C&G’s Ultimate Holiday Reading Guide

If you’re looking for something to read while you’re away from work, or following through your New Year's resolutions, there are plenty of options to be found in the Readings Summer Reading Guide. If you’d rather spend your time reading the books than choosing from the guide, let Chisholm and Gamon give you a run-down of some of the top picks.

Of course, we’ll suggest Geoffrey McGeachin’s St Kilda Blues. Although it’s set during a time when St Kilda was a little rough and ready, there’s some fun to be had reading fiction about the places that you know and see often. If crime, mystery and secret histories are what you’re after, look no further than around the corner. 

For the younger set – or young at heart – find similar themes in Simmone Howell’s Girl Defective. A young adult novel set in modern St Kilda, it follows the summer of fifteen-year-old Sky. Mystery, adventure, and adolescence; what’s not to enjoy? We recommend this as a better option than the latest One Direction album for your tween.

If you’re still hungry for stories by and about Australians, you can’t miss The Best Australian Stories 2014, edited by Amanda Lohrey. Filled cover to cover with short stories, you can consume the anthology in one sitting, or chip away at it over your break.

And if you’re still just plain hungry, make room on your kitchen bench for Belle Gibson’s The Whole Pantry. Don’t worry about breaking your New Year’s resolutions before you’ve even started them, this is a book containing more than 80 healthy – but delicious! – recipes. 

Didn’t quite get to go ‘on holiday’ these holidays? No trouble. Use your time out of the office – no matter how brief – to start planning your next big trip! The Best Place to Be Today, compiled by Lonely Planet offers 365 different experiences from around the globe, as well as the absolute best day you could hope to do them on. Get planning, there’s a lot to see!