Summer Reads from the Editorial Board

Whether you're after a light beach read, a long-overdue classic, or something slightly off the beaten track, these summer book picks are perfect for lazy afternoons, long train rides, or seaside lounging. 

You can find all the titles at Topping & Co.

Sam recommends…

The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin

I’m not usually a fan of high fantasy but I was surprised by how deeply The Tombs of Atuan struck me. Maybe it was just because I was reading it while being air fried on the London Underground (Tombs immersive experience), but something about following a priestess escape a suffocating belief system seemed to mesh perfectly with a season famous for movement and change. We’re all moving around, and in this heat nothing ever stays the same. Le Guin shows the reader how to follow that change up and out of shadowy places.

Ilaria recommends… 

Tom Lake by Ann Patchett

Like a hug from your mum, this novel weaves together a mother’s retelling of her long-ago summer romance with a famous movie star to her three grown daughters as they quarantine together during the pandemic. Full of love, heartbreak, and self discovery this is the perfect summer read — digestible and cosy while artfully navigating the challenges of being young, in love, and on your own for the first time. This book is a gentle reminder of the power of storytelling and, above all, family.

Arnaz recommends…

Providence by Anita Brookner 

Providence is a delightfully short read — it is a glimpse into the life of Kitty Maule, whose grandparents are formerly renowned dressmakers, so that she is an unusually fashionable academic. She is infatuated and in love with a ‘history man’, a handsome lecturer at the university where she works, and the novella follows her from London to Paris and back, as she tries to combat her loneliness in pursuit of love. The story is full of wit and humour, and ideal for a quick yet compelling read.

Isabelle recommends…

Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin

Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin offers all the romantic tragedy and spiritual depth of a Russian classic — without the burden of a thousand-page treatise on sin or a Tolstoyan family tree — and with a magical naivety of youth, glittering ballrooms, and countryside escapees in the moonlight. Perfect for the hopeless romantic, it indulges in a sensual palette: a snow-laden dream with a bear, a fatal duel between friends, and a “doe”-like maiden’s evolution into suppressed, aristocratic poise frame the unrequited drama. Best read at dusk, I recommend savouring each verse like dark wine.

Zainab recommends…

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

After months of friends and family telling me to give Bonnie Garmus’ bestselling debut a read, I finally caved and picked it up from my bookshelf. And I enjoyed it just as much as they said I would. The story follows Elizabeth Zott, a chemist in 1960s California who unexpectedly becomes the host of a hit cooking show. Easy to read with a pacy plot, this is the perfect beach read with a deeper meaning, exposing the systemic sexism of the sixties. That being said, there are a few moments that are a touch far-fetched (cough, the talking dog, cough) but it’s all part of the book’s charm.

Maria recommends…

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

I just finished reading Brideshead Revisited, and it’s one of those books that quietly wrecks you—in the best possible way. It’s a reflective, layered novel about memory, love, and how certain people and places leave a lasting mark. The story follows Charles Ryder’s entanglement with the Flyte family, especially Sebastian, whose charm and fragility make their relationship feel both intimate and unsettling. Catholicism and religious guilt run deep, shaping the characters in subtle but powerful ways, alongside themes of loyalty, loss, and the decline of the old aristocratic world. The prose is understated but full of emotional depth. It’s a slow burn, but a deeply rewarding read. If you like thoughtful, heartbreaking, and complex stories, this one’s worth your time.

Mrunmayi recommends…

Mad in Pursuit by Violette Leduc 

“Mad in Pursuit is a chronology of Violette Leduc’s thirties, living in post-war Paris. With a narrative voice deeply embedded in her descriptions of Paris, it is difficult to separate the city from Leduc’s gaze. The restless ebbs of her prose capture the unease of being at odds with your environment — the motions and twitches of a life in flux. I enjoyed hearing her mind racing in the pace of her prose. This is a great read to accompany the temporal and spatial disruption of the summer — and its long days of not knowing.”

(Not available to purchase at Topping & co.)

Alden recommends…

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

East of Eden does not bother with the details. As it were a campfire story, Steinbeck sketches characters, families, generations, and their relationships with land and each other. Playing grand themes of good and evil, sin and redemption, and fate against intimate scenes and sprawling landscapes, East of Eden will sit with readers long after they’ve forgotten its characters’ names. I recommend this book for those who long to withdraw and bask in the valleys of southern California and observe detachedly, but not unaffectedly, a vicious drama that plays out across the centuries

Matteo recommends…

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Orwell’s simple yet incisive style makes for an enlightening satire against the dictatorial ideologies and regimes that stormed 20th century Europe and eventually led to the Second World War. Through the allegory of farm animals rebelling against their cruel owner, the birth and rise to power of totalitarianism is exemplified in a way that leaves the reader with an initial feeling of delusional optimism that something like that could never happen. But it is when the allegorical mask is removed and the events compared to how history really went, that the true power of the book is unleashed and one realises how all of that could well be happening again right now.