Best summer reads for 2024: Books to enjoy on holiday in the sunshine

We’re not quite sure why January is pegged as the time for new beginnings. While the first month of the Gregorian calendar signifies the start of a brand-new year, New Year’s Resolution apologists seem to get off on the concept of imminent failure.

Whether an attempted juice cleanse that lasts half a day or that new joiner’s membership at the local gym that is inevitably cancelled before the monthly fee gets charged to your credit card, most of us find it gut-wrenchingly difficult to sustain any kind of new hobby motivation when the weather remains cold, gloomy and unbearably dark.

That’s why we’re focusing on summer as the time to re-engage in all of those self-betterment principles and actions that we diligently listed in our bullet journals at the start of 2024. Make the bed every morning? Check. Drink two litres of water every day? Easy when it’s warmer outside. Read at least one book every month? Don’t mind if we do.

Indeed, how else are we supposed to impress our peers with information about the newest literary darlings to grace the windows of Daunt Books in Marylebone? There’s a deluge of new launches to expect in the coming months, some which have just been released in hardback, others