Our staff share the books they’re planning to read over summer.

I’m going on a crime binge. My next book club book is I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes, a daunting 912 page (hence the summer read) crime thriller which has received a lot of media attention and positive reviews. But I’ve also lined up an award winner (the CWA Gold Dagger 2015) by Australian author Michael Robotham called Life Or Death, which is billed as a fast paced thriller set in Texas about a man who escapes from prison one day before he’s due to be released. This is mainly because Fiona Hardy, our resident queen of crime, has been so enthusiastic about it. – Jan Lockwood, human resources manager

For the beach, I’m pleased to have an early copy of Fiona McFarlane’s short-story collection to peruse, and for late in the night – with the blinds are down and the fans are going – I will be tucking into Illuminae. And when the house is very still and I have some time to myself: The Diver’s Clothes Lie Empty. – Chris Gordon, event manager

At just over 700 pages, Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life is definitely my pick for an all-in summer read – I’m looking forward to something dark and immersive and intelligent, that lives up to the rave reviews. In between, I’m also going to be reading Fiona Wright’s essays on hunger, Small Acts of Disappearance, which I’ve been loving so far. Wright has an incredible voice – beautiful and precise - and this is one the best Australian collections of the year. – Jess Au, bookseller at St Kilda

This summer I feel slightly overwhelmed by enthusiastic recommendations (an enviable position to be in, I know). I’m keen to finally pick up My Brilliant Friend, the first in Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan series, plus a stack of highly recommended 2015 releases that I haven’t gotten around to yet: Fever of Animals by Miles Allison, The Other Side of the World by Stephanie Bishop, Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff, Hope Farm by Peggy Frew and The Diver’s Clothes Lie Empty by Vendela Vida. I’ve also recently discovered how much I love reading thrillers, so The Girl on the Train and Sharp Objects are also on my list. And so is Lucia Berlin’s short story collection, A Manual for Cleaning Women, which has appeared on numerous ‘Best Books of 2015’ lists and comes with an introduction by Lydia Davis. – Stella Charls, marketing and events coordinator

Eona, the sequel to Eon! Also, I bought myself a copy of The Complete Annotated H P Lovecraft to go with an Arkham Horror board game I got earlier this year. I am finally going to get round to reading it. I should know exactly how he came about before my friends and I battle Cthulhu with some dice! – Dani Solomon, children’s specialist at Carlton

Over summer I’ll be trying to wade through the daunting to-read pile I’ve amassed throughout the year. A few I’m particularly excited about include Tom McCarthy’s Satin Island, Jenny Offill’s Dept of Speculation and Max Porter’s Grief is the Thing with Feathers. I’ll also be spending a bit of time on a plane, and want something gripping to take my mind off the flight, so I’ve set aside Kenneth Cook’s Wake In Fright especially for this purpose. – Alan Vaarwerk, editorial assistant for Readings Monthly

I’m spending Christmas in Tasmania this year and am expecting some colder weather than normal (I usually head north to visit my family in Queensland for the holiday). As a hot weather enthusiast, I’m a little saddened by this forecast but the silver lining in the cloud is that it’ll be the right climate for snuggling under a doona with a book. I’m planning to read all the books currently available in The Austen Project, a series which sees popular contemporary authors put their own spin on Austen’s works. So far, crime writer Val McDermid has re-imagined Northanger Abbey, Joanna Trollope Sense and Sensibility, and Alexander McCall Smith Emma. (I’m also very intrigued to see what Curtis Sittenfeld does next year with her modern retelling of Pride and Prejudice.) – Bronte Coates, digital content coordinator

First up in my summer reading pile is Isobelle Carmody’s The Red Queen, which I have been saving to read on Boxing Day, when I will be staying in my childhood home, lying in the very bedroom I was in when I first began reading the Obernewtyn chronicles as a 12-year-old many years ago. It will be a very symbolic, nostalgic reading experience, I imagine.

Next on my list is The First Bad Man by Miranda July. Miranda is coming to Melbourne early next year, and this information, plus my colleague Stella’s recent blog post about the book, has inspired me. It sounds like one of those novels I’m sure I will love but never quite got around to reading this year, and summer is the perfect time to remedy this situation. I also like to read a good juicy page-turner when I’m on holidays, and I’m thinking something like Luckiest Girl Alive could be just what I’m looking for.

Finally, I’m planning to try and get my hands on advance copies of two Australian YA books that I am excited about: My Sister Rosa by Justine Larbalestier and Summer Skin by Kirsty Eager. These two authors just so happen to be having a joint book launch in our Carlton shop early next year, so it seems appropriate to read the books back-to-back. – Nina Kenwood, marketing manager

This will be the summer of righting reading wrongs for me. I have a tower of unfinished books at home that is threatening to topple under its own weight, so it’s time to start chipping away at the stack. First up will be the books I’ve borrowed from people and shamefully held onto for far too long – Tanith Lee’s Piratica (borrowed a month ago), David Deutsch’s Fabric of Reality (borrowed six months ago), Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy (borrowed over a year ago), and Larry McMurtry’s Streets of Laredo (borrowed so long ago I can’t even remember when I borrowed it). If I don’t finish these over the summer and return them, the tower of books may crush me before the guilt does. – Holly Harper, children’s specialist at Carlton