Summer reading: Giller Prize winner Vincent Lam's top five book picks

Author Vincent Lam

Stray Bullets by Robert Rotenberg

The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan

The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds

The Golden Mean by Annabel Lyon

Silver by Andrew Motion

The Headmaster's Wager by Vincent Lam

Vincent Lam, whose debut novel, The Headmaster’s Wager, hit bookshelves this spring, took time out from his busy schedule as a writer and emergency room physician to share with Chatelaine his top picks for perfect summer reads.

1. Silver by Andrew Motion, $32.
This novel reawakens my childhood love of reading, and it is written with exceptional beauty and grace. After all, isn't an extension of the Treasure Island story the best possible way to start a summer?

2. The Golden Mean by Annabel Lyon, $33.
Be transported to the tender, cruel coming of age of Alexander the Great. I read this in the dry heat of a Cypriot summer, near Roman ruins, but you should read it anywhere.

3. The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds, $20.
It is poetry in a novel — about a poet. Wander in an English forest with John Clare.

4. The Day The Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan, $23.
If you are visiting Southern Ontario for the first time, or have visitors coming, you will end up at Niagara Falls. Bring this lyrical book with you to give your Falls a new life.

5. Stray Bullets by Robert Rotenberg, $20.
In this sticky heat of summer, you can seek relief in this cool, slick murder mystery. A winter shooting, bullets found in the snow, and someone gets a cold come-uppance.