7 Reads for Your 2018 Summer Holiday

Whether you are sat around the pool in your Solid & Striped one-piece with a glass of Chardonnay or traipsing across Rome in a Ganni wrap dress, nothing says ‘holiday’ like a good book.

With work and social lives getting busier by the day, it can be hard to find a moment’s peace to open those pages and lose yourself in the prose of one of today’s top authors.

So instead of reaching for the first novel you find in the airport book store, maybe try for one of the below…

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, Gail Honeyman

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A beautiful tale of love and loneliness, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine follows the story of a socially awkward thirty-something year old living in London.

The author, Gail Honeyman, takes the idea of loneliness, often associated in the press with old age, and applies it to a young woman, supposedly in the prime of her life. Eleanor leaves work on a Friday evening and very often, will not speak to anyone until the following Monday morning. Her life is filled with routine and detachment. She wears the same clothes every day, eats the same lunch, calls her mother on a Wednesday; she is happy with her life, nothing is missing, until it is.

A simple act of kindness throws Eleanor’s routine off. As new companions – Eleanor doesn’t do friends – disrupt her day to day life, our protagonist learns that she can trust and be trusted, and that she should give them the gift of helping her.

Call Me by Your Name, André Aciman

Now translated to cinema, Call Me by Your Name tells the story of a sudden but powerful romance that blossoms between a young student Elio and his father’s academic assistant Oliver.

Unprepared for the strength of their attraction, the novel tells the tale of the pair’s unrelenting currents of obsession, fascination, and desire.  Winding through the cobbled streets of southern Italy, the novel has a clear aesthetic – this is the perfect sunny day beach book.

Above all, the story is that of Elio’s coming of age. It’s a a Proustian meditation on time and desire, a love letter of sorts to that period between innocence and experience.

Menswear Revolution: The Transformation of Contemporary Men’s Fashion, Jay McCauley Bowstead

Investigating the transformation of menswear through the shifting perceptions of masculinity, Menswear Revolution: The Transformation of Contemporary Men’s Fashion examines how the increasingly growing market of men’s fashion is channelling art and identity.

The author looks into the work of ground-breaking designers like Hedi Slimane and Raf Simons and their effect on the industry and how these re-imaginings of the male wardrobe make way for a wider, diversified landscape of menswear.

Combining interviews with fashion professionals with close analyses of garments and advertising, Menswear Revolution provides an authoritative account of menswear design today. With a deep examination of masculinity in popular discourse and the media, the book takes us from the 60s mod and peacock revolutions to the new wave aesthetics of the 1980s. Exploring the historical precedents for today's menswear scene and the evolution of the 'ideal' male form, Menswear Revolution challenges fashion’s relationship to the changing concepts of gender.

All That Man Is, David Szalay

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David Szalay’s All That Man Is is a tale of journeys, both in the physical sense and in the passage of time. The oeuvre tells the account of nine men at different stages of their lives, the love that they are yearning for, the love that they have lost, their ambitions and regrets.

Tracing a dramatic arc from the spring of youth to the winter of old age, the individual narratives of All That Man Is become a picture of a single shared existence. Szalay questions the state of modern manhood while bringing to life, the physical and emotional terrain of an increasingly globalized Europe.

500 Self Portraits, Julian Bell and Liz Rideal

This book details a compelling collection of self-protraits from throughout history.  Including historrical favourites as well as contemporary works, the authors detail the challenges that artists face when interpreting and recreating their own likeness.

Originally published over 80 years ago, the oeuvre was reevaluated in 2000. Now revised in 2018 to include modern portraits, this new edition provides a selection of evocative works from the world's greatest artists. Dürer, Rembrandt, Marina Abramović, David Hockney, and Cindy Sherman; painters, photographers, sculptors and performance artists all have their place in this celebration of the much-loved art form.

Drop, Byron Hawes

With the rise of the ‘hypebeast’, high fashion and streetwear have merged into a billion-pound industry. Drop dives into the world is streetwear queue culture, and the cult status garnered by these limited-edition pieces.

The community surrounding these drops, the hype created around the launches, and the events that followers flock to all over the world is documented in this one of a kind book. From Supreme to Yeezy, A Bathing Ape, Patta, Anti Social Social Club, Vetements and Off-White, Byron Hawes delves into the brands making hype haute.

The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood

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With the return of a second season of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale, it’s time to dust off your old copy of Margaret Atwood’s iconic novel.

Set in the dystopian land of Gilead, a military dictatorship formed within the borders of what was formerly the U.S.A, the novel focuses on the journey of the handmaid Offred. Her tale is that of a select few women, the only human females left in Gilead who can bear children. Her body and services are farmed out to the ruling families, in the hopes of producing a new generation.

Offered as a forecast to what may be, The Handmaid’s Tale depicts a shocking reality not so out of tune with the issues that we are facing today.