Holiday season is on the horizon, and what better time than the lazy holidays to get through our to be read piles. Here are the books the EWF team are reading this summer.

Ruby

As always, I’m after short stories, essays and works that play with genre. If all goes according to plan, I’ll be spending my (short) break with The Dangers of Smoking in Bed by Mariana Enríquez, Thick: And Other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom, Ill Feelings: Stories of Unexplained Illness by Alice Hattrick, Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency by Olivia Laing and a few others on my bookshelf. 

Aside from that, I’ve got a bunch of poetry I’m wanting to either finish or revisit: m//otherland by Asiel Adan Sanchez, Take Care by Eunice Andrada, How to Make A Basket by Jazz Money, Best of Australian Poems 2021 from Australian Poetry (edited by Ellen Van Neervan and Toby Fitch) and more.

Finally, I’d love to get my hands on a copy of Ruby Tandoh’s Cook As You Are: Recipes for Real Life, Hungry Cooks and Messy Kitchens to try and get back into cooking after a particularly bad chronic pain time (and heading into the ~festive season~).

Alice

The summer days are getting longer but my reading list is longer still. As soon as I can, I will be packing my holiday suitcase and diving headfirst into:

The First Time I Thought I Was Dying by Sarah Walker and We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby.

I’ll be escaping the summer heat with both How to Make A Basket by Jazz Money, and Dropbear by Evelyn Araluen (a re-read).

Finally, I’ll be welcoming the New Year alongside Ten Thousand Aftershocks by Michelle Tom and A Carnival of Snackery by David Sedaris.

Millie

I want to lie by the pool reading novels all summer. I’m currently reading the gorgeous Memorial by Bryan Washington, and just finished the short, sharp Assembly by Natasha Brown.

My plan for the coming hot days is to dive into some of the newer classics that I’ve still yet to read: Louise Erdich, Jean Rhys, Lydia Davis, Sherman Alexie.

For truer stories, I’m excited to read the latest Garner diaries, obviously, as well as Chelsea Watego’s Another Day in the Colony . My favourite pick from this year was Happy Endings by Bella Green – it’s so readable and funny, and I also highly recommend listening to the EWF Vignettes audio stories while you laze in the heat 😈.

Cat

I wish the books I’ve got on this list didn’t reek of ‘I’m doing some soul-searching after a break-up’, but unfortunately, here we are.

The last novel I read was Real Estate by Deborah Levy, and I’m currently making my way through The Lonely City by Olivia Laing. I’ve been sidestepping fiction ever since Jennifer Down’s Bodies of Light completely ruined me (in the best possible way), and have found myself nestling in with plenty of memoir and non-fiction.

This summer, I’m looking forward to a long road trip along the coast. I know solo travel isn’t for everyone, but I find it to be extremely soothing, comforting and liberating. I found a copy of Wild by Cheryl Strayed at the op shop and figured it would be a perfect accompaniment for my days of solitude.

And finally, because summer is long, and the book pile is high, I’ve got some Ursula Le Guin, Alice Pung, Alice Bishop and Drusilla Modjeska to dive into when I return home.