Sun lounger lit! This summer’s hottest holiday reads
Towel on sun lounger, SPF liberally applied, daiquiri in hand, but what are you reading this year on your summer hols? Here’s our pick of 2024’s hottest new releases.
A summer holiday read has to be entirely absorbing, not too challenging and allow a deep dive into a world of pure escapism. Here are 10 page-turning picks, from laugh-out-loud funny to celeb tell-alls and epic tear-jerkers.
WHY MUMMY DRINKS ON HOLIDAY BY GILL SIMS
No1 bestselling author and blogger Gill Sims returns with the latest instalment in her utterly hilarious ‘Why Mummy‘ series, in which rosé enthusiast Ellen juggles the vagaries of life, work, friendships and motherhood in delightfully chaotic style with the stalwart support of ride or die bestie Hannah in sun-kissed bliss. Until Hannah goes awol and Ellen struggles to keep her picture perfect family holiday on track. Bringing all the entirely relatable LOLs, Why Mummy Drinks on Holiday will have you glued to your sun-lounger (chilled rosé optional).
£16.14
THE GOD OF THE WOODS BY LIZ MOORE
This gripping literary thriller is the hotly anticipated follow-up to Moore’s acclaimed bestseller Long Bright River. Following the lives of the wealthy Van Laars family, it’s a brutal examination of the impact of addiction and secrecy on family and community, with a dual-timeline that gradually unfolds to tell the story of two siblings who go missing a decade apart. Not all trumpets and sunflowers, but with Moore’s beautifully written prose and intricate plot you won’t be able to drag yourself up from your prone position. Released in hardback on 2 July.
£16.14
ENLIGHTENMENT BY SARAH PERRY
If you’re reaching for something to keep your attention that’s just a little bit of a challenge, Sarah Perry’s latest offering won’t leave you disappointed, with her trademark themes of folkloric mystery, the entanglement of myth and fact and an ever-present sense of foreboding. Set in 1997, Enlightenment follows the lives of Thomas and Grace, two members of the same Baptist church in a small Essex town, and the anticipated arrival of the Hale-Bopp comet. It’s cosmic, it’s gothic, it’s full of longing and desire and, true to form, Perry’s prose is suitably sublime.
£19
MILF: MOTHERHOOD, IDENTITY, LOVE AND F*CKERY BY PALOMA FAITH
Can women really Have It All? Asks pop powerhouse Paloma Faith in this no-holds-barred book about female empowerment. Probably not all at once, is the answer, but that shouldn’t stop us from asking for or expecting it. MILF explores everything from puberty, sex, bodily fluids, IVF, piles and post-partum psychosis to the patriarchy and the invisible load that so many women carry with plenty of raw insight into Faith’s own experiences. Think Germaine Greer with a wicked sense of humour and amazing shoes.
£20.90
REBEL GIRL BY KATHLEEN HANNA
Riot Grrrl icon and frontwoman of Bikini Kill, Le Tigre and The Julie Ruin, Kathleen Hanna has given a lot of listening pleasure over the decades, but now she’s put pen to paper to spill the beans on the grunge years, with some pretty raw tales from a tumultuous and fiercely creative life, from her defiant feminism and friendships to her enduring love affair and family life with The Beastie Boys’ Ad-Rock and her debilitating health struggles. There’s plenty of darkness and a lot of joy in this incisive and unbridled memoir about rebellion and survival.
£19
YOU ARE HERE BY DAVID NICHOLLS
If you want complicated characters to fall in love with and who’ll linger in your thoughts long after you’ve turned the last page, David Nicholls is surely the number one guy? One Day‘s Dex and Emma almost killed us, but we can’t help coming back for more with Michael and Marnie, the will-they-won’t they couple in You Are Here, both recently separated from their respective partners and embarking on a guided group walk in the English countryside. Brace yourself for love, loss, joy, heartache and all the feels.
£19
THE GIANT ON THE SKYLINE BY CLOVER STROUD
In what is Stroud’s fourth book of memoir, she offers her reader a poetic, rich and often brutally honest chronicle of her experiences of family, motherhood, relationships, loss, belonging and the ways our lives are indelibly inscribed onto the landscapes we inhabit. There’s a sense of magic and deep-rooted ancestral connections in this heartfelt and refreshing meditation on the meaning of home and what happens when you’re forced to leave it behind.
£18.04
BLUE SISTERS BY COCO MELLORS
Focusing on the claustrophobic intensity of sisterhood and the desolation of grief, Blue Sisters is Mellors’ follow-up to the wildly successful debut, Cleopatra and Frankenstein. Here, the narrative oscillates between the perspectives of three sisters in their 20s and 30s, each coping with the death of a fourth sister in their own dramatic and dysfunctional ways, now drawn back together to try and stop the sale of their childhood home and learning to reconnect with one another in the midst of their grief.
£16.14
SANDWICH BY CATHERINE NEWMAN
Looking for a female protagonist over the age of 50? Yes please! Step up journalist and memoirist Catherine Newman, who has seamlessly made the shift to novel writing, first with her bestselling debut We All Want Impossible Things and now cemented with the release of Sandwich, in which the protagonist Rachel (aka Rocky), finds her picture perfect summer on Cape Cod humorously disrupted by family mishaps and menopausal crises. Solidarity.
£16.14
SMALL WORLDS BY CALEB AZUMAH NELSON
Winner of the 2024 Dylan Thomas Prize, Caleb Azumah Nelson’s poetic follow-up to 2021’s multi-award-winning debut Open Water is a compelling and tender twist on the coming of age drama. It’s set across three summers, during which teenage Stephen, living in south London and the child of Ghanian immigrant parents, begins to learn about himself and about love against the beautifully painted backdrop of Peckham’s richly visceral thrum.
£9.49
