Bucks &amp; Oxon

Prepping for a holiday isn&#8217;t top of my list of fun tasks &#8211; another 8 page to-do list? Great! But there is one exception to the rule; one part of this herculean task that I&#8217;m fully on board with &#8211; choosing my sun-lounger reads. It&#8217;s one of life&#8217;s small pleasures, no? I like to cover all bases and so include books I missed earlier in the year to catch up on alongside shiny new ones; established authors and debut writers, plus a carefully calibrated mix of fiction, memoir and self-help. Here are 10 of 2019&#8217;s best &#8211; all you need to do now is gag the children* and flop on the nearest sun-lounger.
(*Hi social services! That&#8217;s a joke. I&#8217;d never do that, obviously.)
&nbsp;
City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-91754" src="https://bucksoxon.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/06/CityOfGirlsUK-trans-flag-2-jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="1539" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/06/CityOfGirlsUK-trans-flag-2-jpeg.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/06/CityOfGirlsUK-trans-flag-2-jpeg-97x150.jpg 97w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/06/CityOfGirlsUK-trans-flag-2-jpeg-195x300.jpg 195w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/06/CityOfGirlsUK-trans-flag-2-jpeg-325x500.jpg 325w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" />
The Eat Pray Love author hits the jackpot again with this epic novel set in 1940s New York. They may be constrained by societal norms of the day but Gilbert&#8217;s girls just wanna have fun, especially our heroine Vivienne who escapes her stuffy family to work as a seamstress in hedonistic theatreland. Think bright lights, big city &#8211; and lots of sex. Oh yes!
&nbsp;
Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-85895" src="https://bucksoxon.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/03/daisy-jones.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="1615" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/03/daisy-jones.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/03/daisy-jones-93x150.jpg 93w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/03/daisy-jones-186x300.jpg 186w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/03/daisy-jones-310x500.jpg 310w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" />
One to read before the 13-part TV adaptation hits our screens &#8211; Reese Witherspoon snaffled the rights and if it&#8217;s good enough for her&#8230; It tracks the rise and fall of the fictional Daisy, frontwoman of a ’70s Californian rock band (think Fleetwood Mac). A compelling retro rock’n’roll tale.
&nbsp;
How Was It For You? by Virginia Nicholson
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-93190" src="https://bucksoxon.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/07/how-was-it-for-you-.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="1538" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/07/how-was-it-for-you-.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/07/how-was-it-for-you--98x150.jpg 98w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/07/how-was-it-for-you--195x300.jpg 195w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/07/how-was-it-for-you--325x500.jpg 325w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" />
I&#8217;ve read every book going on &#8217;60s pop culture and they tend to be focussed on The Beatles, The Stones and photographers like David Bailey. Blokes, basically. But this well-researched, impeccably detailed social history tells the story of the women who came of age in the grooviest of decades.
&nbsp;
Cape May by Chip Creek
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-88263" src="https://bucksoxon.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/04/Cape-May--e1554738739248.jpg" alt="" width="991" height="1422" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/04/Cape-May--e1554738739248.jpg 991w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/04/Cape-May--e1554738739248-105x150.jpg 105w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/04/Cape-May--e1554738739248-209x300.jpg 209w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/04/Cape-May--e1554738739248-348x500.jpg 348w" sizes="(max-width: 991px) 100vw, 991px" />
Great Gatsby geeks will find lots to love in this ridiculously assured debut. It follows the nocturnal adventures of a group of young party animals in a 1950s New Jersey seaside resort. It teems with gin cocktails, sex and bad decisions &#8211; my kinda novel.
&nbsp;
Flex by Annie Auerbach
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-89693" src="https://bucksoxon.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/04/flex.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="1401" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/04/flex.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/04/flex-107x150.jpg 107w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/04/flex-214x300.jpg 214w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/04/flex-357x500.jpg 357w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" />
Holidays are often the time when we have epiphanies about our lives and this diddy self-help book is the perfect prompt for pondering your lot while lazing on a sun-lounger. It&#8217;s about how to approach your work, relationships, mind and future in a more flexible way &#8211; I interviewed its very clever author here.
&nbsp;
What Red Was by Rosie Price
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-89645" src="https://bucksoxon.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/04/what-red-was-rosie-price.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="1529" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/04/what-red-was-rosie-price.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/04/what-red-was-rosie-price-98x150.jpg 98w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/04/what-red-was-rosie-price-196x300.jpg 196w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/04/what-red-was-rosie-price-327x500.jpg 327w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" />
Wannabe film-maker Kate meets Max at university and is beguiled by his wealthy, boho family. But her life is thrown into disarray when she&#8217;s attacked by one of his clan. This stark, clever, thoroughly modern novel unpicks themes of toxic masculinity, class, privilege and sexual violence.
&nbsp;
Expectation by Anna Hope
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-93191" src="https://bucksoxon.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/07/expectation-anna-hope-.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="1609" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/07/expectation-anna-hope-.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/07/expectation-anna-hope--93x150.jpg 93w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/07/expectation-anna-hope--186x300.jpg 186w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/07/expectation-anna-hope--311x500.jpg 311w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" />
If Sally Rooney&#8217;s mega-hit Normal People was a generation-defining account of twentysomething relationships, this thoughtful novel, tracing the lives of three friends, Hannah, Cate and Lissa, is about what happens next. You know, when all the youthful navel-gazing and &#8220;Who am I?&#8221; stuff transmutes into &#8220;Er, is this it?&#8221; in your thirties and beyond.
&nbsp;
Sweet Sorrow by David Nicholls
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-93192" src="https://bucksoxon.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/07/sweet-sorrow-.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="1538" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/07/sweet-sorrow-.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/07/sweet-sorrow--98x150.jpg 98w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/07/sweet-sorrow--195x300.jpg 195w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/07/sweet-sorrow--325x500.jpg 325w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" />
Basically, I&#8217;ll read anything written by the author of One Day. This &#8217;90s-set coming-of-age story has cockles-warming nostalgia in spades as it tracks the troubled life of teenager Charlie, whose world tilts when he meets Fran. It&#8217;s published on 11 July just in time to be this summer&#8217;s sun-lounger mega-hit.
&nbsp;
Three Women by Lisa Taddeo
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-93194" src="https://bucksoxon.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/07/three-women-1-1.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="1539" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/07/three-women-1-1.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/07/three-women-1-1-97x150.jpg 97w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/07/three-women-1-1-195x300.jpg 195w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/07/three-women-1-1-325x500.jpg 325w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" />
Gillian Anderson is a fan of this buzz book of the summer, as is Dave Eggers &#8211; so we&#8217;re in too. US journalist Taddeo spent eight years shadowing three women, Lina, Maggie and Sloane, for this evocative account of the sex lives and desires of ordinary women. Intense and gorgeously written.
&nbsp;
Brave Not Perfect by Reshma Saujani
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-86182" src="https://bucksoxon.muddystilettos.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/03/Brave-Not-Perfect.jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="1500" srcset="https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/03/Brave-Not-Perfect.jpg 1000w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/03/Brave-Not-Perfect-100x150.jpg 100w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/03/Brave-Not-Perfect-200x300.jpg 200w, https://dev.muddystilettos.co.uk/bucksoxon/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2019/03/Brave-Not-Perfect-333x500.jpg 333w" sizes="(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px" />
This kickass New Yorker, TED Talker and founder of amazing non-profit Girls Who Code is on a mission to get women to stop chasing perfectionism and be bold in their decision making. Sounds like a worthy read? Nah, it&#8217;s an engaging mix of compelling memoir and straight-talking advice.
&nbsp;
Words <a href="https://twitter.com/Kerry_Potter">@Kerry_Potter</a>

The top 10 books of the summer

You may also like