Books An Award-Winning Author Reads In The Summer

This is what Camilla Gibbs is reading this summer

There are lots of books-to-read lists out there. We won’t deny that. But if you’re going to take anyone’s word for what page-turners you should be reading this summer, we suggest you start with Camilla Gibb’s favourite summer reads. The award-winning author of four internationally acclaimed novels – Mouthing the Words, The Petty Details of So-and-so’s Life, Sweetness in the Belly and The Beauty of Humanity Movement, and most recently a memoir, This Is Happy – has high standards for her picks. “I want to be transported somewhere,” she tells me. “The ideal ending is where you’re so with the characters [that when] you close the book you want more, but know they’re going to be OK.” And that is more than good enough of a recco for us.

Summer reading picks: Swimming Home

“Set in a villa in Europe, it has that feeling of long summer days. A stranger comes to town and the idyllic setting does not appear to be such.”

Swimming Home by Deborah Levy (House of Anansi Press), $17.06 at amazon.ca.

Summer reading picks: The Complete Patrick Melrose Novels

“I love that he’s taken the central conflicts of his life and dramatized it. You follow from childhood through to redemption. You can read one but you’ll be so compelled to read them all; that’s a big summer read.”

The Complete Patrick Melrose Novels: Never Mind, Bad News, Some Home, Mother’s Milk, and At Last by Edward St. Aubyn (Picador), $26.94 at amazon.ca.

Summer reading picks: Euphoria

“A fictionalization of Margaret Mead, set in Papa New Guinea 1930s. You’re getting this insight into this strange female character in history, it’s rich and lush and there’s a mystery at the heart of it. Soon to be a major motion picture; it’s really good.”

 Euphoria by Lily King (HarperCollins), $13.19 at amazon.ca.

Summer reading picks: The Interpreter of Maladies

“[She is] one of my favourite writers. I have such professional envy. She writes short stories that are worlds unto themselves. You don’t have to read the whole collection, you can read one and feel like you’ve eaten the best meal.”

The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri (Houghlin Mifflin Harcourt), $16.92 at amazon.ca.

Summer reading picks: Outline

“She’s got an unusual narrator. You don’t really know who she is but you meet this kaleidoscope of characters who all have ended up in this place, one summer in Greece. Reflecting on human nature, it’s just cleverly done.”

Outline by Rachel Cusk (HarperCollins), $19.99 at amazon.ca.

Summer reading picks: Mouthing the Words

Now this book was not on Gibb’s list, but since her debut novel, Mouthing the Words, was just re-released in June 2017, I had to add it. And I had to re-read it again.

Mouthing the Words (Double Day Canada), $17.60 at amazon.ca.