8 GOOD READS THIS SUMMER

July 3rd 2015

As we approach the traditional summer holidays period the JRW team have been talking about books that those of us who are lucky enough to go on holiday might take with them.  And even if you are not going on holiday there is nothing better than sitting in the sun enjoying a good book.  So we have put together our 2015 summer reading list with a mixture of fiction and non-fiction to give you food for thought for reading this summer.

1. Harper Lee – “Go Set a Watchman”
For many of us “To Kill a Mocking Bird” is one of the most iconic and memorable books of our childhood.  We were delighted when we heard that Harper Lee’s second novel is to come out this summer on the 14th July.  The novel is set 20 years after “To Kill a Mocking Bird” when Scout comes back from New York to her hometown to visit her father.  Other main characters featured in the original novel also feature in this new novel.  This is a much anticipated second novel which has become the most pre-ordered book in publisher Harper Collins’ history.

2.  Sam Torrance – “Out of Bounds”
As many of you know we have some keen golfers in the JRW team who are really looking forward to the 2015 British Open at St Andrews this year.  Sam Torrance is bound to be at the Open and is a legendary Scottish golf player with 21 wins over the course of his career.  His book shows that he is also a great story teller with tales of the golf world of what happens on the 19th hole.  Even if you are not a golfer this is a very entertaining read and should have you laughing out loud.

3. Clare Macintosh – “I let you go”
Clare Macintosh is an author, feature writer and columnist and has written for the Guardian and Good Housekeeping among others.  Her debut novel has received rave reviews such as Women and Home Magazine who said “‘Superbly realised characters were the icing on the top of this deft, plot-twisting and emotional debut.”  The book is about a women who escapes to the Welsh coast after a tragic accident.  But is she who she seems?

4.  James Rebanks – “A Shepherd’s Life”
At JRW we are passionate about the Scottish Borders and we work with a number of Farmers and Agricultural businesses across the area and in other rural areas across the UK.  So this book has been a favourite of ours.  It tells the story of a shepherd in the Lake District who farms Herdwick Sheep and whose family has done so for over 600 years.  The book tells the story of the life he leads via the seasonal year and is a highly recommended read to show what rural life is really like.

5. Emma Healey – “Elizabeth is Missing”
This book has deservedly had critical acclaim as it’s a book with a difference seen through the eyes of a women who has dementia and who is convinced that her best friend has been murdered.  In addition to the current day story we are taken back to the past where we learn that her sister also disappeared during the war and was never found.  This is in part a crime drama but the most interesting part and at times the most difficult to read is seeing the world through someone who has dementia.

6. Victoria Hislop – “The Sunrise”
Victoria Hislop has written a number of books set around historical events in Greece and Spain.  This book is no exception featuring the splitting of Cyprus in two in 1972 and in particular the resort of Famagusta which to this day remains a deserted town.  We see the impact this has on two families from both sides of the conflict.  A fascinating look at a relatively unknown part of history.

7. David Spaven – “The Waverley Route”
The new Borders Railway opens on the 6th September and will be the longest track of railway to be built in the UK in 100 years.  The route follows part of the line to Tweedbank of the old route which was shut by Beeching in 1969.  David Spaven has updated his book about the rise and fall of the Waverley Line with details about the fight for and the building of the new route and he was one of the key authors of this year’s Borders Book Festival.  This book is well worth reading as we keenly look forward over the summer to the train returning to the Scottish Borders.

8. Peter May – “The Runaway”
Peter May’s Lewis Trilogy set in the Hebrides has won a series of crime awards and his Edinburgh Book Festival event has already sold out.  His new book is set in Glasgow and London  and features two stories one of five boys in a band who run away to London to seek their fortunes but life in the capital is not what they thought and one of them is murdered.  In the current day one of those friends is dying and he wants to find out the truth once and for all about who killed their friend.  So they return to London.

JRW Chartered accountants in Edinburgh, Galashiels, Hawick, Langholm and Peebles.
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