Summer time is reading time! Stock up on these gems before Christmas and you’ll sail into Summer-reading bliss.

Happening by Annie Ernaux – ‘I began writing in my diary every evening – the word NOTHING.’ In Happening the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature winner recounts how life-changing it was in 1963 to have an unwanted pregnancy. Superb.

Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan – draws on the shocking history of the Magdalene laundries to tell of Bill Furlong who must decide whether he will risk everything to defy the Catholic Church and the Irish state. Powerful.

Smokehouse by Melissa Manning – Set in Tasmania (and I read it there), these linked short stories are imbued with pathos, empathy and wisdom as well as recognisable characters grappling with life’s turning points.

Permafrost by SJ Norman – There are flashes of summer light in these short stories, but also some bleak backdrops. Raw, strange, compelling and unforgettable. I loved ‘Whitehart’ (fable-like) ‘Playback’ (a meditation on loss), ‘Stepmother’ (en pointe).

Lost & Found: A Memoir by Kathryn Schulz – This memoir by the Pulitzer-winning New Yorker is moving and marvellous. She conveys the devastation of losing her father and finding her lover (later wife) with great elegance, intelligence and wit.

Lessons by Ian McEwan – Miriam is a music teacher who exercises sexual power over Roland in his youth, and the legacy of this abuse feeds into his marriage breakdown and beyond. Lessons also broaches artistic sacrifice. Gripping.

The Labyrinth by Amanda Lohrey – Erica Marsden retreats to a shack on the coast near the prison where her son is serving a sentence for homicidal negligence. In building a labyrinth she learns to trust again and reckons with her past. Meditative.

These Days by Lucy Caldwell – Set during the Belfast Blitz in 1941, we see the turmoil (mainly) through the eyes of the Bells, a middle-class family. Emma, Audrey, and Florence are wonderful characters in an exquisite novel.

Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au – Set mostly in Japan, memories swirl as the distance between a mother and daughter fluctuates as they walk the streets, visit forests and buy gifts to take home. An ethereal experience.

Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout – Lucy and William reflect on their marriage breakdown, the partnerships they’ve pursued since, and their daughters on whom they depend. On a road trip, they also unearth some powerful family secrets.

The Jaguar by Sarah Holland Batt – This brilliant poetry collection wraps fresh and compelling language around dementia and its degenerative effects – and it is beautiful. It also honour’s her father, sings with sorrow and chimes with celebration.

In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss by Amy Bloom – Bloom’s husband Brian knew the ‘long goodbye’ of Alzheimer’s was not for him. But the right to die in America is fraught, as Bloom demonstrates in her moving memoir.

The Offing by Benjamin Myers – At 16, a chance meeting with Dulcie, a middle-aged eccentric, is life-changing for Robert Appleyard who returns for decades to her meadows to write, read and think. Delightful.

Shirley Hazzard: A Writing Life by Brigitta Olubas – What a treasure trove of insight and detail! Olubas takes us from Hazzard’s Sydney childhood to her travels in Italy and her many literary friendships. A nuanced portrait of Shirley the Great.

The Writer Laid Bare: Mastering emotional honesty in a writer’s art, craft and life by Lee Kofman – Mingles memoir with guidance from a writer who got herself back on track after suffering from writer’s block. A lifetime of reading helped!

The Plot by Jean Hanff Korelitz – When Jacob Finch Bonner steals a story idea from one of his MFA students (now deceased) his book is an overnight success. His ill-judged decision soon careens out of control. Compelling.

A Kind of Magic by Anna Spargo-Ryan – Spargo-Ryan describes her anxiety as “the kind where everything else about your life is all bound up in it. It’s like a room full of mouse traps”. A frank and meticulously researched memoir offering great insights.

The End of the World Is a Cul de Sac by Louise Kennedy – This heartbreaking and exhilarating debut collection covers marriage, mortality, memory and more. The stories gathered steam and I’ll read the final one ‘Garland Sunday’ again and again.

Also worth a look …

Dropbear by Evelyn Araluen, Dinner Party: A Tragedy by Sarah Gilmartin, My Sweet Guillotine by Jayne Tuttle, The Earth Thy Great Exchequer Lies by Jo Lloyd Thin Places by Kerri ní Dochartaigh, After Story by Larissa Behrendt.