Goodreads asked Nico Lee:

What books are on your summer reading list this year?

Nico Lee An odd mix. John Collier's 'His Monkey Wife, Or, Married to a Chimp' as I really enjoyed getting to re-read his 'Fancies and Goodnights' recently. I'd leant the 'Fancies' book to a friend when at University. Never got it back. Then forgot about it. Every few years I'd think, 'What was that book and who was the author? You know, the one with the short story that they very, very, very loosely based the film Mannequin on..?' Then the wonders of the internet finally enabled it to be tracked down, even with me forgetting the author's name. So, anyway, I thought I'd try his monkey novel which for years I'd conflated with the film 'Max Mon Amour'- where Charlotte Rampling falls in love with a chimp. Next up, 'The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist'- which my, now Daily Mail reading, mother has been banging on at me to read for many years. I suspect I will not be dazzled by it's prose, but will end up blubbing because of it's subject matter. Followed by Joseph Heller's 'Something Happened', which I'm fairly convinced I must have read as a young teenager, but now, for the life of me, I cannot remember anything about. I think if I did I might not bother. Yet it's that vague suspicion I might be dissapointed that compels me to persist, somehow... and there is a 'Catch 22' in here somewhere, but I haven't quite teased it out of this mess. Oh and, kid you not, 'War and Peace', as I'm sick of just using it as a yardstick for length and actually want to find out what all the fuss is about, especially as I really enjoyed, if that's the right word, 'Resurrection'. Besides it's no use using it as a byword for very long if you've already read Proust.

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