lou's library

If you’re living in Europe, then chances are this summer will go down in your personal history of one of the hottest ever, and the thought that it might be trumped with an even worse one next year makes me wanna stick my head in the sand. Relentless heatwaves aside, summer is one of my favourite reading seasons, because there’s not much that beats laying on the beach all day doing nothing but read and then jumping into the water whenever it gets a bit too hot. I didn’t get to do a lot of that this year, but I still stuck my nose into a book on every occasion. And now I’m gonna talk your ear off about some of the books I read these past months. My pleasure!

Leonard And Hungry Paul by Rónán Hession

This is probably the most special book I have read all summer. Special in that Leonard And Hungry Paul, which follows the friendship between the two titular characters, is a uniquely tender, heartwarming and at the same time frank portrayal of what it means to be a human in this world. Summarising the plot of this book is no easy feat, because on one level not much seems to be going on as we follow their daily lives, but on another level in fact everything is going on. Both Leonard and Hungry Paul have their issues to deal with, their insecurities and worries, and we get to know them as they are both going through a transitional phase in their lives, with lots of changes to face. I know this all sounds very elusive, but Leonard and Hungry Paul is one of those books you simply have to read to get it. It’s one that will make you feel, more than anything else. It’s written with so much wit and tenderness and I was genuinely moved by it. A friend recommended it to me, which I will forever be thankful for, because I don’t see anyone else talking about this gem of a book and probably would never have come across it otherwise.

Letters To A Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke

This had been on my to-be-read pile for an age and a half, so when my Dad gifted it to me for my birthday a few weeks ago I knew it was finally time to read it. This very small book is a collection of letters Rilke wrote to an aspiring poet about one hundred years ago. There are only ten letters, which means you can read the entire book in an afternoon, but I would recommend taking your time with it. Rilke was a famous Austrian poet and a great letter writer. Honestly, reading these made me think I seriously have to up my letter writing game, because damn was Rilke good at writing profoundly and beautifully with the use of very few words. The ten letters featured in Letters To A Young Poet are full of wisdom about writing, but also life in general, especially the life of a poet. I think there’s something incredibly sweet about the fact that Rilke took the time to write these profound letters to a young person asking for advice, and I was drawn in from the very start, despite not knowing Rilke’s work very well, or the recipient of the letters at all. I don’t often read letters, but this collection convinced me that is something I ought to change.

The Wedding People by Alison Espach

My bestie and I have been on the quest to find the perfect summer book this year, and The Wedding People was one of the contenders we had put a lot of hope into. I mean, the cover basically screams summer and fun and endless nights, so we were hyped going into this. Unfortunately, we never really got into this book, as the vibe was somehow off for us. The book is about Phoebe, a struggling divorced academic in her thirties who books into a fancy hotel to kill herself. This is not a spoiler, as that is literally the premise you are given within the first few pages. It turns out that a very expensive and elaborate wedding is taking place in the hotel over the course of a week, and Phoebe gets dragged into the whole affair somewhat against her will. Now, as you can probably tell, this is quite a unique setup for a story and unfortunately, it simply didn’t work for me. The combination of serious mental illness and attempted suicide with a serious of extraordinary wedding shenanigans just felt wrong to me. Without spoiling too much of the book, to make me believe that a woman who is desperate enough to take an overdose of pills would by the end of a week with a bunch of entitled strangers suddenly be feeling so much better would have been quite the feat. I get that The Wedding People is probably meant to be a heartfelt message about the power of community and human connection, but to me it just felt as though it was downplaying the seriousness of mental health issues. Plus, this really wasn’t the fun summer read I was expecting. So I guess I didn’t hate it, but it sat uneasily with me.

The Bee Sting by Paul Murray

This book was all the rage a couple of years ago, and while I missed that hype train, The Bee Sting had sat on my list of Irish books I want to read ever since. It’s quite a chunky novel, and I love reading those in summer, so a few weeks ago I finally picked it up. It follows the story of the Barnes family, who live in an Irish town not too far from Dublin and have run into money trouble. The parents Dickie and Imelda are trying to keep their marriage afloat and their car business from going under, while their children Cass and PJ are busy growing up and making all the mistakes that are associated with it. We get to read from all four of their perspectives, which makes for an intricate and fascinating picture, as the story unfolds slowly and we learn ever more about everyone’s intentions and history. This family is a mess, but it is portrayed in a way that felt deeply believable to me. While hardly any of the characters felt truly likeable to me, their flaws were so very human and I could totally see how they had all gotten themselves ever deeper into the mess surrounding them without ever meaning to. There is far too much going on in this book to do it all justice with a few sentences, but this is a thrilling family saga that is both mundane and extraordinary. Plus, the ending truly shocked me and I am still not sure how I feel about it.

This Must Be The Place by Maggie O’Farrell

Maggie O’Farrell is my favourite contemporary writer and I’ve been slowly making my way through her back catalogue for the past couple of years. This Must Be The Place is the latest on my list of her books to read and it did not disappoint. It’s set in Ireland, somewhere in its remote wilderness, where the Wells family lives. It consists of the mother Claudette, who is a former film star who left it all behind to start anew, the father Daniel who is estranged from his first wife and kids, and their shared children. Similarly to The Bee Sting, this is first and foremost a story about a complicated family. And because Maggie O’Farrell is an extraordinary writer, her characters are deeply flawed but also oh so charismatic. I cannot count the times Daniel fucks up in this book on one hand, but still I was rooting for him. To me, Maggie O’Farrell is the best at writing believable romantic stories, and This Must Be The Place was no exception. I never could tell where the story would go next, it’s an ambitious and wide-ranging novel and if you’re a fan of the author’s more recent books, you should totally give this a try!

There you are, some of the books I’ve been spending my summer with. To be honest, I cannot wait for the autumnal reading season to start, as then it will be time to get back into fantasy, and crime, and eerie stories. But I’m sure this summer has another heatwave in store for us before then, so wear your SPF and stay hydrated. Happy reading!