It seems like such a long time ago since the summer holidays doesn’t it?! The heavy rain today reminded me of that, and that I was going to do a short post about my holiday reads. I never seem to get the time to read as much as I’d like to during the year, so I try to make the most of it when I’m away!

My first read was Kate Morton’s ‘The Secret Keeper’. I’m a huge fan of Kate Morton’s books – I love her style of writing, where you jump between the past and the present, trying to discover how characters in each time are connected. I’ve read all of her previous books and each one has had me hooked – The Secret Keeper was no exception! In this book, we follow Laurel and her quest to find out more about her Mother’s past, just as her Mother’s health takes a turn for the worse. Laurel realises that her Mother has a whole other life that she knows nothing about, and throughout the book we begin to piece it all together. There is always an unexpected twist at the end of Kate Morton’s books, and this one was a great surprise! I don’t want to give it away, so I’m trying not to say too much – definitely worth a read.

My second read was ‘The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared’ by Jonas Jonasson. I picked this one up because the blurb on the back made me laugh, and that’s usually a good sign! The idea of a man, aged 100, climbing out of the window of his room in the old people’s home is quite ridiculous, but it works. The book itself gets more ridiculous throughout, but the unexpected events and adventures that the old man faces are just hilarious and I couldn’t put the book down!

The final read is actually one of Tom’s (I swapped him for ‘The Hundred-Year-Old-Man…’ when we had read our books!) – Stuart Maconie’s ‘The People’s Songs: The Story of Modern Britain in 50 Records’. This book was written to accompany the radio series of the same name, and is an interesting look at how popular music has reflected the sign of the times throughout modern Britain. I’m really interested in popular music in a sociological sense (I did a bit of it in my studies and then taught a bit in my previous life as a music teacher). What I like about this book is that you can dip in and out of it, so if you’re like my Dad and more interested in the 50’s and 60’s music, then you can just read those chapters. It’s full of interesting facts and anecdotes, so I can imagine some things coming up in a pub quiz! Personally, I would have liked a little more about the actual songs from a musical point of view, but that is just me being picky – this book is accessible to everyone and is a really interesting read.

What were your holiday reads? Do you have any recommendations? Leave a comment below! 🙂