We Know What We Read This Summer

Once upon a time, the Fever team (and the rest of the world) went into lockdown and weren’t allowed to leave their houses until the evil Covid spell had been broken. Clearly we’re still waiting for a complete vanquish.

With so much leisure time to enjoy and only so many Zoom quizzes a person can do before you actually forget you don’t have to click a link to interact with humans, Fever turned to their beloved books, finding solace and comfort in the pages of Austen, Picoult and Stephen King. That’s right, we took time out of our busy and important PR lives and went back to books. Not during work hours obviously.

Now that we’re allowed out of our castles (ahem), we wanted to share the amazing reads we have been enjoying throughout these summer months.

Happy reading!

Ms. Molly Bergara – Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Annie Hawes

Who needs an aeroplane when you have an imagination? A flight to Italy may not have been on the cards this summer, but this book made me feel as though I was genuinely sitting on a veranda in Naples, sipping on an Aperol Spritz and enjoying the baking hot sunshine, when in fact I was sitting in a cloudy garden in Costa Del Orpington.

Ms. Amelia Salmon – Small Great Things, Jodi Picoult

Lockdown was the perfect opportunity to get on top of an ever increasing list of great books that I’m ‘always too busy to read’. My favourite was an incredibly moving, informative and eye opening book called Small Great Things, which unveiled the treatment of a black midwife after the death of a white supremacist’s baby in her care. It offered space for reflection, consideration and awareness, something which in these times is something everyone should be practising! It doesn’t take much to pick up a book to educate yourself and I really believe that this should be on everyone’s reading list.

Mr. Joe Coupe – Revival, Stephen King

I’m a sucker for the  supernatural (Halloween is pretty much my second birthday), so naturally Stephen King is one of my all-time favourite authors. Revival has everything you want in a horror book. From unhinged religious fanatics to Lovecraftian monsters, it’s unmissable if you’re a spooky stan like me.

Ms. Kat Hoffman – Ella Minnow Pea, Mark Dunn

Have you ever tried to write an email without the letter a? Or e? Well, how about using only five out of the alphabet’s 26 letters? Ella Minnow Pea is written as a lipogrammatic letter by the people of Nollop.

It’s a witty, funny and absurd tale about the freedom of expression with its use of language being both fascinating and utterly confusing, if not downright frustrating at times. The further the story goes on, the more it feels like cracking a code rather than just reading it, which makes for quite an interesting challenge.

Ms. Yla O’Riordan – How to Get Over a Boy, Chidera Eggerue

I was given this book as a joke, but luckily for me, this isn’t the sort of book you should judge by its cover. Eggerue has lived an incredibly interesting life, and started the #SaggyBoobsMatter movement in 2017. She’s more famous for her first book, ‘What a Time to be Alone’, which is also the sort of book I might be given as a joke. Both books cover topics such as body positivity, learning to stand up for yourself, and dealing with toxic people in your life (not exclusively boys). If you’re not a big reader (ew) check out her TED Talk for the ultimate pep talk.

Ms. Claudia Hockey – Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea but personally I LOVE Pride and Prejudice. When someone baked a life-sized cake shaped like Colin Firth’s Mr Darcy last week, some people may rolled their eyes (not us!), but I just have to respect the hustle honestly. George Knightley is the MVP as far as Jane Austen heroes go, but nothing beats the classic enemies to lovers tale that you get in Pride and Prejudice. You can all fight me on it.