Stuck for what to read on your Summer break? Browse my top 15 Summer of 2020 reading suggestions to pin it down.

This is Happiness by Niall Williams – What a novel! It plaits warmth and wisdom with depth and humour. “Father Coffey, the curate … pale and thin as a Communion wafer.” Laugh and cry as a young man remembers a summer of sadness and love.

The Grammarians by Cathleen Schine – An exhilarating tale of nerdy, wordy, red-haired twins, Laurel and Daphne, who confound their family, their partners and (sometimes) each other. From babyhood’s secret language to their adult wordsmithing they discover words can’t always stitch life into a happy ending.

The Last Migration by Charlotte McConaghy – ‘“They’ve declared the crow extinct.” The air leaves me in a rush.’ McConaghy’s novel is a moving hymn to wild places and Franny Stone a brilliantly drawn conservationist in flight from her troubled past as she tails the last Arctic terns …

A Registry of My Passage upon the Earth by Daniel Mason – ‘The Union Dead’ and ‘On Growing Ferns and Other Plants in Glass Cases, in the Midst of the Smoke of London’ are two stories I will read again and again from this remarkable collection.

Night Fishing: Stingrays, Goya and the Singular Life by Vicki Hastrich – These 13 essays offer us the space to look closely at nature and celebrate the coast, water and creativity. Ponder a world of art and philosophy as you disconnect from your online life with its bombardment of bad news and apocalyptic images.

The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broom – Broom’s brilliant memoir shows how she, her 11 siblings and her mother responded when Hurricane Katrina rendered their Yellow House in East New Orleans uninhabitable. It also reveals a bleaker side of the ‘birthplace of jazz’ that has mostly been masked by mythology.

Sorry for Your Trouble by Richard Ford – No one writes stories of marital discord and the gut punch of despair that personal betrayal or the death of a loved one can deliver like Richard Ford. ‘Nothing to Declare’, set in New Orleans, is my favourite.

The Weekend by Charlotte Wood – This unflinching novel describes what happens when a group of four friends becomes a group of three, following a death. The ageing trio gathers at Sylvie’s beach house. But will their friendship survive the weekend?

Autumn Light: Japan’s Seasons of Fires and Farewells by Pico Iyer – This gentle and beautiful reflection by an ex-pat of his life in Japan begins just after Iyer’s father-in-law dies suddenly. Iyer’s spirited Japanese wife, his daily habits, and a quirky ping pong club make this memoir a joyous read.

Tree Beings by Raymond Huber – Huber’s call to action in this informative book for 7- to 12-year-olds is delivered sprucely. Plant a tree. Protest against cutting down old native forests. Recycle wood and paper products. Small actions make a big difference.

The Blessing by Gregory Orr – When he was 12, Orr killed his brother in a hunting accident. The traces of this tragedy live on for Orr – but he turns to words and poetry. Orr’s ‘blessing’ is our blessing. A sad and beautiful book.

The Salt Path by Raynor Winn – Homeless in their 50s, Winn and her terminally ill husband, Moth, decide to walk the South West Coast Path in the UK and wild-camp along the way. A warm and well-written memoir.

Recollections of My Non-existence by Rebecca Solnit – Solnit’s description of her first tiny studio apartment in San Francisco opens out onto a lifetime of art, history, friendship and activism. Superb essays.

Weather by Jenny Offill – ‘What are you afraid of, he asks me, and the answer of course is dentistry, humiliation, scarcity, then he says what are your most useful skills? People think I’m funny.’ A pithy fictional riff on environmental despair and political turbulence.

Bettyville by George Hodgman – look this one up. It’s worth it.

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If some of these suggestions sound familiar, you may have read what I’ve written about them elsewhere on A Bigger Brighter World or on the South Sydney Herald website.