Desert Island Reads

This week sees the start of Books are My Bag week in which books and bookshops are celebrated in style. Guest authors, book giveaways and book chat and that’s just on the booktrail! Head over to @booksaremybag and it’s a true festival of everything we love about bookshops – their importance to the community and the fact that you can lose yourself in one for hours and discover a new place to travel to every time you pick up a book.

We’re taking part this week in the #desertislandreads campaign to share books you would take on a desert island – but being the booktrail we’ve added books set on an island. There are so many great ones out there and we would love to find out yours. So here’s the first two –

Books to read on an island

Time to relax and unwind with your toes in the sand and the wind in your hair on a tropical island somewhere. Like somewhere near Sri Lanka perhaps?

Set in Sri Lanka – The Tea Planter’s Wife by Dinah Jefferies

19 year old Gwendolyn Hooper is newly married and soon follows her husband to his tea plantation in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). However life there in this hot and humid country is not at all what she expected  – her husband seems like a completely different man, the neighbours are strange and the plantation workers are resentful.There is tension in the air as well as the sound of birds and the whistling of the wind.

Gwen finds herself alone and so soon starts to explore. What she finds are clues to the past – her husbands past and just what is that overgrown gravestone in the grounds?

You will want to be on a desert island when you read this book! Dinah Jefferies really knows how to transport a reader to the places she writes about. It’s visually stunning and immerses you with every one of your senses. Lush!

Books set on an island

Now if you really want to read on location and read about a real life island survival story then this is recommended since survival is the theme and strength the overall emotion…

Set in The South Atlantic  – How to be Brave by Louise Beech

People linked by the power of a story. Natalie has to do what she can to help her young daughter Rose come to  terms with her illness so she starts by sharing the story of Natalie’s grandfather Colin.  He was once adrift on a lifeboat in the middle of an ocean and had to fight for survival. This is the story of bravery in ever sense of the word.

Take tissues with you when  you read this as despite being transported to an island, you will feel the challenges and the fight to survival as well as the heartbreaking emotional tug of the book. Despite the water all around you, you will create a sea with your own tears!

Our competition on Facebook is now closed. Thank you very much to all who entered!