much of a reader but still want some bound-together pages to throw into your beach bag, Rooney\u2019s short story about Suki and Nathan \u2013 childhood family friends with unresolved tension \u2013 is a concentrated dose of her signature themes: unspoken desire, complicated love, emotional restraint. A perfect 40-minute read, best enjoyed in one small sitting.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
21. Ruins<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>by Amy Taylor<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
This taut and addictive debut novel set in Athens was recently optioned for film with Vanessa Kirby and Sebastian Stan already set to play its leads. It’s a provocative, voyeuristic novel about a couple who, hoping to reconnect during a summer in Athens, become entangled with a mysterious young Greek woman \u2013 an encounter that sends their relationship spiralling into unexpected and explosive territory.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
22. The Trio<\/em><\/a> by Johanna Hedman<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
A novel of intimacy, nostalgia and youth. The Trio<\/em> follows Thora, August and Hugo \u2013 inseparable as teens in Stockholm \u2013 whose lives become complicated by a shared summer in Paris and a secret that fractures their bond. Told from alternating perspectives across a decade, Hedman captures the ache of trying to hold onto something already slipping away.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
4. Bread of Angels<\/em> by Patti Smith<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Smith’s latest book (only released a few weeks ago), is a memoir of her teenage years \u2013 a post-Second World War childhood and a radiant portrait of a soon-to-be-artist. It’s sort of like a\u00a0Just Kids\u00a0<\/em>prequel\/sequel (more conventionally memoir than M Train\u00a0<\/em>or Year of The Monkey<\/em>). A look at the earliest years of the celebrated rock poet.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
5. Antiquity<\/em><\/a> by\u00a0Hanna Johansson<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
For fans of Call Me By Your Name <\/em>and Bonjour Tristesse<\/em> \u2013 Antiquity<\/em> follows an unnamed narrator, a lonely woman in her thirties, who falls in love with chic older artist, Helena, after interviewing her for a magazine. Her obsession sees her join Helena and her teenage daughter, Olga, on holiday in the Greek city of Ermoupoli. At first, the narrator is seethingly jealous of Olga, but soon, however, this shifts to desire, at the prospect of becoming someone’s first, if perverse, lover.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
6. The Uncool<\/em> by Cameron Crowe<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Almost Famous\u00a0<\/em>director finally drops his long-awaited memoir in early December, and as one of America’s most iconic journalists and filmmakers, it’s sure to be a bestseller. Considering\u00a0Almost Famous\u00a0<\/em>was semi-autobiographical, think of it as its essential counterpart: a raw exploration of his formative years in rock and roll.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
7. My Brilliant Friend<\/em><\/a> by Elena Ferrante<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
No holiday reading list would be complete without Ferrante. If you\u2019ve never cracked open the Neapolitan Novels<\/em>, let this summer be the time. The first in the series introduces us to Lila and Elena, childhood friends in a working-class neighbourhood of Naples. Their bond is tender, brutal, jealous, and lifelong. It\u2019s impossible not to get swept away in Ferrante\u2019s world. Even Rachel Patton in The White Lotus<\/em> couldn\u2019t put it down \u2013 sunbaking poolside in Maui with My Brilliant Friend<\/em> in hand.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
8. Nova Scotia House<\/em><\/a> by Charlie Porter<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Fashion journalist and curator Charlie Porter turns inward for his first work of fiction \u2013 a quiet, painterly novel about rebuilding. When the protagonist inherits a remote cottage in Nova Scotia, he retreats there to make sense of grief, identity and the tangled threads of family. There\u2019s an attentiveness to detail here \u2013 of textiles, weather, meals \u2013 that reads like balm. Ideal for anyone craving solitude and introspection this summer.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
9. The Emperor of Gladness<\/em><\/a> by Ocean Vuong<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Another new release from 2025: Vuong\u2019s long-anticipated second novel is a kaleidoscope of grief, memory, and queer longing. Set between post-war Vietnam and contemporary America, The Emperor of Gladness<\/em> is told in a fractured, dreamlike style that makes the ordinary feel mythic. With Vuong\u2019s signature lyricism, this book pulls you into the soft violence of love and survival.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
10. Sex and Lies<\/em><\/a> by Le\u00efla Slimani<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
This collection of testimonies from Moroccan women \u2013 gathered by Slimani during a return to her home country \u2013 is unflinching, intimate, and radical. Through their stories, a portrait emerges of a society caught between repression and resistance. Paired with Slimani\u2019s own reflections, Sex and Lies<\/em> reads like a manifesto for bodily autonomy. A bold, necessary read for the long, hot days of summer.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
11. Raven Smith’s Trivial Pursuits<\/em> by Raven Smith<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
If you don’t already follow the hilarious and singular writer and internet commentator Raven Smith on Instagram<\/a>, you simply must. And now, he’s a Sunday Times Bestseller courtesy of his newly released book: Raven Smith’s Trivial Pursuits<\/em>. His exploration of the minutiae of everyday modern life and culture is irresistibly self-aware and a perfect remedy in trying times.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
12. Acid for the Children<\/em><\/a> by Flea<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Also in the memoir stack is that of Red Hot Chili Pepper’s bassist Flea. His 2019 book\u00a0Acid For The Children\u00a0<\/em>is so revealing and raw \u2013 you get such a sense of his cheeky humour, his jazz-inflected prose, and the fun, danger and mayhem he partook in as a raucous adolescent in 1970s and 80s L.A. It’s less an account of his days as a RHCP member, and more a window into his life before the fame \u2013 meeting Keidis, growing up in a bohemian, music-obsessed household, and the loneliness that came with always feeling he was a little different<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
13. Atmosphere<\/em><\/a> by Taylor Jenkins Reid<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
The latest from the Daisy Jones & The Six<\/em> author drops us into the orbit of a 1970s interior designer to the stars. There’s retro glamour, sweeping romance and a bittersweet look at the passing of time. It’s already a #1 bestseller and should follow in the footsteps of her other beloved novels as modern classics.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
14. Sunbathing<\/em><\/a> by Isobel Beech<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
A RUSSH<\/em> favourite, Beech\u2019s debut is a meditation on loss, solitude and the slowness of healing. Set in a Tuscan farmhouse, it\u2019s the kind of book that soaks in \u2013 tender, sparse, and deeply human. If you\u2019re craving space to breathe, to think, to feel something quietly profound \u2013 this is it. We also chatted to Beech last year about her own favourite reads<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
15. Waiting for Britney Spears<\/em> by Jeff Weiss<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
A pop culture read for fans of Von Dutch and The Simple Life, <\/em>Weiss’s semi-fictional memoir blurs fact and fancy to follow a young writer chronicling America’s sweetheart through Vegas superclubs and Malibu car chases.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
16. Lonely Mouth<\/em><\/a> by Jacqueline Maley<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
This short story collection from the journalist and novelist behind The Truth About Her<\/em> offers sharp, funny, melancholic portraits of women on the cusp \u2013 of heartbreak, of reinvention, of clarity. Maley writes with a light touch and a journalist\u2019s eye, making these stories perfect to dip in and out of between swims.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
17. Deep Cuts<\/em><\/a> by Holly Brickley<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Hailed as one of the freshest new voices in Australian fiction, Brickley\u2019s debut maps queer love, creative ambition and cultural friction across cities and decades. It’s layered, sexy, and soaked in music references. Think Zadie Smith meets Sally Rooney… in a dive bar.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
18. Hot Milk<\/em><\/a> by Deborah Levy<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Levy\u2019s scorching novel of mother-daughter entanglement, sunstroke, and sexual awakening is a must for the season. Set in a blistering Spanish village where a mysterious clinic promises cures, Hot Milk<\/em> is equal parts fever dream and philosophical probe. The book was also recently adapted as a dreamy film, which you can catch in select cinemas across Europe (in case you want to watch it after you’ve finished reading).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
19. Night People\u00a0<\/i>by Mark Ronson<\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n
Pop’s most influential producer just published his raucous memoir detailing a life raised by hedonistic creatives, and his escapades amongst the 90s New York club scene. It’s earnest, heartfelt and recently green-lit for an upcoming feature film<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
20. Mr Salary<\/em><\/a> by Sally Rooney<\/h3>\n<\/em><\/p>\nIf you’re not much of a reader but still want some bound-together pages to throw into your beach bag, Rooney\u2019s short story about Suki and Nathan \u2013 childhood family friends with unresolved tension \u2013 is a concentrated dose of her signature themes: unspoken desire, complicated love, emotional restraint. A perfect 40-minute read, best enjoyed in one small sitting.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
21. Ruins<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>by Amy Taylor<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
This taut and addictive debut novel set in Athens was recently optioned for film with Vanessa Kirby and Sebastian Stan already set to play its leads. It’s a provocative, voyeuristic novel about a couple who, hoping to reconnect during a summer in Athens, become entangled with a mysterious young Greek woman \u2013 an encounter that sends their relationship spiralling into unexpected and explosive territory.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
22. The Trio<\/em><\/a> by Johanna Hedman<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
A novel of intimacy, nostalgia and youth. The Trio<\/em> follows Thora, August and Hugo \u2013 inseparable as teens in Stockholm \u2013 whose lives become complicated by a shared summer in Paris and a secret that fractures their bond. Told from alternating perspectives across a decade, Hedman captures the ache of trying to hold onto something already slipping away.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
5. Antiquity<\/em><\/a> by\u00a0Hanna Johansson<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
For fans of Call Me By Your Name <\/em>and Bonjour Tristesse<\/em> \u2013 Antiquity<\/em> follows an unnamed narrator, a lonely woman in her thirties, who falls in love with chic older artist, Helena, after interviewing her for a magazine. Her obsession sees her join Helena and her teenage daughter, Olga, on holiday in the Greek city of Ermoupoli. At first, the narrator is seethingly jealous of Olga, but soon, however, this shifts to desire, at the prospect of becoming someone’s first, if perverse, lover.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
6. The Uncool<\/em> by Cameron Crowe<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Almost Famous\u00a0<\/em>director finally drops his long-awaited memoir in early December, and as one of America’s most iconic journalists and filmmakers, it’s sure to be a bestseller. Considering\u00a0Almost Famous\u00a0<\/em>was semi-autobiographical, think of it as its essential counterpart: a raw exploration of his formative years in rock and roll.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
7. My Brilliant Friend<\/em><\/a> by Elena Ferrante<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
No holiday reading list would be complete without Ferrante. If you\u2019ve never cracked open the Neapolitan Novels<\/em>, let this summer be the time. The first in the series introduces us to Lila and Elena, childhood friends in a working-class neighbourhood of Naples. Their bond is tender, brutal, jealous, and lifelong. It\u2019s impossible not to get swept away in Ferrante\u2019s world. Even Rachel Patton in The White Lotus<\/em> couldn\u2019t put it down \u2013 sunbaking poolside in Maui with My Brilliant Friend<\/em> in hand.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
8. Nova Scotia House<\/em><\/a> by Charlie Porter<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Fashion journalist and curator Charlie Porter turns inward for his first work of fiction \u2013 a quiet, painterly novel about rebuilding. When the protagonist inherits a remote cottage in Nova Scotia, he retreats there to make sense of grief, identity and the tangled threads of family. There\u2019s an attentiveness to detail here \u2013 of textiles, weather, meals \u2013 that reads like balm. Ideal for anyone craving solitude and introspection this summer.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
9. The Emperor of Gladness<\/em><\/a> by Ocean Vuong<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Another new release from 2025: Vuong\u2019s long-anticipated second novel is a kaleidoscope of grief, memory, and queer longing. Set between post-war Vietnam and contemporary America, The Emperor of Gladness<\/em> is told in a fractured, dreamlike style that makes the ordinary feel mythic. With Vuong\u2019s signature lyricism, this book pulls you into the soft violence of love and survival.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
10. Sex and Lies<\/em><\/a> by Le\u00efla Slimani<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
This collection of testimonies from Moroccan women \u2013 gathered by Slimani during a return to her home country \u2013 is unflinching, intimate, and radical. Through their stories, a portrait emerges of a society caught between repression and resistance. Paired with Slimani\u2019s own reflections, Sex and Lies<\/em> reads like a manifesto for bodily autonomy. A bold, necessary read for the long, hot days of summer.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
11. Raven Smith’s Trivial Pursuits<\/em> by Raven Smith<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
If you don’t already follow the hilarious and singular writer and internet commentator Raven Smith on Instagram<\/a>, you simply must. And now, he’s a Sunday Times Bestseller courtesy of his newly released book: Raven Smith’s Trivial Pursuits<\/em>. His exploration of the minutiae of everyday modern life and culture is irresistibly self-aware and a perfect remedy in trying times.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
12. Acid for the Children<\/em><\/a> by Flea<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Also in the memoir stack is that of Red Hot Chili Pepper’s bassist Flea. His 2019 book\u00a0Acid For The Children\u00a0<\/em>is so revealing and raw \u2013 you get such a sense of his cheeky humour, his jazz-inflected prose, and the fun, danger and mayhem he partook in as a raucous adolescent in 1970s and 80s L.A. It’s less an account of his days as a RHCP member, and more a window into his life before the fame \u2013 meeting Keidis, growing up in a bohemian, music-obsessed household, and the loneliness that came with always feeling he was a little different<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
13. Atmosphere<\/em><\/a> by Taylor Jenkins Reid<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
The latest from the Daisy Jones & The Six<\/em> author drops us into the orbit of a 1970s interior designer to the stars. There’s retro glamour, sweeping romance and a bittersweet look at the passing of time. It’s already a #1 bestseller and should follow in the footsteps of her other beloved novels as modern classics.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
14. Sunbathing<\/em><\/a> by Isobel Beech<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
A RUSSH<\/em> favourite, Beech\u2019s debut is a meditation on loss, solitude and the slowness of healing. Set in a Tuscan farmhouse, it\u2019s the kind of book that soaks in \u2013 tender, sparse, and deeply human. If you\u2019re craving space to breathe, to think, to feel something quietly profound \u2013 this is it. We also chatted to Beech last year about her own favourite reads<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
15. Waiting for Britney Spears<\/em> by Jeff Weiss<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
A pop culture read for fans of Von Dutch and The Simple Life, <\/em>Weiss’s semi-fictional memoir blurs fact and fancy to follow a young writer chronicling America’s sweetheart through Vegas superclubs and Malibu car chases.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
16. Lonely Mouth<\/em><\/a> by Jacqueline Maley<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
This short story collection from the journalist and novelist behind The Truth About Her<\/em> offers sharp, funny, melancholic portraits of women on the cusp \u2013 of heartbreak, of reinvention, of clarity. Maley writes with a light touch and a journalist\u2019s eye, making these stories perfect to dip in and out of between swims.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
17. Deep Cuts<\/em><\/a> by Holly Brickley<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Hailed as one of the freshest new voices in Australian fiction, Brickley\u2019s debut maps queer love, creative ambition and cultural friction across cities and decades. It’s layered, sexy, and soaked in music references. Think Zadie Smith meets Sally Rooney… in a dive bar.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
18. Hot Milk<\/em><\/a> by Deborah Levy<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Levy\u2019s scorching novel of mother-daughter entanglement, sunstroke, and sexual awakening is a must for the season. Set in a blistering Spanish village where a mysterious clinic promises cures, Hot Milk<\/em> is equal parts fever dream and philosophical probe. The book was also recently adapted as a dreamy film, which you can catch in select cinemas across Europe (in case you want to watch it after you’ve finished reading).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
19. Night People\u00a0<\/i>by Mark Ronson<\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n
Pop’s most influential producer just published his raucous memoir detailing a life raised by hedonistic creatives, and his escapades amongst the 90s New York club scene. It’s earnest, heartfelt and recently green-lit for an upcoming feature film<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
20. Mr Salary<\/em><\/a> by Sally Rooney<\/h3>\n<\/em><\/p>\nIf you’re not much of a reader but still want some bound-together pages to throw into your beach bag, Rooney\u2019s short story about Suki and Nathan \u2013 childhood family friends with unresolved tension \u2013 is a concentrated dose of her signature themes: unspoken desire, complicated love, emotional restraint. A perfect 40-minute read, best enjoyed in one small sitting.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
21. Ruins<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>by Amy Taylor<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
This taut and addictive debut novel set in Athens was recently optioned for film with Vanessa Kirby and Sebastian Stan already set to play its leads. It’s a provocative, voyeuristic novel about a couple who, hoping to reconnect during a summer in Athens, become entangled with a mysterious young Greek woman \u2013 an encounter that sends their relationship spiralling into unexpected and explosive territory.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
22. The Trio<\/em><\/a> by Johanna Hedman<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
A novel of intimacy, nostalgia and youth. The Trio<\/em> follows Thora, August and Hugo \u2013 inseparable as teens in Stockholm \u2013 whose lives become complicated by a shared summer in Paris and a secret that fractures their bond. Told from alternating perspectives across a decade, Hedman captures the ache of trying to hold onto something already slipping away.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
6. The Uncool<\/em> by Cameron Crowe<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Almost Famous\u00a0<\/em>director finally drops his long-awaited memoir in early December, and as one of America’s most iconic journalists and filmmakers, it’s sure to be a bestseller. Considering\u00a0Almost Famous\u00a0<\/em>was semi-autobiographical, think of it as its essential counterpart: a raw exploration of his formative years in rock and roll.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
7. My Brilliant Friend<\/em><\/a> by Elena Ferrante<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
No holiday reading list would be complete without Ferrante. If you\u2019ve never cracked open the Neapolitan Novels<\/em>, let this summer be the time. The first in the series introduces us to Lila and Elena, childhood friends in a working-class neighbourhood of Naples. Their bond is tender, brutal, jealous, and lifelong. It\u2019s impossible not to get swept away in Ferrante\u2019s world. Even Rachel Patton in The White Lotus<\/em> couldn\u2019t put it down \u2013 sunbaking poolside in Maui with My Brilliant Friend<\/em> in hand.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
8. Nova Scotia House<\/em><\/a> by Charlie Porter<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Fashion journalist and curator Charlie Porter turns inward for his first work of fiction \u2013 a quiet, painterly novel about rebuilding. When the protagonist inherits a remote cottage in Nova Scotia, he retreats there to make sense of grief, identity and the tangled threads of family. There\u2019s an attentiveness to detail here \u2013 of textiles, weather, meals \u2013 that reads like balm. Ideal for anyone craving solitude and introspection this summer.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
9. The Emperor of Gladness<\/em><\/a> by Ocean Vuong<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Another new release from 2025: Vuong\u2019s long-anticipated second novel is a kaleidoscope of grief, memory, and queer longing. Set between post-war Vietnam and contemporary America, The Emperor of Gladness<\/em> is told in a fractured, dreamlike style that makes the ordinary feel mythic. With Vuong\u2019s signature lyricism, this book pulls you into the soft violence of love and survival.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
10. Sex and Lies<\/em><\/a> by Le\u00efla Slimani<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
This collection of testimonies from Moroccan women \u2013 gathered by Slimani during a return to her home country \u2013 is unflinching, intimate, and radical. Through their stories, a portrait emerges of a society caught between repression and resistance. Paired with Slimani\u2019s own reflections, Sex and Lies<\/em> reads like a manifesto for bodily autonomy. A bold, necessary read for the long, hot days of summer.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
11. Raven Smith’s Trivial Pursuits<\/em> by Raven Smith<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
If you don’t already follow the hilarious and singular writer and internet commentator Raven Smith on Instagram<\/a>, you simply must. And now, he’s a Sunday Times Bestseller courtesy of his newly released book: Raven Smith’s Trivial Pursuits<\/em>. His exploration of the minutiae of everyday modern life and culture is irresistibly self-aware and a perfect remedy in trying times.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
12. Acid for the Children<\/em><\/a> by Flea<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Also in the memoir stack is that of Red Hot Chili Pepper’s bassist Flea. His 2019 book\u00a0Acid For The Children\u00a0<\/em>is so revealing and raw \u2013 you get such a sense of his cheeky humour, his jazz-inflected prose, and the fun, danger and mayhem he partook in as a raucous adolescent in 1970s and 80s L.A. It’s less an account of his days as a RHCP member, and more a window into his life before the fame \u2013 meeting Keidis, growing up in a bohemian, music-obsessed household, and the loneliness that came with always feeling he was a little different<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
13. Atmosphere<\/em><\/a> by Taylor Jenkins Reid<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
The latest from the Daisy Jones & The Six<\/em> author drops us into the orbit of a 1970s interior designer to the stars. There’s retro glamour, sweeping romance and a bittersweet look at the passing of time. It’s already a #1 bestseller and should follow in the footsteps of her other beloved novels as modern classics.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
14. Sunbathing<\/em><\/a> by Isobel Beech<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
A RUSSH<\/em> favourite, Beech\u2019s debut is a meditation on loss, solitude and the slowness of healing. Set in a Tuscan farmhouse, it\u2019s the kind of book that soaks in \u2013 tender, sparse, and deeply human. If you\u2019re craving space to breathe, to think, to feel something quietly profound \u2013 this is it. We also chatted to Beech last year about her own favourite reads<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
15. Waiting for Britney Spears<\/em> by Jeff Weiss<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
A pop culture read for fans of Von Dutch and The Simple Life, <\/em>Weiss’s semi-fictional memoir blurs fact and fancy to follow a young writer chronicling America’s sweetheart through Vegas superclubs and Malibu car chases.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
16. Lonely Mouth<\/em><\/a> by Jacqueline Maley<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
This short story collection from the journalist and novelist behind The Truth About Her<\/em> offers sharp, funny, melancholic portraits of women on the cusp \u2013 of heartbreak, of reinvention, of clarity. Maley writes with a light touch and a journalist\u2019s eye, making these stories perfect to dip in and out of between swims.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
17. Deep Cuts<\/em><\/a> by Holly Brickley<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Hailed as one of the freshest new voices in Australian fiction, Brickley\u2019s debut maps queer love, creative ambition and cultural friction across cities and decades. It’s layered, sexy, and soaked in music references. Think Zadie Smith meets Sally Rooney… in a dive bar.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
18. Hot Milk<\/em><\/a> by Deborah Levy<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Levy\u2019s scorching novel of mother-daughter entanglement, sunstroke, and sexual awakening is a must for the season. Set in a blistering Spanish village where a mysterious clinic promises cures, Hot Milk<\/em> is equal parts fever dream and philosophical probe. The book was also recently adapted as a dreamy film, which you can catch in select cinemas across Europe (in case you want to watch it after you’ve finished reading).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
19. Night People\u00a0<\/i>by Mark Ronson<\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n
Pop’s most influential producer just published his raucous memoir detailing a life raised by hedonistic creatives, and his escapades amongst the 90s New York club scene. It’s earnest, heartfelt and recently green-lit for an upcoming feature film<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
20. Mr Salary<\/em><\/a> by Sally Rooney<\/h3>\n<\/em><\/p>\nIf you’re not much of a reader but still want some bound-together pages to throw into your beach bag, Rooney\u2019s short story about Suki and Nathan \u2013 childhood family friends with unresolved tension \u2013 is a concentrated dose of her signature themes: unspoken desire, complicated love, emotional restraint. A perfect 40-minute read, best enjoyed in one small sitting.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
21. Ruins<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>by Amy Taylor<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
This taut and addictive debut novel set in Athens was recently optioned for film with Vanessa Kirby and Sebastian Stan already set to play its leads. It’s a provocative, voyeuristic novel about a couple who, hoping to reconnect during a summer in Athens, become entangled with a mysterious young Greek woman \u2013 an encounter that sends their relationship spiralling into unexpected and explosive territory.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
22. The Trio<\/em><\/a> by Johanna Hedman<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
A novel of intimacy, nostalgia and youth. The Trio<\/em> follows Thora, August and Hugo \u2013 inseparable as teens in Stockholm \u2013 whose lives become complicated by a shared summer in Paris and a secret that fractures their bond. Told from alternating perspectives across a decade, Hedman captures the ache of trying to hold onto something already slipping away.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
7. My Brilliant Friend<\/em><\/a> by Elena Ferrante<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
No holiday reading list would be complete without Ferrante. If you\u2019ve never cracked open the Neapolitan Novels<\/em>, let this summer be the time. The first in the series introduces us to Lila and Elena, childhood friends in a working-class neighbourhood of Naples. Their bond is tender, brutal, jealous, and lifelong. It\u2019s impossible not to get swept away in Ferrante\u2019s world. Even Rachel Patton in The White Lotus<\/em> couldn\u2019t put it down \u2013 sunbaking poolside in Maui with My Brilliant Friend<\/em> in hand.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
8. Nova Scotia House<\/em><\/a> by Charlie Porter<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Fashion journalist and curator Charlie Porter turns inward for his first work of fiction \u2013 a quiet, painterly novel about rebuilding. When the protagonist inherits a remote cottage in Nova Scotia, he retreats there to make sense of grief, identity and the tangled threads of family. There\u2019s an attentiveness to detail here \u2013 of textiles, weather, meals \u2013 that reads like balm. Ideal for anyone craving solitude and introspection this summer.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
9. The Emperor of Gladness<\/em><\/a> by Ocean Vuong<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Another new release from 2025: Vuong\u2019s long-anticipated second novel is a kaleidoscope of grief, memory, and queer longing. Set between post-war Vietnam and contemporary America, The Emperor of Gladness<\/em> is told in a fractured, dreamlike style that makes the ordinary feel mythic. With Vuong\u2019s signature lyricism, this book pulls you into the soft violence of love and survival.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
10. Sex and Lies<\/em><\/a> by Le\u00efla Slimani<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
This collection of testimonies from Moroccan women \u2013 gathered by Slimani during a return to her home country \u2013 is unflinching, intimate, and radical. Through their stories, a portrait emerges of a society caught between repression and resistance. Paired with Slimani\u2019s own reflections, Sex and Lies<\/em> reads like a manifesto for bodily autonomy. A bold, necessary read for the long, hot days of summer.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
11. Raven Smith’s Trivial Pursuits<\/em> by Raven Smith<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
If you don’t already follow the hilarious and singular writer and internet commentator Raven Smith on Instagram<\/a>, you simply must. And now, he’s a Sunday Times Bestseller courtesy of his newly released book: Raven Smith’s Trivial Pursuits<\/em>. His exploration of the minutiae of everyday modern life and culture is irresistibly self-aware and a perfect remedy in trying times.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
12. Acid for the Children<\/em><\/a> by Flea<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Also in the memoir stack is that of Red Hot Chili Pepper’s bassist Flea. His 2019 book\u00a0Acid For The Children\u00a0<\/em>is so revealing and raw \u2013 you get such a sense of his cheeky humour, his jazz-inflected prose, and the fun, danger and mayhem he partook in as a raucous adolescent in 1970s and 80s L.A. It’s less an account of his days as a RHCP member, and more a window into his life before the fame \u2013 meeting Keidis, growing up in a bohemian, music-obsessed household, and the loneliness that came with always feeling he was a little different<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
13. Atmosphere<\/em><\/a> by Taylor Jenkins Reid<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
The latest from the Daisy Jones & The Six<\/em> author drops us into the orbit of a 1970s interior designer to the stars. There’s retro glamour, sweeping romance and a bittersweet look at the passing of time. It’s already a #1 bestseller and should follow in the footsteps of her other beloved novels as modern classics.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
14. Sunbathing<\/em><\/a> by Isobel Beech<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
A RUSSH<\/em> favourite, Beech\u2019s debut is a meditation on loss, solitude and the slowness of healing. Set in a Tuscan farmhouse, it\u2019s the kind of book that soaks in \u2013 tender, sparse, and deeply human. If you\u2019re craving space to breathe, to think, to feel something quietly profound \u2013 this is it. We also chatted to Beech last year about her own favourite reads<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
15. Waiting for Britney Spears<\/em> by Jeff Weiss<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
A pop culture read for fans of Von Dutch and The Simple Life, <\/em>Weiss’s semi-fictional memoir blurs fact and fancy to follow a young writer chronicling America’s sweetheart through Vegas superclubs and Malibu car chases.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
16. Lonely Mouth<\/em><\/a> by Jacqueline Maley<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
This short story collection from the journalist and novelist behind The Truth About Her<\/em> offers sharp, funny, melancholic portraits of women on the cusp \u2013 of heartbreak, of reinvention, of clarity. Maley writes with a light touch and a journalist\u2019s eye, making these stories perfect to dip in and out of between swims.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
17. Deep Cuts<\/em><\/a> by Holly Brickley<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Hailed as one of the freshest new voices in Australian fiction, Brickley\u2019s debut maps queer love, creative ambition and cultural friction across cities and decades. It’s layered, sexy, and soaked in music references. Think Zadie Smith meets Sally Rooney… in a dive bar.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
18. Hot Milk<\/em><\/a> by Deborah Levy<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Levy\u2019s scorching novel of mother-daughter entanglement, sunstroke, and sexual awakening is a must for the season. Set in a blistering Spanish village where a mysterious clinic promises cures, Hot Milk<\/em> is equal parts fever dream and philosophical probe. The book was also recently adapted as a dreamy film, which you can catch in select cinemas across Europe (in case you want to watch it after you’ve finished reading).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
19. Night People\u00a0<\/i>by Mark Ronson<\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n
Pop’s most influential producer just published his raucous memoir detailing a life raised by hedonistic creatives, and his escapades amongst the 90s New York club scene. It’s earnest, heartfelt and recently green-lit for an upcoming feature film<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
20. Mr Salary<\/em><\/a> by Sally Rooney<\/h3>\n<\/em><\/p>\nIf you’re not much of a reader but still want some bound-together pages to throw into your beach bag, Rooney\u2019s short story about Suki and Nathan \u2013 childhood family friends with unresolved tension \u2013 is a concentrated dose of her signature themes: unspoken desire, complicated love, emotional restraint. A perfect 40-minute read, best enjoyed in one small sitting.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
21. Ruins<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>by Amy Taylor<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
This taut and addictive debut novel set in Athens was recently optioned for film with Vanessa Kirby and Sebastian Stan already set to play its leads. It’s a provocative, voyeuristic novel about a couple who, hoping to reconnect during a summer in Athens, become entangled with a mysterious young Greek woman \u2013 an encounter that sends their relationship spiralling into unexpected and explosive territory.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
22. The Trio<\/em><\/a> by Johanna Hedman<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
A novel of intimacy, nostalgia and youth. The Trio<\/em> follows Thora, August and Hugo \u2013 inseparable as teens in Stockholm \u2013 whose lives become complicated by a shared summer in Paris and a secret that fractures their bond. Told from alternating perspectives across a decade, Hedman captures the ache of trying to hold onto something already slipping away.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
8. Nova Scotia House<\/em><\/a> by Charlie Porter<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Fashion journalist and curator Charlie Porter turns inward for his first work of fiction \u2013 a quiet, painterly novel about rebuilding. When the protagonist inherits a remote cottage in Nova Scotia, he retreats there to make sense of grief, identity and the tangled threads of family. There\u2019s an attentiveness to detail here \u2013 of textiles, weather, meals \u2013 that reads like balm. Ideal for anyone craving solitude and introspection this summer.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
9. The Emperor of Gladness<\/em><\/a> by Ocean Vuong<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Another new release from 2025: Vuong\u2019s long-anticipated second novel is a kaleidoscope of grief, memory, and queer longing. Set between post-war Vietnam and contemporary America, The Emperor of Gladness<\/em> is told in a fractured, dreamlike style that makes the ordinary feel mythic. With Vuong\u2019s signature lyricism, this book pulls you into the soft violence of love and survival.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
10. Sex and Lies<\/em><\/a> by Le\u00efla Slimani<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
This collection of testimonies from Moroccan women \u2013 gathered by Slimani during a return to her home country \u2013 is unflinching, intimate, and radical. Through their stories, a portrait emerges of a society caught between repression and resistance. Paired with Slimani\u2019s own reflections, Sex and Lies<\/em> reads like a manifesto for bodily autonomy. A bold, necessary read for the long, hot days of summer.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
11. Raven Smith’s Trivial Pursuits<\/em> by Raven Smith<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
If you don’t already follow the hilarious and singular writer and internet commentator Raven Smith on Instagram<\/a>, you simply must. And now, he’s a Sunday Times Bestseller courtesy of his newly released book: Raven Smith’s Trivial Pursuits<\/em>. His exploration of the minutiae of everyday modern life and culture is irresistibly self-aware and a perfect remedy in trying times.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
12. Acid for the Children<\/em><\/a> by Flea<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Also in the memoir stack is that of Red Hot Chili Pepper’s bassist Flea. His 2019 book\u00a0Acid For The Children\u00a0<\/em>is so revealing and raw \u2013 you get such a sense of his cheeky humour, his jazz-inflected prose, and the fun, danger and mayhem he partook in as a raucous adolescent in 1970s and 80s L.A. It’s less an account of his days as a RHCP member, and more a window into his life before the fame \u2013 meeting Keidis, growing up in a bohemian, music-obsessed household, and the loneliness that came with always feeling he was a little different<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
13. Atmosphere<\/em><\/a> by Taylor Jenkins Reid<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
The latest from the Daisy Jones & The Six<\/em> author drops us into the orbit of a 1970s interior designer to the stars. There’s retro glamour, sweeping romance and a bittersweet look at the passing of time. It’s already a #1 bestseller and should follow in the footsteps of her other beloved novels as modern classics.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
14. Sunbathing<\/em><\/a> by Isobel Beech<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
A RUSSH<\/em> favourite, Beech\u2019s debut is a meditation on loss, solitude and the slowness of healing. Set in a Tuscan farmhouse, it\u2019s the kind of book that soaks in \u2013 tender, sparse, and deeply human. If you\u2019re craving space to breathe, to think, to feel something quietly profound \u2013 this is it. We also chatted to Beech last year about her own favourite reads<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
15. Waiting for Britney Spears<\/em> by Jeff Weiss<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
A pop culture read for fans of Von Dutch and The Simple Life, <\/em>Weiss’s semi-fictional memoir blurs fact and fancy to follow a young writer chronicling America’s sweetheart through Vegas superclubs and Malibu car chases.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
16. Lonely Mouth<\/em><\/a> by Jacqueline Maley<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
This short story collection from the journalist and novelist behind The Truth About Her<\/em> offers sharp, funny, melancholic portraits of women on the cusp \u2013 of heartbreak, of reinvention, of clarity. Maley writes with a light touch and a journalist\u2019s eye, making these stories perfect to dip in and out of between swims.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
17. Deep Cuts<\/em><\/a> by Holly Brickley<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Hailed as one of the freshest new voices in Australian fiction, Brickley\u2019s debut maps queer love, creative ambition and cultural friction across cities and decades. It’s layered, sexy, and soaked in music references. Think Zadie Smith meets Sally Rooney… in a dive bar.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
18. Hot Milk<\/em><\/a> by Deborah Levy<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Levy\u2019s scorching novel of mother-daughter entanglement, sunstroke, and sexual awakening is a must for the season. Set in a blistering Spanish village where a mysterious clinic promises cures, Hot Milk<\/em> is equal parts fever dream and philosophical probe. The book was also recently adapted as a dreamy film, which you can catch in select cinemas across Europe (in case you want to watch it after you’ve finished reading).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
19. Night People\u00a0<\/i>by Mark Ronson<\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n
Pop’s most influential producer just published his raucous memoir detailing a life raised by hedonistic creatives, and his escapades amongst the 90s New York club scene. It’s earnest, heartfelt and recently green-lit for an upcoming feature film<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
20. Mr Salary<\/em><\/a> by Sally Rooney<\/h3>\n<\/em><\/p>\nIf you’re not much of a reader but still want some bound-together pages to throw into your beach bag, Rooney\u2019s short story about Suki and Nathan \u2013 childhood family friends with unresolved tension \u2013 is a concentrated dose of her signature themes: unspoken desire, complicated love, emotional restraint. A perfect 40-minute read, best enjoyed in one small sitting.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
21. Ruins<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>by Amy Taylor<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
This taut and addictive debut novel set in Athens was recently optioned for film with Vanessa Kirby and Sebastian Stan already set to play its leads. It’s a provocative, voyeuristic novel about a couple who, hoping to reconnect during a summer in Athens, become entangled with a mysterious young Greek woman \u2013 an encounter that sends their relationship spiralling into unexpected and explosive territory.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
22. The Trio<\/em><\/a> by Johanna Hedman<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
A novel of intimacy, nostalgia and youth. The Trio<\/em> follows Thora, August and Hugo \u2013 inseparable as teens in Stockholm \u2013 whose lives become complicated by a shared summer in Paris and a secret that fractures their bond. Told from alternating perspectives across a decade, Hedman captures the ache of trying to hold onto something already slipping away.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Another new release from 2025: Vuong\u2019s long-anticipated second novel is a kaleidoscope of grief, memory, and queer longing. Set between post-war Vietnam and contemporary America, The Emperor of Gladness<\/em> is told in a fractured, dreamlike style that makes the ordinary feel mythic. With Vuong\u2019s signature lyricism, this book pulls you into the soft violence of love and survival.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This collection of testimonies from Moroccan women \u2013 gathered by Slimani during a return to her home country \u2013 is unflinching, intimate, and radical. Through their stories, a portrait emerges of a society caught between repression and resistance. Paired with Slimani\u2019s own reflections, Sex and Lies<\/em> reads like a manifesto for bodily autonomy. A bold, necessary read for the long, hot days of summer.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If you don’t already follow the hilarious and singular writer and internet commentator Raven Smith on Instagram<\/a>, you simply must. And now, he’s a Sunday Times Bestseller courtesy of his newly released book: Raven Smith’s Trivial Pursuits<\/em>. His exploration of the minutiae of everyday modern life and culture is irresistibly self-aware and a perfect remedy in trying times.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Also in the memoir stack is that of Red Hot Chili Pepper’s bassist Flea. His 2019 book\u00a0Acid For The Children\u00a0<\/em>is so revealing and raw \u2013 you get such a sense of his cheeky humour, his jazz-inflected prose, and the fun, danger and mayhem he partook in as a raucous adolescent in 1970s and 80s L.A. It’s less an account of his days as a RHCP member, and more a window into his life before the fame \u2013 meeting Keidis, growing up in a bohemian, music-obsessed household, and the loneliness that came with always feeling he was a little different<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The latest from the Daisy Jones & The Six<\/em> author drops us into the orbit of a 1970s interior designer to the stars. There’s retro glamour, sweeping romance and a bittersweet look at the passing of time. It’s already a #1 bestseller and should follow in the footsteps of her other beloved novels as modern classics.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A RUSSH<\/em> favourite, Beech\u2019s debut is a meditation on loss, solitude and the slowness of healing. Set in a Tuscan farmhouse, it\u2019s the kind of book that soaks in \u2013 tender, sparse, and deeply human. If you\u2019re craving space to breathe, to think, to feel something quietly profound \u2013 this is it. We also chatted to Beech last year about her own favourite reads<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A pop culture read for fans of Von Dutch and The Simple Life, <\/em>Weiss’s semi-fictional memoir blurs fact and fancy to follow a young writer chronicling America’s sweetheart through Vegas superclubs and Malibu car chases.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This short story collection from the journalist and novelist behind The Truth About Her<\/em> offers sharp, funny, melancholic portraits of women on the cusp \u2013 of heartbreak, of reinvention, of clarity. Maley writes with a light touch and a journalist\u2019s eye, making these stories perfect to dip in and out of between swims.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Hailed as one of the freshest new voices in Australian fiction, Brickley\u2019s debut maps queer love, creative ambition and cultural friction across cities and decades. It’s layered, sexy, and soaked in music references. Think Zadie Smith meets Sally Rooney… in a dive bar.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Levy\u2019s scorching novel of mother-daughter entanglement, sunstroke, and sexual awakening is a must for the season. Set in a blistering Spanish village where a mysterious clinic promises cures, Hot Milk<\/em> is equal parts fever dream and philosophical probe. The book was also recently adapted as a dreamy film, which you can catch in select cinemas across Europe (in case you want to watch it after you’ve finished reading).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Pop’s most influential producer just published his raucous memoir detailing a life raised by hedonistic creatives, and his escapades amongst the 90s New York club scene. It’s earnest, heartfelt and recently green-lit for an upcoming feature film<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If you’re not much of a reader but still want some bound-together pages to throw into your beach bag, Rooney\u2019s short story about Suki and Nathan \u2013 childhood family friends with unresolved tension \u2013 is a concentrated dose of her signature themes: unspoken desire, complicated love, emotional restraint. A perfect 40-minute read, best enjoyed in one small sitting.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This taut and addictive debut novel set in Athens was recently optioned for film with Vanessa Kirby and Sebastian Stan already set to play its leads. It’s a provocative, voyeuristic novel about a couple who, hoping to reconnect during a summer in Athens, become entangled with a mysterious young Greek woman \u2013 an encounter that sends their relationship spiralling into unexpected and explosive territory.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n A novel of intimacy, nostalgia and youth. The Trio<\/em> follows Thora, August and Hugo \u2013 inseparable as teens in Stockholm \u2013 whose lives become complicated by a shared summer in Paris and a secret that fractures their bond. Told from alternating perspectives across a decade, Hedman captures the ache of trying to hold onto something already slipping away.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n10. Sex and Lies<\/em><\/a> by Le\u00efla Slimani<\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n11. Raven Smith’s Trivial Pursuits<\/em> by Raven Smith<\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n12. Acid for the Children<\/em><\/a> by Flea<\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n13. Atmosphere<\/em><\/a> by Taylor Jenkins Reid<\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n14. Sunbathing<\/em><\/a> by Isobel Beech<\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n15. Waiting for Britney Spears<\/em> by Jeff Weiss<\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n16. Lonely Mouth<\/em><\/a> by Jacqueline Maley<\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n17. Deep Cuts<\/em><\/a> by Holly Brickley<\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n18. Hot Milk<\/em><\/a> by Deborah Levy<\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n19. Night People\u00a0<\/i>by Mark Ronson<\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n20. Mr Salary<\/em><\/a> by Sally Rooney<\/h3>\n
<\/em><\/p>\n21. Ruins<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>by Amy Taylor<\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n22. The Trio<\/em><\/a> by Johanna Hedman<\/h3>\n
<\/p>\n