Book club: 5 summer reads and zero%* sips you won't want to put down

Like gin and tonic, like Cleopatra and Frankenstein. The first novel from breakthrough author Coco Mellors, Cleopatra and Frankenstein follows the lives of two star-crossed lovers, their friends and their impulsive New York marriage in a fun and relatable read, filled with interesting and funny characters. It shines a light on mental health, art, career aspirations and, importantly, how two very different people can fall in love. It’s very easy to read and a great one to pull you out of a reading slump. We’d wager that Reese Witherspoon will snap up the rights for a TV adaptation (if she hasn’t already), so get in before it gets Netflixed. 

Obviously, the intriguing interplay of characters that is Cleopatra and Frankenstein will need a beverage that also has two character elements that simultaneously clash and complement each other. Gordon’s 0% Gin and Tonic is that beverage. A perfect summer mix of juniper, citrus and refreshing tonic. Sip it over ice, with a good wedge of lime – easy drinking for an easy read.

Clementine Ford is a force of nature – taking hard-to-swallow truths and making them palatable for even her harshest critics. A popular Australian feminist icon, Clementine is renowned for her brutally honest opinions, which sometimes land her in hot water. Her newest novel, I Don’t, while somewhat tamer than her Twitter page, is an extension of that trademarked fierceness. “I want this book to end marriages. But more importantly, I want it to prevent marriages,” Clementine writes. See what we mean? There are a lot of absolutes in that statement. But her conviction, vigour and tight wit make this both a fun and complex read. 

Naturally, her book deserves a drink that is just as complex, just as interesting and perhaps just as polarising. Lyre's Non Alc Dry London Spirit is perfect. To be sipped (much like Clementine's book) either in a classic Negroni, Martini, with tonic or just or over ice, it's as you would expect from a London Dry gin – bright and fresh, just sans alcohol. Perfect for an afternoon of Clementine. We do to I Don’t and Lyre’s.

Is there anything more Australian than a Great Northern? Yes, his name is Richard Flanagan and he has a new book out. It’s called Question 7 and it’s been touted by The Guardian as his “finest work.” A Booker prize winner, Flanagan is famous for his Australian-edged stories that are part memoir, part fiction. Question 7 is no different – a truly moving book that blends history, auto-fiction and his own experience. Exploring complex and intriguing moments of history, starting from HG Wells and Rebecca West’s affair through 1930s nuclear physics and Flanagan’s father working in a POW camp in Japan pre- and post-Hiroshima bomb, to Flanagan’s own life in Tasmania. A chain reaction of events, daisy-chaining its way to the moment Flanagan finds himself trapped at the bottom of a river bed. It is a perfect piece of Australiana that’s both complex and relatable. 

For this tremendous book, you need something equally as Australian, but wonderfully uncomplicated – a nice little palate cleanser to help digest the big thoughts in Flanagan’s book. Great Northern Zero is just that. Crisp, clean, easy – it tastes just like the classic version, just without the alcohol.