Summertime Reading!

Whichever way your preference runs from Booker Prize books to Beach Reads - here are some ideas for you. (As well as some little known facts.)

Booker Prize Long List:

• The Colony by Audrey Magee
• After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz
• Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo
• Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
• Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley
• Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies by Maddie Mortimer
• Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet
• Treacle Walker by Alan Garner
• The Trees by Percival Everett
• Trust by Hernan Diaz
• The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka
• Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout
• Booth by Karen Joy Fowler

Some Facts About This Year's Nominee's (from bookerprize.com):

• Features youngest and oldest author ever to be longlisted: 20-year-old Leila Mottley and octogenarian Alan Garner, who will celebrate his 88th birthday on the night of the winner ceremony 

• At 116 pages, Claire Keegan’s Small Things Like These is the shortest book recognised in the prize’s history – the shortest to win was Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald (1979) at 132 pages

• Three debut novelists make the list: Maddie Mortimer, Leila Mottley and Selby Wynn Schwartz 

• Previously shortlisted authors NoViolet Bulawayo, Karen Joy Fowler and Graeme Macrae Burnet, and previously longlisted Elizabeth Strout are recognized

• Majority published by independent publishers, including first time appearances from Influx Press and Sort of Books.

Ultimate Beach Reads (from beyondthebookends.com):

• The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz
• The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle by Matt Cain
• Acts of Violet by Margarita Montimore
• You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi
• Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
• Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li
• Patron Saint of Second Chances by Christine Simon
• Vladimir by Julia May Jones
• Black Cake by Charmaine Wilkinson
• One Italian Summer by Rebecca Serle
• Yerba Buena by Nina LaCour
• With Love from London by Sarah Jio
• Olga Dies Dreaming by Xochitl Gonzalez

Find some of these books and more by visiting the Friends' Online Bookstore.

“My most prized possession was my library card from the Oakland Public Library.”

Bill Russell, Hall of Fame Basketball Player, NBA Champion and First Black Head Coach in Major US Sports, Olympian

1934-2022