According to the Telegraph UK, this is a great list of 50 fabulous holiday novels for reading this Summer break:
Wild Swans by Jung ChangThree generations of Chinese womanhood survive the reign of the warlords, Japanese occupation, the Kuomintang, the Cultural Revolution and, finally, a writer's exile. This century-spanning brick of a book is biography staged as novelism: related with unsparing candour, it's horrible, evocative, engrossing and still banned in China. TM
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward GibbonEdward Gibbon saw it as his task both to instruct and entertain his audience. He succeeds magnificently in this epic history of the Roman Empire. It's all here: the brutal conquests, the internecine rivalry, the mad emperors and, most controversially, an account of the spread of Christianity which led Samuel Johnson to label him an "infidel".
What most delights his readers, though, is Gibbon's prose style: light but strong, complex but clear, and always elegant. His witty footnotes are also worth a look. One cross-dressing emperor appointed his lovers to important positions: "A dancer was made praefect of the city, a charioteer praefect of the watch, a barber praefect of the provinces. The three ministers, with many inferior officers, were all recommended, enormitate memborum." SR
The Spanish Civil War by Hugh ThomasMassive, sweeping, heartbreaking, the story of the war that tore Spain apart, left a mark on the conscience of a generation, and gave the world the monster of banal cruelty that was General Franco. This is still the definitive account of the battle for the soul of Spain, written with unrelenting drive. DS
The Classical World by Robin Lane Fox
The essential companion for anyone travelling to the Mediterranean, a wondrously rich patchwork of classical history from the first Greeks to the rise of Julius Caesar, told with great insight and a refreshing sense of humour. Even if you don't fancy temples and ruins, it's still an enlightening treat. DS
The Great Game by Peter Hopkirk Even if its relevance today were not so obvious, this history of Anglo-Russian involvement in Afghanistan would still be a ripper. Into its colourful mix of history, geography, exploration and warfare, Peter Hopkirk adds superb insights into the lives of the young men who, for the sakes of their nations' imperial ambitions, trespassed in that bafflingly dangerous country. One for the boys, perhaps, but its lessons are timeless. TC
Diary of a Country Parson by James Woodforde
The boiled mutton and batter pudding that punctuate James Woodforde's story are among the details that give realism to the 40-year narrative of an 18th-century clergyman of steady appetites, humane interests and fundamental goodheartedness. It's as English as plumb (sic) pudding and green peas in season, and can be read in portions, making it perfect for consumption on train journeys. CSH
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García MárquezIt may not be the Latin American wizard's greatest book, but Márquez's account of a lifetime of desire, disappointment and delay is the easiest to love, and the best introduction to his shimmering style.
Florentino's long wooing of Fermina, her marriage and all the other relationships of a long life paint a convincing tale of love as an incurable disease. A surrealist soap opera with a happy ending.
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
The book that turned Sarah Waters into a superstar, this pacy and well-written piece of crime-'n'-crinoline Victorian grand guignol has it all: moustaches, dastardliness and lesbians. The plot twists like a greasy piglet, and is just as fun. SL
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger Audrey Niffenegger's first novel is a knockout, marrying a deliciously mushy love story to a ruthlessly worked-out science-fiction premise. What would it be like to be married to someone who randomly travelled through time, and kept showing up starkers in your garden when you were a kid? Odd, clever, funny and tear-jerking. SL
The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael ChabonA rollicking piece of spoof noir detective fiction set among the "frozen chosen" of a Jewish homeland in Alaska. Chabon has so much fun with his premise it's almost indecent - and he shares the fun with the reader. Yelp-makingly funny, sublimely well written, and as comforting as chicken-soup. SL
A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel
This perfect historical novel, given numerous bracing modern twists, is a classy character study of Danton, Robespierre and Desmoulins, the men behind the Terror of the French Revolution, and shows how fatal the combination of ego, ambition and misplaced idealism can be. As tumultuous, crowded and exciting as the storming of the Bastille, except it'll maybe take you a bit longer. TC
Possession: a Romance by AS Byatt
Byatt's Booker-winning potboiler (a term I use in praise) tells a double love-story: between two Victorian poets (a sort of nearly Browning and a sort of nearly Rossetti) and two modern-day academics who study them. One of the few books ever to make scholarship sound really exciting, it possesses the reader. SL
The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom WolfeOne night Sherman McCoy, a millionaire banker who thinks of himself as a "Master of the Universe", takes a wrong turn off a New York freeway and runs over a black teenager. This contact between the haves and the have-nots gives Wolfe licence to satirise the excesses of New York society, and he takes full advantage of it. It's witty, sprawling and ambitious, but read it lying down, with it propped on a cushion on your tummy, because it is nearly 800 pages long. TC
Birdsong by Sebastian FaulksBefore he was the Man Who Wrote The James Bond Book, Sebastian Faulks was The Man Who Wrote Birdsong. A deservedly huge bestseller, this is a great, absorbing, affecting Anglo-French love-and-bullets saga, fetchingly adorned with period hokum, whose most vivid scenes take place in and underneath the trenches of the First World War. If you're either of the people who didn't read it first time round, I commend it to you. SL
The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscale
Jonathan Whicher was one of Scotland Yard's first detectives, and the model for many fictional detectives that followed. His career foundered because society could not accept his conclusion in the case of the Road House murder, when a young boy was found down a cistern with his throat cut.
An acutely observed, pinpoint sharp depiction of Victorian England, this is also braced with a galloping plot and it would be best read while travelling on the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway. TC
Blood River by Tim Butcher
In 2007, 130 years after H M Stanley made his insanely dangerous trip down the river Congo, Butcher retraced his route downstream - on a motorbike and in a river boat - and found the Democratic Republic of Congo no less risky. Since colonialism collapsed, kleptocracy and competition for the country's natural resources have left it reeling. The insights are sobering; the adventure is tense, and you'll be glad you're reading it in Ibiza. TC
The Chronicles of Barchester by Anthony Trollope
You start with The Warden, then Barchester Towers then (my favourite) Dr Thorne, then the next three. And what a treat you have, if you like Austen, or Pym, or anyone who gives an account of petty relationships in a Deanery Close or other small community. Why did Freud bother? This is so much better, and truer. AMcK
An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain M PearsA splendid whodunnit set in the 17th century. If not as good a detective story as the heights of Dickson Carr and Sayers, it's not far off. If not quite as clever as The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco, not far off. A rollicking read, and, unlike anything by Dan Brown, if you're seen reading it, you won't be pegged as an obvious moron (though - spoiler alert - its solution is nearly as blasphemous). AMcK
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway"If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast." Or not so much a feast as a giant piss-up. But it is a beautifully evoked piss-up, and the atmosphere is wholly delightful as Hemingway recalls his younger days trying to make ends meet, knocking about with Joyce, Wyndham Lewis and Scott Fitzgerald in the cafés of Paris.
It is worth trying to retrace his journey south, matching him drink for drink (although better let someone else drive). Read it with no fewer than eight bottles of chilled Sancerre. TC
Homage to Catalonia by George OrwellGeorge Orwell was so honest that it is no surprise he gets shot in Homage to Catalonia. He learns to love the Spanish, or rather the Catalans, and therefore be exasperated by them, though just as obviously he fails to understand a motive in the Spanish Civil War even greater than different brands of Marxism, which is to say religion. But how compellingly his prose moves us on. CSH
The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence DurrellSet (for the first three volumes) between the wars, the ultimate romantic/coming of age/thriller/Gnostic fantasy novel. Overrated in the 1960s; underestimated now. Gripping, beautiful, irritating, intoxicating. It may change your life. Or you may hate it. AMcK
The Cazalet Chronicles by Elizabeth Jane HowardThe novels that make up The Cazalet Chronicles (The Light Years, Marking Time, Confusion and Casting Off) first appeared between 1988 and 1995: it's hard to see how fans stood the wait between volumes. The story of a family approaching, experiencing and surviving the Second World War unfolds at pace, with couplings, uncouplings, disappearances and reunions to hold the attention on the longest of holidays. AC
Riders by Jilly CooperJilly Cooper has never been more sure-footed than in this 1980s blockbuster, a triumphant blend of the themes that have always preoccupied her: class, horses and sex. The men are stallions, the women fillies, and when they are not competing at the Olympics, they are romping on the sofas in gold-stoned Cotswold rectories. Best read by the fire in a cottage as the afternoon rain lashes down outside. TC
Northern Lights by Philip PullmanThere's no shame for any adult in being seen reading this brilliant fantasy trilogy on the beach. Deeply pleasurable in the way C?S Lewis is - in its mythic range, its imaginative brio and its storytelling power - it has a real ability to make the reader think. Also, it has armoured polar bears beating seven bells out of each other. SL
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
Lata has three suitors: which one will she pick? As she considers her choice, Vikram Seth takes us on a tour of 1950s India in the fictional city of Bramphur - its family strife, its politics, its hopes.
Apparently Seth began this book (of 1,500 pages) with no idea how it would continue. Yet its structure is as orderly as India is chaotic. You never feel lost or that the author is labouring. Doctors ought to prescribe this book for depression. Its entertaining stories and warm voice make it a perfect companion for a holiday alone, in India or elsewhere. SR
King Solomon's Mines by H Rider HaggardEnglish hunter Allan Quartermain goes in search of the Biblical mines in the heart of darkest Africa. This classic adventure is today studied in universities for its dodgier aspects: the cruel King Twala who gets his head lopped off; the daring Englishman who must overcome Sheba's Breasts (a mountain range). But it's undeniably exciting, especially for boys of a certain age. SR
Perdido Street Station by China MiévilleWe haven't included Dune or The Lord of the Rings because if you wanted to read them, you would have done so already. Mieville's reinvention of science fiction and fantasy is genuinely scary, inventive, engrossing and beautiful. An essential classic for those who understand Mervyn Peake, have a strong stomach and a sense of humour. AMcK
The Secret History by Donna TarttIf all popular fiction were as well written as Donna Tartt's first novel, and if all literary fiction were as exciting, our beaches, dinner parties and libraries would be brighter and better places. A murder mystery-cum-campus novel, Tartt's charismatic, incestuous cabal of student classicists made Greats sound, well, great. SL
Kim by Rudyard KiplingI was glad I came to Rudyard Kipling's Kim as a grown-up, because its style is as fresh and clear as the air of its Indian mountains setting. The Tibetan magic in it appeals to children, the exotic spirituality to us workers and the dusty adventures of the Grand Trunk Road and the Great Game to anyone. CSH
The Cairo Trilogy by Naguib Mahfouz
The Egyptian master's three-volume, multi-generational family saga is something to sink deeply and gratefully into. Stately, plural, generous and humane, Mahfouz writes in the tradition of the great novelists of the 19th century. The Cairo Trilogy encompasses comedy and tragedy, the large movements of history and the tiniest domestic upset. It's really something. SL
Shogun by James Clavell
Perhaps the ultimate airport novel, this wholly involving blend of dense historical research and manly adventure posturing was based on the exploits of William Adams, a British navigator who reached Japan in the 17th century and was the first foreigner to be appointed samurai. A stalwart hero, scheming Jesuits, plenty of "pillowing" and swordfights and a large amount of period detail all clamour for the revival of that paperback cliché: unputdownable. TM
The Code of the Woosters by P G WodehouseJeeves, Bertie, Totleigh Towers, Sir Watkyn Bassett, Roderick Spode, Gussie Fink-Nottle, and, of course, the cow-creamer. If you've read it, you'll want to read it again. If you haven't, it's a must. The ultimate holiday indulgence: gloriously funny, blissfully frivolous, overflowing with the joys of summer. DS
The Driver's Seat by Muriel SparkLise, wearing ill-matching coloured clothes, travels to a European city looking for someone to kill her. She finds her murderer on the plane and, despite his best efforts, does not let him escape. At under 100 pages, this chilling novella has the atmosphere of a Greek Tragedy. SR
The Secret Agent by Joseph ConradJoseph Conrad was above all a virtuoso spinner of yarns. The Secret Agent is among his best, and takes place - which is nice, for readers prone to seasickness - on dry land, for once. Conrad's tale begins with a bang, and Verloc's pursuit thereafter of the sinister Professor is exciting, disturbing and absorbing. SL
The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul TherouxNo doubt things have changed since this was written in the 1970s, but Paul Theroux's train trip from London Victoria to Tokyo, via Pakistan, India and Vietnam, and then back again through Russia, is more about people than places. His glimpses of the societies he passes through are revealing and teeming with colour and life. TC
Excellent Women by Barbara PymIf you enjoyed Barbara Pym's Jane and Prudence on the wireless, you'll enjoy reading Excellent Women more. It is a travel book to the post-war London of terrible food, slender means and celibate love among the jumble sales. Its humour and language give the novel a strength of flavour to withstand any foreign sojourn. CSH
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre DumasDashing young sailor, unjustly denounced, imprisoned and left for dead, unearths a cache of medieval treasure, disguises himself as the mysterious and implacable count and sweeps to his revenge. One of Dumas's greatest tales, this is adventure in the classic mould, bursting with thrilling heroism, black villainy and a near-indecent number of vendettas and double-crosses. Nearly every payback thriller written since owes it a debt. TM
Tom Jones by Henry FieldingColeridge said that Tom Jones - along with Oedipus Tyrannus and The Alchemist - had one of the three most perfect plots ever planned. The foundling, brought up by a benign landowner in Somerset, grows up to have lusty and comic adventures through England. Notable scenes include Tom's rescue of a topless woman who insists on remaining topless once she sees him. SR
A Hero of Our Time by Mikhail LermontovMikhail Lermontov's seductive, restless, cynical anti-hero Pechorin is one of the most enduringly vivid archetypes of 19th-century literature. Thrill to his death-defying Caucasian exploits! Gasp in dismay as he seduces and casts aside beautiful women! Wince as he courts destruction out of sheer boredom! He'll be, like, whatever… A pioneering existentialist; an essential novella. SL
Waverley by Walter ScottA young Scottish officer is sent into the Highlands to help suppress the 1745 rebellion, but he is soon seduced not so much by the Jacobite cause as by the people and the scenery. Published in 1814, Scott's first novel is a sublime piece of propaganda for a Scotland that never existed but has none the less gone down as fact. Best read on the sleeper train home. TC
Byzantium: the Early Centuries; Byzantium: the Apogee; Byzantium: the Decline and Fall by John Julius Norwich
Narrative history at its epic best, with a thousand years of Byzantine tyrants, eunuchs and courtesans, from the emperor with the golden nose to the unfortunate ruler whose head ended up as a drinking goblet. Best read while sipping raki beside the Golden Horn – or shivering in a caravan in deepest Wales, dreaming of Byzantium. DS
A Bend in the River by VS Naipaul
This exquisitely written novel follows Salim, an East-African Indian, as he travels inland to a town at the end of the river. Alone in his shop, Salim grows bitter; but an affair with a beautiful married woman awakens his sensuality. Things begin to turn sour, though, as the Big Man who leads the country tightens his grip. SR
The Sicilian Vespers by Steven RuncimanIn March 1282, as the bells of Palermo were ringing for vespers, the people of Sicily burst into history, roaming through the streets and slaughtering the soldiers of their French rulers. And this gem is not just the story of their rebellion; it's a fabulous history of the Mediterranean in the age of Dante. DS
The Sheltering Sky by Paul Bowles
Anyone who's had an argument with their partner on holiday will be grimly entertained by Port and Kit's antics in North Africa. There is some portentous stuff about the desert and the sky - but the real fun starts when the wife is kidnapped by Arabs towards the end. SR
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe Set in the early 1900s among the Igbo of Nigeria, this classic novel describes the tragic downfall of Okonkwo, a fierce tribesman whose way of life collapses when the Europeans colonise his country. Though unsentimental about pre-colonial Africa, Achebe writes with great sympathy for his protagonist.
Reviews by Sam Leith, Toby Clements, Sameer Rahim, Andrew McKie, Dominic Sandbrook, Christopher Howse, Tim Martin and Alex Clark. Happy Reading!
I was browsing online just randomly at news.com.au and I came across this strange but interesting segment of news stories that are the perfect combination of Weird, True and Freaky with articles from 'World's oldest dog: a pub regular' to 'Stab victim didn't notice knife in neck'. As you can probably tell, it already seems quite light hearted and comical but very true! Here is the link so you can have a look at the stories for yourself:
Here is a quick list of the movies I am dying to watch...
Written by Jodi Picoult, author of the International bestseller, My Sister's Keeper, comes a new novel exposing aspects of love, soul mates and murder. Here is the blurb for your interest:
If you have an interest or will be studying the 19th Century in the near future, a site that may be of good reference to you would be Victoria Web. I used this site when I studied my Extension English core unit "Individual and Society" in the 19th century and it is extremely helpful contextually. It features an overview of the many events, significant values and individuals of the time which may be of some interest to you. This is the link: http://www.victorianweb.org/
According to the Telegraph UK, this is a great list of 50 fabulous holiday novels for reading this Summer break:
Examples of topics may include: 
There are obviously more of my favourites but I cannot remember them all from the top of my head so if you are interested in more blogs and random things, check out The Blogger Choice awards for a taste of all good things online. http://www.bloggerschoiceawards.com/