Top 5 Summer reads to help you through isolation.
Well it’s strange times we are living in at the moment. Corona Virus has spread through nations around the world and the UK is officially on lock down. It feels so weird just to write that. Like I’m writing fiction. Unfortunately this is currently our reality, so what can we do but make the best for it?
For me doing the things I would normally choose to do this type of situation (not that I’ve been on lock down before but for example when I broke my leg and was house bond for months) like reading, organizing, painting, DIY etc are all hard to achieve with a toddler running around. Of course that not a bad thing, we are spending most of our time lost in the garden and walking to the park for our one exercise of the day, which in so many ways is blissful and hard going at the same time.
I will admit to day dreaming about the books I would have read, the writing I would have done and the movies we would have watched had this time happened pre-baby, because entertaining a toddler all day is tough. Mat and I are trying to take turns and give each other a little of our own time in the day. He goes for a run, I sit and write.
This line of thinking took me to what books I loved so much I would have re-read during this time. They could be your perfect summer read…. or isolation read for want of a better description.
The Fever Tree. by Jennifer Mcveigh
Only once I had written this down did I realize it is based on a epidemic, small pox in South Africa. This may or may not put you off reading it given our current climate but it is also a beautiful story on how someone copes in true isolation. Not just physically isolated in the dry land of South Africa, Frances Irene is also emotionally isolated from all she once knew, after the death of her father leaves her destitute and alone.
Torn between two very different men in a scary unfamiliar world where greed rules, this book shows how strength can come out of a crisis like the one Frances in 1880 finds herself in and maybe the one we now find ourselves in.
The Color of the Water in July. by nora carroll.
Set in North Michigan, in a spot most of us would dream of “Summering,” a house by the lake holds many secrets. I found myself on the edge of my seat as the book jumps between Grandmother, Mother and Daughter at different point in history to reveal a truth hidden for a lifetime and more than one forbidden love.
The Light between Oceans by m.l.stedmen
This book has now been made into a movie but I highly recommend reading the book first and have the tissues at the ready. Set in a small town in Australia in 1920, the story will make you understand how good people can make bad decisions and just how strong a Mothers love can be. You’ll also want to pop out and buy a lighthouse to live in. This social distancing malarkey would be easy on your own island.
Chasing Daisy by Paige Toon.
Anything by Paige Toon is good in my book. Considering everything else on my list is a little more serious and harder going, Paige Toon is my go to for a more light hearted easy summer read. Chasing Daisy was the first of her novels I read and I must have read it 5 times since.
Travel around the world with Daisy as she works for the catering on the Formula One tracks. It’s high speed and has some twist that will keep you on your toes too.
Island of Secrets. by Patrica wilson.
A story from World War 2. But not one of the stories we often learn in English schools. Told by a Grandmother when her estranged Grand Daughter travels from London to Crete in search of her lost family and its lost secrets, this is the tale of how a Mothers love can over come anything in a bid to save her children. Plus some more forbidden and lost loves, this is an incredibly moving story.
All the Light we cannot see.
Another World War 2 story switching between a young intelligent German boy drafted into the army and a young blind French girl fleeing Paris from the Nazi’s. These two children, world’s apart, grow up through the war. This will give you an understanding of how a young boy can be brain washed and made to fight for something he doesn’t believe in and how sight isn’t everything,. Maybe just maybe they can save each other.
Let me know if you give any a try and please send me any of your book recommendations. Maybe one day I’ll have time to get lost in one again.
Hannah xx