ELLE's summer reading list

We, however, are taking the longer daylight hours and slower pace of the season as chances to delve into some much-anticipated books.

Here are the pages into which the ELLE team is escaping, one outdoor reading session at a time...

• Jenny Dickinson, Acting Editor

• ‘Everyone should read When God Was a Rabbit. I read it in four hours straight a few weeks ago. The story of a sister and her brother, told against the backdrop of world events, it’s one I’ll go back to again and again.’

• Alice Wignall, Features Director

• ‘I’ve just finished the must-read of the summer, How To Be A Woman by Caitlin Moran. Witty, fearless and true, it’s both a call-to-arms and an, at times surprisingly moving, account of growing up female and what it means to be a woman in 2011.’

• Carrie Gorman, Online Editor

• ‘I haven’t had a holiday yet so The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna has not been given the lounger time it needs. It’s been slow-going and I almost lost interest entirely but at around page 150 I broke through to find a rich and romantic tale from war-torn Sierra Leone that deserves a couple of days’ full attention on a sun-bed.’

• Emma Smith, Beauty Director

• ‘I’m reading Woody Allen’s The Complete Prose. I love his turn of phrase and the fact that I wear a mildly amused look on my face while reading it, always. I’m also dipping in and out of Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer—as a result, I’ve given up meat and feel I’m having an adolescent moment.’

• Emma Sells, Online Fashion Features Director

• ‘I’ve been struggling to get into most of the books I pick up of late so I decided to revisit a well-thumbed favourite: Pride and Prejudice. There’s something very co