THE holiday is booked, the bikini looked out from the mothballs and the suitcase almost packed. All that leaves is the selection of that perfect beach read. And that's where things get interesting. It has always struck me that there's an intriguing psychology to the reading material people take on holiday. Watching someone break the spine of a new book on a plane, it's hard not to make a snap judgement on their personality: Memoirs Of A Geisha = shrewd; Return Of The Native = romantic; Eats, Shoots & Leaves = duller than Norman Lamont; War And Peace = needs a slap; Watership Down = collects stamps and lives with his mum; any of Katie Price's assorted biographies and novels = views acrylic extensions as the essence of their being.

Among the most peculiar sights I have encountered was on a flight to Australia in 2004 when everyone - and I mean everyone - was reading a copy of The Da Vinci Code. So ubiquitous was Dan Brown's unwieldy tome, you would have thought the flight attendants were giving it away with the hot towels. In one row there was a gnarled old man, blonde glamour puss and crusty hippy with flowing dreadlocks who were even turning their pages in near perfect unison. It was like watching a literary version of synchronised swimming.

Without fail you will spot someone on the beach with a dog-eared Mills and Boon or Harlequin romance, no doubt rooted out from the local church jumble sale, which they read, half hidden under a towel, as if contraband. Then there are your literary poseurs, who strut along with a copy of The Odyssey or Catcher In The Rye under their arm. It's all you can do not to wish they trip over their flip-flops or a passing sea bird Jackson Pollocks on their head.

As it happens, I'm the master of the guilty summer read. While most people are stocking up on sunscreen and the latest beach fashion trends, I'm browsing the shelves of a book shop. I have been known to meticulously weigh my suitcase on the bathroom scales to cram in as many books at possible.

The record was 17, but that hardly left any room for clothes. The sole bikini I had packed needed to be washed out in the bathroom sink every night, which was far from practical nor good fashion sense, not least because the uber-chic Russian girls at the resort were parading around the pool in an array of escalatingly glamorous swimwear each day, while my bottoms were always slightly damp in the bum.

Choosing the ideal book can be tricky, though. Make the right decision and it can make for hours of bliss, plump for the wrong one and it's a toss up between paying £10 for a crumpled copy of yesterday's newspaper or watching exuberant elderly German ladies do water aerobics in the pool to while away the hours. Thankfully I've done the hard work for you, ploughing through the best - and worst - of this summer's reads.

One of my favourites is the gloriously mesmerising The Storyteller by Rabih Alameddine (Picador, £7.99), which centres on the Beruit al-Kharrat family. With their father ill, a vigil takes place around his bedside and, far from solemn, as hours pass the family begin to weave a series of wonderfully vivid and spellbinding tales of adventure, bravery, passionate love affairs, far-flung lands, myths and magic: some real, some imagined.

Then there's The Blue Notebook by James A Levine (Weidenfeld & Nicholson, £12.99), published July 9, which tells the starkly compelling story of Batuk, a 15-year-old girl from rural India sold into sex slavery and the merciless world of Mumbai's red light district by her father. Perhaps most poignant, though, is the reality of how the book came about. The author, a professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, had been working with the UN, conducting research and interviewing children in the infamous "street of cages" in Mumbai, when he chanced upon a young woman scribbling away in a notebook.

Levine talked with her and was so haunted by what she told him - her battle against all odds to record her private thoughts each day - he felt compelled to share her story with the world. Bleak though it sounds, this novel - told in journal form through Batek's eyes - is strangely uplifting as the young woman finds beauty and optimism in the most surprising of places.

Another beautifully written book is I Do Not Come To You By Chance, the debut novel by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani (Weidenfeld & Nicholson, £12.99), which tells the story of Kingsley, a young Nigerian fresh out of university and searching for an engineering job to support his ailing father and save money to marry his girlfriend Ola. Yet with no jobs forthcoming - and Ola developing an alarming penchant for Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana - in desperation Kingsley turns to his uncle Boniface, aka Cash Daddy, the undisputed king of Nigerian 419 email scams. Kingsley finds himself drawn into a sinister world, struggling to reconcile his once robust moral belief system with a growing thirst for wealth. More than just a brilliant read, it also turns the whole idea of Nigerian 419 scams neatly on its head, using wit and warm humour to bring to life the stories of the email recipients themselves.

If you only read one book this summer, though, make it The Chapel At The End Of The World (John Murray, £14.99), the debut novel by Kirsten McKenzie, out on July 9. Inspired by the building of the Italian chapel on Lamb Holm, Orkney, it tells the story of childhood sweethearts Emilio and Rosa at the height of the second world war. Engaged to be married, fate intervenes when Emilio, one of more than 500 Italian soldiers captured by allied forces in North Africa, is brought to Orkney as a prisoner of war to labour on the Churchill Barriers. Increasingly frustrated with the slow passing of the days, he comes up with the idea to turn a Nissen hut into a chapel, he and his fellow prisoners salvaging whatever they can find to transform the building. Rosa, meanwhile, must endure the war at home near Lake Como, finding herself drawn into the complex loyalties of the Italian resistance moment. McKenzie portrays the contrasting landscapes of Orkney and Italy with a colourful and vivid accuracy as, across the miles, the young couple are left wondering if their love can survive the tumultuous separation. For those who crave a thriller fix, there's the enthralling Still Midnight by Denise Mina (Orion, £12.99), published on July 1. This latest novel from the doyenne of tartan noir delves into a baffling act of violence in an otherwise sleepy suburb of Glasgow. It seems, at first, a motiveless crime: a gang of masked gunmen burst into a family home and demand millions of pounds, before kidnapping the father and disappearing into the night. As the police investigation unfolds, however, the growing web of intrigue becomes ever more tangled, keeping you gripped.

If you haven't read it yet, don't miss out on The Scarecrow, the new thriller by Michael Connelly (Orion, £18.99), which resurrects Jack McEvoy, the unflinchingly tough LA Times crime reporter from his 1996 novel The Poet. With just 30 days left on the job, McEvoy is determined to go out in style with an explosive story that will bag him a coveted Pulitzer prize. Yet what appears a cut and dried case of a teenage murderer, soon derails as McEvoy discovers the troubled youngster's confession is bogus and he's onto a far more devious and disturbing killer, one working below the police and FBI radar.

Guaranteed page turners don't come better than Past Imperfect by Julian Fellowes (Phoenix paperback, £7.99), the author of Snobs. It's a charming tale about a charismatic and dashing millionaire, Damian Baxter, part of the last generation of the English aristocracy during The Season - a series of formal summer balls in which young ladies are presented to society - in the late 1960s. Fast forward to the present day and Baxter, once the target of every young lady, is alone, sterile (as a result of adult mumps) and stumped as to who he should bequeath his sizeable fortune to. Witty, intelligent and elegantly written, it follows Baxter as he goes in search of a child he thinks he fathered during that halycon summer.

For escapism with lashings of glitz and glamour, Wives v Girlfriends by Katie Agnew (Orion, £10.99) positively sparkles. Delving into the brassy, bold and brazen world of football's WAGs, the main protagonists - Lila, Maxine, Grace and Jasmine - rub shoulders with Russian millionaires, godfathers of crime and Hollywood royalty. Another must-read is Chasing Daisy (Pocket Books, £6.99), the third novel from rising chick-lit star Paige Toon, published on July 14. Set against the testosterone-charged and globe-hopping backdrop of Formula One racing, the story has Daisy Roberts, a feisty "bun tart" - the nickname for hospitality staff - trying to mend her broken heart, but finding herself inevitably falling for the wrong man. Packed with high octane antics, it features what is fast becoming a Toon trademark: a delicious twist that will keep you guessing to the end.

Other great reads are Rich Girl, Poor Girl by Lesley Lokko (Orion, 10.99), which ticks all the boxes: wealth, privilege, power, revenge, ambition and intrigue; and the fabulous How Not to Shop by Carmen Reid (Corgi, £6.99), the third book featuring fashion heroine and personal shopper Annie Valentine - a woman who was making makeovers hip long before Gok Wan came on the scene and who has now landed her own TV show, - published on August 13.

Others to stick in the beach bag include Platinum by Jo Rees (Corgi, £6.99); Marriage And Other Games by Veronica Henry (Orion, £10.99), published July 9; Unsticky by Sarra Manning (Headline Review, £6.99); and Passion by Louise Bagshawe (Headline Review, £8.99). The last, charting the whirlwind, cross-continental romance of star-crossed lovers whose secret marriage was annulled as teenagers, is out in paperback on August 20.

For something a bit more offbeat, Sunshine: Why We Love The Sun by Robert Mighall (John Murray, £8.99) and Elephants On Acid And Other Bizarre Experiments, Alex Boese's kooky look at history's most outlandish, provocative and downright ridiculous scientific endeavours (zombie kittens anyone?), will keep you smiling.

This next suggestion may be a bit left field, but if you're not the squeamish type then Holiday SOS: Sun, Sea and Surgery by Ben MacFarlane (Hodder & Stoughton, £12.99), published July 9, will have you engrossed with anecdotes from a year in the life of a real flying doctor and A&E heroics at 35,000ft. All you need now is to grab a towel and bag that sun lounger.

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Something for the boys

EWAN Morrison, below, author of Swung and Distance, returns with his third novel, Menage (Jonathan Cape, £12.99) on July 16. In 1993 squalor-residing, dole-scrounging, shoplifting, drug-taking, bedhopping trio Saul, Dot and Owen are turning life into art on the streets of Hoxton. Unsurprisingly, their excess-fuelled lives soon have explosive consequences and, 15 years on, they are all leading very different, separate lives. Dot is an acclaimed artist; Saul a homeless drug addict; and Owen, now an art critic, is burdened with the fallout of guilt over what happened during that intense and debauched year. A fast-paced, poignant tale about the arrogance of youth and insane, all-consuming love.

Too Close To Home by Linwood Barclay (Orion Paperback, £7.99), published July 23, is another compelling read. The author of the bestselling No Time For Goodbye - winner of Richard and Judy's Summer Read 2008 - doesn't flinch as he portrays grisly and gruesome deeds in suburbia. It's a sticky August evening when the entire Langley family is gunned down and murdered in their Promise Falls home. Given the apparently random nature of the crime, next door neighbours the Cutters try to convince themselves that lightning rarely strikes twice. Unless, that is, the Langleys were victims of mistaken identity - and the Cutters, with an increasingly rattling cupboard of skeletons, were the true targets.

Be sure to save space in your suitcase for Sunnyside by Glen David Gold (Sceptre, £17.99), the off-beat new novel from the author of Carter Beats The Devil. Packed with rich narrative and inspired, high-speed prose, Sunnyside cleverly weaves together a cast of characters as profound as it is glorious, including Charlie Chaplin, the son of the last (and worst) Wild West star, three Russian princesses, a child bride, myriad starstruck movie fans and a light-fingered girl scout (see review on page 14).

Another intriguing read is The Solitude Of Prime Numbers (Doubleday, £12.99), the debut novel by Paolo Giordano, which combines a stark coming-of-age story with the author's personal fascination with numbers, using fiction to explore how mathematics can be used to decode human relationships.

If that seems a little existential for poolside reading, try the gritty Where The Dead Lay by David Levien (Bantam Press, £12.99), published July 2, in which fiery, idiosyncratic former cop turned private investigator Frank Behr, who made his debut in City Of The Sun, returns to avenge the death of a close friend.

With this next one I have to declare an interest: I'm a huge David Nicholls fan. Fortunately, One Day (Hodder & Stoughton, £12.99), a delicious love story from the bestselling author of Starter For Ten, is perfect sunlounger fodder for anyone who enjoyed the heady flushes of their misspent twenties circa 1988-1996, followed by their even more dysfunctional thirties in the era 1996-2005. You don't need to be a sensitive, take-the-rubbish-out-without-being-asked kind of guy to enjoy it either.

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Author's picks: Lesley Lokko Right now I'm reading Rhyming Life And Death by Israeli author Amos Oz. It's about a writer who looks out across an audience and starts to make up fictional stories about them. I've been reading a lot of David Malouf too. He's an Australian author who writes about the Second World War in such a beautiful way. I'm quite picky in what I choose and tend not to go for the book club-type choices. Although I'm based in London, I also have a home in Ghana, but because you can't get books there - there isn't a single book shop - I have to stock up when I come to the UK.

The last book I read on holiday was The Cellist Of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway, which was fantastic, really beautiful. I read a lot of books on the go and the ones I like best are those which take me out of my everyday environment to other, very different places.

Rich Girl, Poor Girl by Lesley Lokko is published by Orion, priced £10.99

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Author's picks: Carmen Reid WHEN I'm on holiday I always like to read something that's relevant to the place I'm visiting. I once read Death In The Afternoon by Ernest Hemingway when I was in Spain, which was fantastic and appropriately fitting. And when my children and I went to Sweden, we got English translations of lots of Astrid Lingren stories.

This summer I'm going to New York, so I think I'm going to have another read of Candice Bushnell's One Fifth Avenue. I can't recommend it enough, it's a masterpiece. Another really good writer from New York is Gayle Forman, who has written If I Stay, which follows 12 hours in the life of a teenage girl in a coma as she decides whether to live or die. It's one of those books which you sit down and read all in one go.

My most disastrous summer read? Don't buy Moby Dick and try to read it on the beach. I remember reading pages one to three over and over again, thinking Hmmm, I'm not really making any progress here'. It's one of those books you need a lot of focus for. I'm sure it's fantastic, but I don't think it's one for the sun lounger.

As a family we often do a lot of driving to get to a destination, so we're always in search of something on the audio book front that is good for adults and children. Last summer we did Northern Lights by Philip Pullman, which was great because we were all boiling in the car and the story is so chilly, cold and arctic. The audio book of Just William is another crowd pleaser: you can't go wrong with Martin Jarvis.

How Not To Shop by Carmen Reid is published by Corgi, priced £6.99, on August 13

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Author's picks: Katie Agnew When I finished university, my best friend and I spent the summer backpacking in the Middle East. After four years of heavy reading for an English MA - we had done so much Shakespeare, Dickens and all the classics, we were all James Joyce'd out - we decided to take the entire Jilly Cooper and Jackie Collins back catalogue with us. We then spent the next three months travelling around the Middle East reading bonkbusters. I love trashy novels, which is why I write them.

What was my worst beach read? Well, I remember lying on a beach in Portugal in floods of tears reading Captain Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres. All around me were people on holiday, really happy, with lots of kids running around playing, and there's me sobbing away, breaking my heart. Brilliant book but definitely wrong place.

Until I've finished my new book, though, I'll be writing, not reading. I really want to read my friend Veronica Henry's book Marriage And Other Games, but if I read it while I'm writing I will only get jealous. So that's on the list for later this summer with, of course, the latest Jackie Collins.

At least once every two years I read The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald, which is my absolute favourite novel in the world. I love everything about it: the setting, characters, story, how it is put together. I can read it again and again and never tire of it. It's so glamorous and if, like me, you come from Bonnyrigg, you need a little bit of glamour in your life.

Wives v Girlfriends by Katie Agnew is published by Orion, priced £10.99