Your summer reading guide. Sorted.

My absolute favourite thing about Christmas and New Year’s holidays is that I have more time to read.

Don’t get me wrong, I also enjoy eating approximately three times my body weight in food on Christmas Day (and then curling up with a book good before an afternoon nap), and lazing in the sun by the pool and/or beach (with a chick lit novel in hand), and traveling to visit far-flung friends and family (which provides me ample time to read on the plane).

But honestly, holiday reading time tops the list of the best things about summer.

And I take my summer reading list very, very seriously – even more so when it’s books that I will be recommending to other people. I’ve engaged in some pretty rigorous research (read: asking people on Twitter and in the office what to read) to put this list together.

So here it is… The Mamamia summer holiday reading list for 2013. Enjoy.

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton

This year New Zealand author Eleanor Catton became the youngest ever winner of the Man Booker Prize, with her 848-page tome The Luminaries. Set in 1866 in a small town in New Zealand’s South Island – during a gold rush on the west coast.

The novel in something of a ‘whodunit’, and follows a Scottish man named Walter Moody who finds himself embroiled in a murder mystery. The judges called the book, “Catton’s audacious take on an old form, the Victorian ‘sensation novel’.” From all reports it is an absolutely dazzling book, and one I cannot wait to sink my teeth into.

Dear Life by Alice Munro

82-year-old Alice Munro won the Nobel Prize for Literature this year, and I am ashamed to say that I have never read one of her short story collections in their entirety.

Her latest collection, Dear Life, is a series of 14 short stories that have been described as ‘novels-in-miniature’ – as each needs time to be savoured and appreciated. The stories are set in Munro’s hometown Ontario around the time of WWII, and deal with the social mores of the time.

I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai

Malala Yousafzai may not have won the Nobel Peace Prize this year, but she did release her memoir – not bad for a 16 year old. When Malala was 15, she was shot in the head at point-blank range by the Taiban while riding the bus home from school for speaking out about girls’ right to an education. Her miraculous recovery and continued commitment to the rights of women and girls has inspired the world, and seen her travel from Pakistan to the United Nations. Her memoir tells this remarkable story.

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

The Rosie Project is one of those books that absolutely everybody I talked to this year said I must read. A rom-com with the perfect blend of lightheartedness and real substance, the novel follows Don Tillman, a professor of genetics, who has never been on a second date.

To increase his chances of finding ‘the one’, he creates questionnaire to find the perfect partner. But then he meets Rosie – who may be everything he doesn’t want, but somehow is the only person he does.

Barracuda by Christos Tsiolkas 

From the author of the bestselling and controversial-conversation-inspiring The Slap, comes Barracuda: a novel that gives an unflinching look at modern Australia, and how we define success and what it means to be a good person.

Danny Kelly only wants one thing: to win Olympic gold in swimming. His parents strain to send him to an elite school, where Danny is bullied and is an outsider – but he puts these struggles to the side, and dedicates every moment to becoming the best. This is not an uplifting book – but its prose is fierce.

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt 

Being a fan of Donna Tartt is difficult, as she tends to go just about a DECADE between releasing new novels. But her latest, The Goldfinch, has just hit the shelves and by all reports it’s phenomenal. 13-year-old Theo Decker survives an accident that tears his life apart, before finding himself alone in New York and being drawn into the criminal underworld. Set in dusty, musty antique rooms and glittering house of the rich, The Goldfinch is an enthralling saga of power, suspense, and obsession – with the deepest mystery of all, love, thrown in for good measure.

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

Burial Rites by Australian author Hannah Kent is based on a true story, and tells the tale of Agnes Magnusdottir: a woman who in northern Iceland in 1829, was condemned to death for her role in the brutal murder of two men.

But as the story evolves, and the reader learns more about Agnes’ story of love ad longing begins to emerge, you will ask: did she or didn’t she? Burial Rites is a chilly and atmospheric novel, that tells a brutal story in a beautiful and believable way.

The Light Between Oceans by M L Stedman

Mamamia’s Natalia Hawk says this is the only book she has ever finished – and then started reading again straight away.

The winner of the of the 2013 ABIA Book of the Year, The Light Between Oceans is an Australian novel that follows the story of the young lighthouse keeper Tom Sherbourne and his wife Isabel.

In 1926, a boat carrying a baby and a dead man arrive on their shore – and they must decide what to do next.

Eyrie by Tim Winton

Tim Winton is one of Australia’s best-known and most-loved Australian authors, for his works of fiction that tell beautifully-written stories of very human people, often dealing with extraordinarily hard, real life circumstances. Eyrie follows protagonist Tom Keely, who is divorced and unemployed – and pretty much done with everything else. But chance encounters with two strangers bring the complication of human entanglements back into his life, and Winton tells his story with humour and heartbreak.

Mateship with Birds by Carrie Tiffany

Mateship with Birds won the inaugural Stella Prize this year, a major literary award celebrating women’s writing. Tiffany tells a story about the complex interactions and interrelations between people, using her two main characters to discuss human life – and the natural world. Mateship with Birds is a tender, funny and frank book about sex and desire, and explores the most classic plot of all – boy meets girl – in a bit more depth.

Have you read any of these books? What’s on your summer reading list? Do you have any other recommendations for this summer holiday reading 2013 list?