Before Adam Begley’s biography of John Updike, could Updike fans have imagined how many mid-year best-of reading lists there are?

Yet another one emerges—this time from The Guardian, offering a round-up of writers and staffers with their picks for summer holiday reading. And Mark Lawson, a Guardian columnist and theater critic, selected Updike as one of his best books.

“Two long-awaited lives that I couldn’t wait until summer to read were Updike by Adam Begley (Harper) – which gives equal weight to my favourite novelist’s life and books and the often eye-watering overlaps between them – and Roy Jenkins: A Well-Rounded Life by John Campbell (Jonathan Cape), which achieves an equally impressive balance between policies and peccadillos. Two works that I will read in the summer months are: John Carey’s memoir The Unexpected Professor: An Oxford Life in Books (Faber) and Philip Hensher’s novel The Emperor Waltz, which, from flicking, seems to continue his bold experiments with form.”

“Best holiday reads 2014 – top authors recommend their favourites”