Muddy Stilettos


<p>A summer holiday read has to be entirely absorbing, not <em>too</em> 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.</p>



<div class="wp-block-muddy-blocks-giftguide gift"><div class="gift-img"><img decoding="async" class="card__image" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/SUMMER-HOLIDAY-READS-2024-002.jpg" alt="" aria-hidden="true" /></div><div class="gift-text"><div class="gift-price"><h2 class="giftguide-title">Why Mummy Drinks On Holiday by Gill Sims</h2><div class="giftguide-body"><p>No1 bestselling author and blogger Gill Sims returns with the latest instalment in her utterly hilarious &#8216;<em>Why Mummy</em>&#8216; 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, <em>Why Mummy Drinks on Holiday</em> will have you glued to your sun-lounger (chilled rosé optional). </p><p>£16.14</p><p><a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/why-mummy-drinks-on-holiday-gill-sims/7629156?ean=9780008591984" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BUY NOW</a></p></div></div></div></div>



<div class="wp-block-muddy-blocks-giftguide gift"><div class="gift-img"><img decoding="async" class="card__image" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/SUMMER-HOLIDAY-READS-2024-003.jpg" alt="" aria-hidden="true" /></div><div class="gift-text"><div class="gift-price"><h2 class="giftguide-title">The God of the Woods by Liz Moore</h2><div class="giftguide-body"><p>This gripping literary thriller is the hotly anticipated follow-up to Moore&#8217;s acclaimed bestseller <em>Long Bright River</em>. Following the lives of the wealthy Van Laars family, it&#8217;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&#8217;s beautifully written prose and intricate plot you won&#8217;t be able to drag yourself up from your prone position. Released in hardback on 2 July.</p><p>£16.14</p><p><a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-god-of-the-woods-liz-moore/7531258?ean=9780008663797" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BUY NOW</a></p></div></div></div></div>



<div class="wp-block-muddy-blocks-giftguide gift"><div class="gift-img"><img decoding="async" class="card__image" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/SUMMER-HOLIDAY-READ-2024-004.png" alt="" aria-hidden="true" /></div><div class="gift-text"><div class="gift-price"><h2 class="giftguide-title">Enlightenment by Sarah Perry</h2><div class="giftguide-body"><p>If you&#8217;re reaching for something to keep your attention that&#8217;s just a little bit of a challenge, Sarah Perry&#8217;s latest offering won&#8217;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, <em>Enlightenment</em> 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&#8217;s cosmic, it&#8217;s gothic, it&#8217;s full of longing and desire and, true to form, Perry&#8217;s prose is suitably sublime. </p><p>£19</p><p><a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/enlightenment-hugely-talented-sarah-waters-sarah-perry/7598935?ean=9781787334991" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BUY NOW</a></p></div></div></div></div>



<div class="wp-block-muddy-blocks-giftguide gift"><div class="gift-img"><img decoding="async" class="card__image" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/SUMMER-HOLIDAY-READ-2024-006.jpeg" alt="" aria-hidden="true" /></div><div class="gift-text"><div class="gift-price"><h2 class="giftguide-title">MILF: Motherhood, Identity, Love and F*ckery by Paloma Faith</h2><div class="giftguide-body"><p>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&#8217;t stop us from asking for or expecting it. <em>MILF </em>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&#8217;s own experiences. Think Germaine Greer with a wicked sense of humour and amazing shoes.</p><p>£20.90</p><p><a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/motherhood-identity-love-and-f-ckery-paloma-faith/7599013?ean=9781529937640" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BUY NOW</a></p></div></div></div></div>



<div class="wp-block-muddy-blocks-giftguide gift"><div class="gift-img"><img decoding="async" class="card__image" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/SUMMER-HOLIDAY-READS-2024-007.jpg" alt="" aria-hidden="true" /></div><div class="gift-text"><div class="gift-price"><h2 class="giftguide-title">Rebel Girl by Kathleen Hanna</h2><div class="giftguide-body"><p>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&#8217;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&#8217; Ad-Rock and her debilitating health struggles. There&#8217;s plenty of darkness and a lot of joy in this incisive and unbridled memoir about rebellion and survival.</p><p>£19</p><p><a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/rebel-girl-kathleen-hanna/7565389?ean=9780008365349" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BUY NOW</a></p></div></div></div></div>



<div class="wp-block-muddy-blocks-giftguide gift"><div class="gift-img"><img decoding="async" class="card__image" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/SUMMER-HOLIDAY-READS-2024-008.jpeg" alt="" aria-hidden="true" /></div><div class="gift-text"><div class="gift-price"><h2 class="giftguide-title">You Are Here by David Nicholls</h2><div class="giftguide-body"><p>If you want complicated characters to fall in love with and who&#8217;ll linger in your thoughts long after you&#8217;ve turned the last page, David Nicholls is surely the number one guy? <em>One Day</em>&#8216;s Dex and Emma almost killed us, but we can&#8217;t help coming back for more with Michael and Marnie, the will-they-won&#8217;t they couple in <em>You Are Here</em>, 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.</p><p>£19</p><p><a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/you-are-here-nicholls-david-9781444715446/2754344?ean=9781444715446" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BUY NOW</a></p></div></div></div></div>



<div class="wp-block-muddy-blocks-giftguide gift"><div class="gift-img"><img decoding="async" class="card__image" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/SUMMER-HOLIDAY-READS-2024-009.jpg" alt="" aria-hidden="true" /></div><div class="gift-text"><div class="gift-price"><h2 class="giftguide-title">The Giant on the Skyline by Clover Stroud</h2><div class="giftguide-body"><p>In what is Stroud&#8217;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&#8217;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&#8217;re forced to leave it behind. </p><p>£18.04</p><p><a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-giant-on-the-skyline-on-home-belonging-and-learning-to-let-go-clover-stroud/7598759?ean=9780857529152" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BUY NOW</a></p></div></div></div></div>



<div class="wp-block-muddy-blocks-giftguide gift"><div class="gift-img"><img decoding="async" class="card__image" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/SUMMER-HOLIDAY-READS-2024-010.jpg" alt="" aria-hidden="true" /></div><div class="gift-text"><div class="gift-price"><h2 class="giftguide-title">Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors</h2><div class="giftguide-body"><p>Focusing on the claustrophobic intensity of sisterhood and the desolation of grief, <em>Blue Sisters</em> is Mellors&#8217; follow-up to the wildly successful debut, <em>Cleopatra and Frankenstein</em>. 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.</p><p>£16.14</p><p><a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/blue-sisters-coco-mellors/7413038?ean=9780008622992" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BUY NOW</a></p></div></div></div></div>



<div class="wp-block-muddy-blocks-giftguide gift"><div class="gift-img"><img decoding="async" class="card__image" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/SUMMER-HOLIDAY-READS-2024-011.jpeg" alt="" aria-hidden="true" /></div><div class="gift-text"><div class="gift-price"><h2 class="giftguide-title">Sandwich by Catherine Newman</h2><div class="giftguide-body"><p>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 <em>We All Want Impossible Things</em> and now cemented with the release of <em>Sandwich</em>, in which the protagonist Rachel (aka Rocky), finds her picture perfect summer on Cape Cod humorously disrupted by family mishaps and menopausal crises. Solidarity. </p><p>£16.14</p><p><a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/sandwich-from-the-much-loved-author-of-we-all-want-impossible-things-catherine-newman/7598743?ean=9780857529923" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BUY NOW</a></p></div></div></div></div>



<div class="wp-block-muddy-blocks-giftguide gift"><div class="gift-img"><img decoding="async" class="card__image" src="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/SUMMER-HOLIDAY-READS-2024-012.jpeg" alt="" aria-hidden="true" /></div><div class="gift-text"><div class="gift-price"><h2 class="giftguide-title">Small Worlds by Caleb Azumah Nelson</h2><div class="giftguide-body"><p>Winner of the 2024 Dylan Thomas Prize, Caleb Azumah Nelson&#8217;s poetic follow-up to 2021&#8217;s multi-award-winning debut <em>Open Water</em> is a compelling and tender twist on the coming of age drama. It&#8217;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&#8217;s richly visceral thrum. </p><p>£9.49</p><p><a href="https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/small-worlds-from-the-bestselling-author-of-open-water-caleb-azumah-nelson/7120278?ean=9780241996041" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">BUY NOW</a></p></div></div></div></div>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-win-your-holiday-read-s"><strong>WIN YOUR HOLIDAY READ</strong>S</h2>



<p>Psst! Fancy winning a bundle of books? Head to our <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8bocaRs1c0/?igsh=YzJ2ZDdvbGZ4Nzk5">Insta</a> for a chance to win <em>Why Mummy Drinks On Holiday</em>, plus 5 more from the series.</p>


Sun lounger lit! This summer’s hottest holiday reads

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