If you're still Kindle-free you know only too well the pain that carrying Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch around in your handbag last year did to your back. It still hurts when rain's forecast nine months on.
Here's the best thin and light books to pack when you're heading off on your hols so you don't go over your budget airline weight limit.
Spoiled Brats - Simon Rich
Still only 30, Rich has already worked with for Pixar Studios and been a staff writer at SNL. It would be so easy to hate his success but sadly his writing is too much fun for that. His New Yorker story Sell Out made him a bit of a Twitter ‘moment’ last year and is included in this collection of short stories about parents and children. This isn’t yummy mummy territory though – it’s dark, funny, modern and almost upsettingly familiar. You’ll guffaw into your banana daiquiri but you’ll finish this seeing the world a little differently.
Available August 21
The Lemon Grove - Helen Walsh
Helen Walsh has distracting women all summer with this perfectly paced slice of sun-drenched raunch, and mercifully it’s slim-line enough to pack discreetly in almost anyone’s beach bag. Set on Mallorca’s west coast, it sees Jenn holidaying with her older, academic husband, his daughter, and her boyfriend. Jenn, who hasn’t met said boyfriend before, is bewitched by him and starts to indulge in the sort of holiday fling that is a little more high-risk that just a snog over a glass of ouzo. Managing to be heartily feminist as well has satisfyingly racy, this is the kind of summer read you might, um, return to during the winter.
The Awakening - Kate Chopin
Originally published in 1899, this is being reissued with a ballsy and brilliant introduction from Orange Prize Winner Barbara Kingsolver. Set in Louisiana, it calls to mind feminist literature from Madame Bovary to Valley of the Dolls. Edna, who has married well but is fundamentally bored, becomes enthralled by a man who is very far from being her husband, and is prompted to realise just how restricted her life is. It’s a set text in the US but doesn’t read like the sort of stuff you’d cram for exams. In fact, it’s a sexy treat to realise women have been having these thoughts as long as they have.
On Chesil Beach – Ian McEwan
This one is oh so very slim, but absolutely not lacking in impact. McEwan’s 2007 is largely set on the honeymoon night of a couple of barely know each other. The hotel – overlooking Dorset’s exquisite Chesil Beach – isn’t the problem, it’s that it’s 1962 and Nobody’s Talking About Sex Yet. A series of misunderstandings, delicate sensitivities and inappropriate advances lead to one of the best-written but least envied sex scenes of all time. There’s barely a wasted word here, it’s a sort of masterpiece. Having said that, it’s also a strong argument for wanking. Unmissable.
Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
Most of us have had a boyfriend who thinks he can get away with being a bit of a dick by claiming he’s ‘just a lot like Holden Caulfield’, and frankly it makes the prospect of this one a little unappetising. But it’s totally worth reading regardless! Currently having a moment in the sun with the publication of Joanna Rackoff’s memoir ‘My Salinger Year’, it’s very much a classic worth getting to know Despite its wannabe hipster associations, this is a sweet, heartbreaking novel about feeling misunderstood and wishing things could all just be a little different.
Follow Alexandra on Twitter @Hemmo
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.