It’s that time of year again, hence we asked a number of the Herald’s friends and contributors to share with readers those books, whether old and new, from all kind of genres, which they’re planning to catch up on over the next couple of months, sitting on poolside sun loungers, in jasmine-scented piazzas and breeze-cooled loggias – or while simply enjoying some well-earned recreation at home.

Books matter. Pope Francis recently wrote a comprehensive and deeply personal letter on the important role of literature in the formation of priests. The letter underscores the “value of reading novels and poems as part of one’s path to personal maturity”, and also as a means to counter the toxicity, superficiality and violence that dominates so much of the news cycle nowadays.