Spark Book Club: Staying cool with some hot reads

It’s mid-July, the sun is beating down, the tube is unbearable, and some of us are pining hard for that season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. I’m well known amongst the Spark team for my dislike of any temperature above 10 degrees, and even though the Great Air-Con Wars of 2019 seem to rage on an hourly basis in the office, I’m pretty much alone in this.

Luckily as I live in Yorkshire, I don’t have to suffer the seventh circle of hell (the Central Line) too often, but it is at this time of year that I go into an unseasonal hibernation and stay out of the sun as much as possible. And what better way to do that than hide inside and read a book?

The Spark Book Club has been up and running for a couple of months now, and the team has been busily working its way through the latest tomes – here’s some of our reviews:

• The River (Peter Heller) was my favourite of the last month. A stunning story of humans vs. nature set in the Canadian wilderness, with beautiful, lyrical writing. I found myself transfixed by passages about fly-fishing, which is impressive.
• Ana picked out Little Fires Everywhere (Celeste Ng), which despite a slow start was “overall a great book”, and also Washington Black (Esi Edugyan), according to Ana it “was a great read, and I reckon a film will follow.”
• Josh’s review of the Tattooist of Auschwitz (Heather Morris) as “absolutely mental” was a good thing, and he credited its “simply incredible story”.
• Alice went for non-fiction and read Lowborn (Kerry Hudson), she said “Would recommend, very insightful but so sad too.” Perhaps not a beach-read.
• Cathy read Autumn (Ali Smith) and unfortunately found it a bit boring, she was “happy when it was over!” That might not be at the top of the list for the rest of us.
• Becca was re-reading one of her favourites, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Junot Diaz), and said “Nothing else I've read has managed to knock it out my top two”. High praise indeed!
• I also read You Don’t Know Me (Imran Mahmood), which was excellent and very unusual. And of course, to get me in the summer spirit, The Ice People (Maggie Gee) – big thumbs up from me.

Whether like me, you go into paroxysms of joy at the first signs of a morning frost, or you’re a sun-seeker who’ll be topping up your tan while you do your holiday reading – we’d love to hear your recommendations over on @sparkcomms