When you’re rushing out of the house at 8am every morning; when you haven’t had time to wash your hair; and you feel like life is one long list of jobs, it is hard not to feel dowdy, frumpy and even… (*whispers*) mumsy.

Over my 7.5 years of parenting, I’ve learned that tiny tweaks can instantly make me feel ‘put together’ again. A simple pair of gold hoop earrings or a fitted navy cardigan can be the difference between feeling stylish and feeling slovenly.*

For me, reading a book with a bit of vicarious glamour, sophistication, sex appeal and intelligence is another shortcut to feeling more zingy and confident.

Below, you’ll find 5 books which do exactly that. I hope you enjoy your reading time x

* One of my favourite Substacks is Mumish, written by fashion journalist and fellow mum, Frankie Graddon. Frankie is entirely responsible for the aforementioned hoop earrings and navy cardigan and is, if I’m honest, probably the inspiration for this issue of Crib Notes.

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5 Chic Books to Read When You Feel Frumpy

Permanence by Sophie Mackintosh

Permanence tells the story of Clara and Francis, who have been having an affair for eighteen months. One day they wake up in a dreamlike city, populated only by other adulterous couples. Here, they can experience what they have yearned for — the erotics of daily life together, a sense of permanence, and a sense of possessing each other.

The city has its own rules, though, and it shifts with Clara and Francis’s relationship; their feelings of contentment, hurt and desire. They notice changes: a crack appears in the ceiling of their apartment; their favourite cafe in the square is replaced with a dingier one, and the coffee cools more quickly.

Permanence is both piercing and surreal, suffused with longing. It is a modern fable about infidelity; the ways in which lovers inevitably wound each other, and the personal cost of such devotion.

I finished the novel at 6am one morning, after my eldest son woke early — the final page was so moving, I cried. Of all the books I have read so far in 2026, Permanence is the one I have loved most.

Why Read This Book:

This is an achingly sexy novel, written in pared-back, cooly mesmeric prose. Mackintosh has a knack for honing an elegant, high-concept story which gets its hooks into the reader. Still, this is a novel predominantly driven by the inner lives of its characters. The alluring premise cracks open a space in which the contradictions of human feelings can be examined.

Permanence reminded me of one my favourite writers, Annie Ernaux, who has written about romantic obsession and abjection which scalpel-like exactness.

How to Read It:

This is a pleasingly slim read at 248 pages. I recommend reading the new hardback edition for the pure pleasure of words on a page, but the novel also makes a riveting audio listen.

What to Read Next:

Annie Ernaux’s Simple Passion, Getting Lost and The Possession (read more about it here). I also recommend Sophie Mackintosh’s Cursed Bread (review here), Blue Ticket and The Water Cure.

My Husband by Maud Ventura, translated by Emma Ramadan

A list of chic books would be incomplete without something French. Maud Ventura’s My Husband is narrated by a woman who is madly, obsessively in love with her husband.

She is jealous, sensitive and lives entirely in thrall to romance. She fears mundanity, anxious that it will allow apathy and neglect to creep into her marriage. She even resents her children for the attention they demand.

Every time she believes her husband’s devotion is slipping — a kiss that seems a little too perfunctory or a hurtful, offand remark — she subtly metes out punishments. She records his transgressions in her diary, though she is anxious that she might lose everything if he finds out.

The narrator brings to mind all the famous ‘Mad Women’ from literature: Berthe Mason and Lady Macbeth, to name a few. But there is a vicious, subversive twist to this story.

Why Read This Book:

This unsettling psychological thriller will pull you right out of a reading lull. It’s unhinged, but beguiling narrator, will snare you almost instantly. And the little flourishes of Parisian glamour imbue the book with a je ne sais quoi, which is especially pleasing if the daily grind as been making you feel a little lacklustre lately.

How to Read It:

I listened to the gripping audio edition of My Husband, but I covet the stylish paperback edition, which weighs in at a manageable 272 pages.

What to Read Next:

For a little more French sophistication, you might dip into the narrator’s favourite novel, The Lover by Marguerite Duras. For more psycological thrillers with darkly compelling unreliable narrators try Julia May Jonas’s Vladimir and Yellowface by R. F. Kuang (reviews for both books here).

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Fittingly, on the day I sat down to write this issue of Crib Notes, both of my children were off school, two builders were at work in the kitchen and the cat had unhelpfully been in a territory battle overnight, and required immediate veterinary attention.

Luxurious, uninterrupted stretches of time with a book can seem fantastical when one is managing the mental load. But, as I always say, reading can be slotted into the fast lane of family life – all it requires is a book which is a manageable length, and so effortlessly readable you can pick it up for a few minutes at a time.

In this issue of Crib Notes, I have written about 3 recent reads which are well-suited to full-on, hands-full days with kids.

Crucially, these books are not only effortlessly readable. They are thought-provoking, stylishly-written reads which will give you a sustaining hit of literary goodness, even on the most jam-packed days.

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THE NOVEL

Female, Nude by Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

Female, Nude brings together everything I most love to read about: female desire, creativity and motherhood. Sophie, a painter, is spending a week on a Greek Island with three university friends. The holiday is a classy hen do of sorts for Helena, who is about to get married.

Secretly, Sophie is wrestling with the question of whether to have a baby with her boyfriend, Greg. She feels flashes of desire for a child, but worries about balancing motherhood with her art — and Greg gives her no reassurance.

In Greece, Sophie spends the sunbaked days working on a nude painting of her beautiful, wealthy friend Alessia, introducing a curious new dynamic to their relationship. This is heightened when Alessia introduces Sophie to Ky, her childhood friend and former lover.

Sophie’s undeniable desire for Ky soon makes itself known to the group, and like the best hot weather novels, the tensions in this one turn feverish and volatile.

Why Read This Book:

Through the medium of very good, female pleasure centred sex, the novel probes into the overlap between arousal and the desire to procreate (Rhiannon has jokingly referred to it as an ‘ovulation’ novel).

The book’s propulsive chapters are elegantly interleaved with Sophie’s reflections, many years later, on the female artists who were guiding lights as she looked for answers about motherhood and making art. These answers reveal themselves to the reader in the reeling aftermath of the book’s fevered climax.

Female, Nude gives us both a provocative, intelligently nuanced exploration of the female gaze, an alluring reclamation of the narratives which shape women’s lives, and a plot which is seductive and pacy.

How to Read It:

I read Female, Nude in the summer during a family holiday to France. As you will know well, reading on holiday with children can sometimes be an impossibility, but the short chapters lent themselves to reading in snatches on the beach between sandcastle building.

Female, Nude is out now in a relatively uncumbersome 290-page hardback (buy it here). The novel is also well-suited to audio.

What to Read Next:

Click here find out more about the books – including Cassandra at the Wedding and My Brilliant Friend – which inspired and galvanised Rhiannon as she wrote this novel.

THE SHORT STORY COLLECTION

Long Distance by Ayşegül Savaş

Ayşegül Savaş is one of the most exciting authors I’ve discovered in recent months. When I saw her short story collection Long Distance recommended by Olivia Sudjic — one of my favourite contemporary writers — I sought out a copy immediately. It did not disappoint.

This alluring collection hinges on fleeting moments of distance and closeness; connection and dislocation. In many of these stories, characters build aspirational lives for themselves in new cities; but feel the uncomfortable pull of what they left behind. Friends and lovers who should be familiar become unknown; characters experience unexpected intimacy with strangers, or past acquaintances they want to push away.

In the titular story, a woman who has recently relocated to Rome meticulously plans her lover’s visit to the city; when he arrives, he is not as she remembered him. In “Layover” a Turkish woman reluctantly meets a school friend in Paris. In “Twirl” — a real standout story — the narrator navigates the slippery, peacocking moves of men on the modern dating scene, while beginning a friendship with an unusually disarming older woman.

Other stories touch on how parenthood imprints on other relationships. In “Notions of the Sacred” the affectionate bond between two expectant mothers is permanently altered when one woman experiences a miscarriage. “Cry it Out” is about a couple trying to sleep train their baby as a brutal conflict breaks out across the globe, dividing opinion amongst their friends. It landed with a blow and brought me to tears.

Like the best short-stories, these portraits of modern life are elegantly-honed and deceptively readable, but layered with nuance and meaning.

Why Read This Book:

As I have written before, motherhood has made me a short story lover. A story can be satisfyingly slotted into the rush of family life — reading one in 15 minutes with a morning coffee, in a lull post school pick-up, often feels like a small, achievable act of self-care.

Though the fabric of Long Distance is modern life, Savas’s stories are threaded through with tiny pleasures and gorgeous, sensuous details enhance the vicarious pleasure of reading this book.

How to Read It:

Long Distance is a relatively lightweight book at 225 pages and is available in a stylishly-jacketed, handbag-friendly paperback (buy it here). These stories also work well as an ebook.

What to Read Next:

I loved Savaş’s novella The Anthropologists which I read immediately after Long Distance. For more short stories, try Send Nudes by Saba Sams or Huma Qureshi’s Things We Do Not Tell The People We Love.

THE MEMOIR

The Hour of the Wolf by Fatima Bhutto

It is Spring 2020, and Fatima Bhutto has spent a decade waiting for a dazzling but manipulative man who has broken every promise he made to her.

Fatima longs to be a mother. In this state of protracted longing, she finds solace in her bond with Coco, her Jack Russell terrier. As her dog heals from a traumatic stillbirth, Fatima finds she is growing tired of the man’s lies.

From here the book moves gracefully back and forth in time to tell the overlapping stories of these relationships: one coercive and one deeply loving. On one occasion, the man once bit Fatima so hard he left a mark. Conversely, Coco would never bite Fatima.

Folded deftly into this memoir are spellbinding meditations on the ancient covenant between humans and dogs — from natural history and their descent from wolves, to mythology, astrology and religion. Fatima also draws on her family’s history in Pakistani politics and, in particular, her memories of her father — his unconditional love amid a life of violence and exile; his unwavering devotion to his political beliefs, and his reverence for animals.

These elements are all blended seamlessly into Fatima’s intimately-told story, imbuing it with wisdom. The Hour of the Wolf asks us what lessons the natural world might teach humanity about living — and loving — better. Ultimately, it is Coco’s sustaining love that enables Fatima to free herself from years of cruelty.

Why Read This Book:

Let me make a confession — I am not a dog person. And I’m not especially drawn to nature writing. But I do love to read about women’s inner lives: The Hour of the Wolf is a quietly powerful and singular book about maternal instinct, grief, resilience and the profound consolation to be found in caring for another living creature.

And at a time when it feels as if the world is aflame — the book mentions the climate emergency, flooding in Pakistan and Israel’s unchecked bombardment of Gaza — the reminder of our connection to every living thing, feels both urgent and hopeful. This kind of writing feels especially vital if you, like I often do, fear for the future our children will inherit.

How to Read It:

This memoir is out now in paperback and is a slim 169 pages; Bhutto’s prose is both intellectually invigorating and effortlessly readable — I was immediately pulled in, and finished the book quickly over the half-term holiday, in between looking after my sons.

What to Read Next:

The Hour of the Wolf reminded me of Rhiannon Lucy Cosslet’s radiant memoir The Year of the Cat (review here) and The Chain, Chimene Suleyman’s riveting book about misogyny and the power of women coming together (review here). I also recommend Sarah Hall’s atmospheric novel of motherhood and wilderness, The Wolf Border.

5 More Recommendations from the Crib Notes Archive

Nothing piqued your interest yet? Here are a few more of my favourite books which are perfect for fitting into family life, but still pack a literary punch.

• The Slicks: On Sylvia Plath and Taylor Swift by Maggie Nelson: ‘a provocative, pleasing blend of pop culture, poetry and the politics of being a prolific female artist.’ 66 dazzling, sharply argued pages. Read my full review here.

• Happening by Annie Ernaux: ‘Here was an author who chronicled twentieth-century female experience with devastating clarity and exactness.’ Read my full review here.

• The Hypocrite by Jo Hamya: ‘I wanted to sink my teeth into something mentally invigorating. This brilliant novel is pared-back, written in short, sharp chapters.’ Read the full review here.

• Here is the Beehive by Sarah Crossnan: ‘Written in clean, pared-back poetry […] a searing look at infidelity and the churning, emotional chaos of unmet desire’ Read my full review here.

• Breasts by Jean Hannah Edelstein: ‘Jean Hannah Edelstein writes with irresistible candour about her relationship with her body … her writing sparkles’ Read my full review here.

I hope you enjoy your reading time x

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I owe you a Five Minute Catch Up about everything I’ve been reading in January. But I’m immersed in two all-consuming weeks of writing, and I’m emotionally wrung out too. That feeling of mental saturation is familiar to all of us, isn’t it?

So last night, I simply had no more words to give. I needed to be gentle with myself.

Instead of writing, I soaked myself in a hot, fragrant bath and read Rebecca Fallon's blissful and engrossing, Family Drama. (read more about it here).

And, I dipped into the Crib Notes archive so I could tell you about the best books to read when you are in need of storytelling which soothes.

These are books to read when the rush of family routines — and the emotional slings and arrows life throws at us — make you feel overloaded.

Sometimes, when we are weathering the chaos, it can help to have something which challenges, and connects us with the world. At other times, we need books to be like a weighted blanket: both gentle and grounding.

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If you love Crib Notes and want to support what I do, please do consider buying your books from the Crib Notes Book Shop. I’ll receive 10% commission for every title you purchase, and you’ll be supporting the vital work that Bookshop.org do to keep independent bookstores thriving. Browse every single book in this issue here.

13 Gentle Books for Emotional Overload

1. Anything by Eva Ibbotson (but start with The Morning Gift)

‘Gloriously romantic with a pinch of silliness and a dash of tongue-in-cheek humour, Eva Ibbotson’s novels are a real treat! Formulaic, but elegantly so, these books invariably feature a headstrong heroine fallen upon hard-times, a love-triangle and a magnificent setting [...]My favourite of Ibbotson’s novels (and, believe me, it is difficult to choose!) is The Morning Gift, which draws on Ibbotson’s own experience of emigrant life in the 1930s [...] Ibbotson is one of my go-to writers when I want some literary self-care.’ Read the full review here.

2. Games and Rituals by Katherine Heiny

‘Games and Rituals, is a dazzling collection of stories about relationships, love and intimacy. There are badly behaved bridesmaids, confusing Zoom calls, break-ups, mixed-signals and unrequited crushes [...] There isn’t a single dud story in this pitch-perfect collection — it is arch and bittersweet, hilarious and heartfelt but never saccharine.’ Read the full review.

3. And Single, Carefree Mellow by Katherine Heiny

‘If you have been a Crib Notes subscriber for a while, you will know just how much I love Katherine Heiny’s writing. Single, Carefree, Mellow is Heiny’s debut collection of stories: an achingly funny look at love, fidelity and the heartbreaking confusing-ness of both… a glittering compilation of the imperfect, illogical and outrageous moments that make up our most intimate relationships

Many writers are labelled as funny, but Heiny genuinely makes me laugh out loud. And sometimes laughing (especially at life’s more hapless moments) can feel as therapeutic as a spa break. Which is to say, that if you feel stressed, Single, Carefree, Mellow might be a delightful release’ Read the full review.

3. How We Met by Huma Qureshi

‘In this memoir, Huma Qureshi sets about answering the question of how she and her husband came to be married. Although they first met at a coffee shop, Huma's story really begins with her Muslim upbringing [...] I read this memoir in a swift 48 hours when I was having a low moment. Beyond being a story about finding ‘the one’, How We Met is also about self-love and acceptance. It was an emotional, cathartic read, which lifted me right out of my funk. At only 244 pages, and possessing the pull of a novel, How We Met is also relatively easy to read alongside the demands of children, home and work.’ Read the full review here.

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I resent the way this time of year demands newness. On the other side of the festive season – its sparkle and its stresses – is the bleakest stretch of winter. This does not compel me to energetically tick off To Do Lists and hurl myself into worthy new habits.

On these impossibly dark, cold mornings, my only goal is getting everyone out of bed and to school and nursery on time. For me, January is a time to tend to my needs, and emerge gradually into the coming year.

And so, I am not here to prescribe you any virtuous #READINGGOALS for 2026. I am not here to tell you how to read one hundred books this year. And I’m not going to offer any condescending advice about reading habits. A confession: I’ve read almost nothing in the last few weeks. I’m still recovering from the return to routine.

Still, a new year brings new books. Whether you’re in hibernation like me, or entering 2026 in a blaze of productivity, we can all agree that this is a thrill.

Below you will find a list of 19 new book…

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I’m writing this introduction at 6.27am, before my children wake up and I must attend to the mad rush of the morning. Today this will be intensified by having not one but two christmas shows to attend at school and nursery. It this that time of year and I am tired.

It is also the time of year for a Best Books of 2025 list. And with so many other decisions to make (and with letters to Santa to decipher) how can I possibly judge which of the many books I’ve read this year are the ‘best’?

I could do a straight up ‘Best Books Published in 2025’ kind of thing like everyone else. But, increasingly that feels so impersonal and so not Crib Notes. It doesn’t reflect the way I read, or the way I know you read, either.

Instead, I’ve written about the 12 ‘new to me’ books which resonated with me this year. Some are brand new, and some I’ve discovered several years late. All of them are books which gave me something this year.

These are books that resonated with my experiences of womanhood and motherhood, they are also books which provided a kind of therapeutic relief from the things I worry about at night. These are books which opened up spaces inside of me: they sparked thoughts, galvanised me and made me feel connected to the world.

Let me know what you think! x

This post is for paid subscribers. If you’re looking for book recommendations, why not take a look at this recent issue of Crib Notes, which is free to everyone:

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12 Books That Spoke to Me in 2025

1. Breasts: A Relatively Brief Relationship by Jean Hannah Edelstein

‘In this moving and funny memoir, Jean Hannah Edelstein writes with irresistible candour about her relationship with her body – specifically, her breasts. The book is split into three pleasingly concise chapters [...] In the final chapter, Jean’s relationship with her breasts is suddenly, unexpectedly cut short when she learns she has breast cancer and immediately faces a double mastectomy. Here, in particular, her writing sparkles: it is painfully funny, poignant and moving. A woman’s relationship with her body can be fraught; subject to unwanted attention, often a source of frustration and guilt, and yet, Jean writes lovingly of her breasts.’ Read my full review here.

2. Self-Help by Lorrie Moore

For years I knew that I would get on well with Lorrie Moore. Cool women whose literary taste I respected, talked about her stories in glowing tones, so I always knew I’d read Lorrie Moore eventually. Finally, in 2025, I picked up her iconic 1985 story collection, Self-Help:

‘Moore’s glittering and off-kilter wit is the comic and poignant distillation of a woman’s inner life; the laugh-until-you-cry and cry-until-you-laugh crux of female experience. Here, there is love and sex; mothers, wives and girlfriends who feel underappreciated and unloved; infidelity and unfaithful cats. The collection is laced through with the complicated, intricate ties between mothers and daughters: what it means when these roles reverse; what it means to have a mother who is mad or ill, and what it means to grieve a mother.’ Read my full review here.

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Welcome to Crib Notes, and to winter: the season characterised by both SAD and my kids being persistently sick. I seem to have selective amnesia about this period, which roughly runs from Mid-October until about March, until it rolls around once more and I find myself under house-arrest with feverish children, all social plans and intentions for work pulverised. Sometimes, if I’m especially unfortunate, this will continue for several weeks, as one of my sons succumbs after another. Sometimes, I’ll become ill, but at other times I will simply become depressed.

Naturally, I have learned to lean on books at this time of year, to bring me joy, comfort and companionship.

In this issue of Crib Notes, I’ve written about a three gorgeous reads well-suited to the dark, flu-ridden days of winter, plus a sprinkling of recommendations from the archive. I hope you find something here to meet your reading needs. Enjoy!

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And finally, it’s here! My choice of children’s books to give this Christmas! This is absolutely not an exhaustive gift-guide, but a handful of children’s books which I think would make gorgeous presents – and most of them have the seal of approval from my sons, who are four and seven. Enjoy!

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Books for Little Ones

• The Forever Bear by Lu Fraser and Pippa Curnick: A magical, Christmassy story set in an old-fashioned shop full of teddy bears. This timeless picture book has the heartwarming spirit of so much of the best classic childrens’ literature.

• The Bed Book by Sylvia Plath, illustrated by Cindy Wume: ‘Or a Jet-Propelled Bed/ For visiting Mars/ With mosquito nets/ For the shooting stars’. I have always loved this imaginative and playful book, which Plath wrote for her own children. Faber’s new edition features glorious new illustrations. A captivating bedtime read.

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Surprise! The second part of my literary gift selection box has arrived early! And for a rather delightful reason: when it comes to kid’s books, I have an embarrassment of riches to choose from, and — try as I might — I can’t cram everything into one single issue. And so, as a midweek treat I thought I’d send my fiction picks out early!

I hope this issue helps you tick a few more boxes on the list of loved ones to buy presents for; and, also, inspires you to do a little bit of self-gifting!

Enjoy, and I’ll be back at the end of the week with a stunning range of children’s books (hopefully with something for every age group!). xx

• I love the paperback edition of The Safekeep, Yael van der Wouden’s deserved Women’s Prize winner. Set in the post-war Netherlands, this is a taut, erotically-charged and tense exploration of repression, both personal and sexual; collective and historical (read my review).

• One of my most recommended novels this year is Lidije Hilje’s Slanting Towards the Sea. This is a sensuous, smart and enormously readable story of a decade-long love affair, set in a gorgeous Croatian coastal town, coloured by the cultural tensions of the country’s recent history. Another fab choice for all the cool, likeminded women you love! (read my review).

• Olivia Laing’s new novel The Silver Book promises the decadence of cinema, queer love and noirish suspense, all set against the backdrop of Italy’s political and social turmoil in the 1970s.

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This is not really a Gift Guide. Instead, it is a selection box of books which I think will make beautiful presents.

I hope you’ll find an idea or two for loved ones here.

Or – perhaps you’ll find inspiration for your own wishlist (I personally find that after I’ve supplied my entire extended family with present ideas for both of my children and my husband, I have simply no energy left to work out what I might want).

In any case, I hope this issue of Crib Notes brings you a lot of delight and a little relief from the mental load.

Part One features a few seasonal books for grown-ups and children; some of the most beautiful publishing in bookshops at the moment; a trio of books for Jane Austen obsessives, and some literary stocking fillers.

Part Two will be out next week and includes my pick of banging fiction titles guaranteed to please, and a handful of captivating children’s books.

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How do you feel about Halloween? Do you think it’s a gaudy, consumerist import from the US or do you lean in to Spooky Season? When it comes to pumpkin carving; welcoming trick or treaters and rewatching Hocus Pocus, I go all in. Having children has given me the excuse to indulge my enthusiasm for Halloween, but I also love the season’s more grown-up pleasure. Whilst I emphatically Do Not Do Horror, I love nothing more than getting cosy with a Gothic novel and a glass of something strong.*

When it came to choosing a chilling, thrilling read for this special, spooky October issue of Crib Notes, what else could it be but Alice Slater’s latest novel Let the Bad Times Roll?

Below, you will also find a spine-tingling little selection box of book recommendations from Alice Slater herself – perfect for those of you who like to embrace Autumn’s more macabre side.

Enjoy! xx

*Last year I read Olga Tokarczuk’s atmospheric and unusual novel The Empusium: A Health Resort Horror Story.

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As a new school year begins, my days are once again a whirlwind of permission slips; packed lunches and a seemingly never-ending to-do list. And though there is joy to be found in everyday family life, the repitition and confinement that comes with domestic sphere sometimes makes me feel scratchy for more. For me, the antidote to mental sluggishness and maternal depletion is writing that ignites my mind and sets me alight.

For this issue of Crib Notes, I have chosen five very different books brimming with desire and defiance; deep thoughts and deep feelings. These are books about restless women chosen for restless women (and anyone else who could use an intellectual jump-start).

I hope you find something here that meets your reading needs. Enjoy x

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This emergency issue of Marginalia is about reading as an act of resistance. Scroll down to find out about a sweeping and passionate novel about Palestine to fortify you with hope, as well as small, practical actions you can do for Gaza today.

The long, six week summer holiday is a childhood rite of passage. These recent weeks with my sons already seem gold-lit in my mind (for all the childcare challenges they present). And yet, this has also been a relentlessly sad summer. Watching my boys play — giving themselves wholeheartedly over to play in the way that children do — sharpens the deep grief I feel over Gaza. When I am in a playground — surrounded by the carefree, joyful clamour of children’s voices — I am reminded, painfully, of the many, many children who have had their right to simply be children (to play, to learn, to feel safe) violently stolen from them.

Fresh horrors are committed over and over again like waves crashing onto a beach (airstrikes on children carrying water; c…

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It’s that time of year again — evenings are lighter; the sun is shining (for now); for those of you with school age children the long summer break is in sight, and my ‘Hot Mum Summer Reading List’ is here! Whether you are looking for the literary equivalent of a beach holiday; a low-stakes, high-pleasure read that can be easily picked up and put back down; or something mental exfoliating when your mind is full of packing lists and planning, you will find it here!

As I have written before, audiobooks are often the secret to reading your way through hands-on, full-on days with kids (especially if, like me, you don’t have formal childcare during the summer holidays). The books which I think will be fabulous on audio are marked with a 🎧 so you can find your ideal listen!

I hope you find something here that gives you what you need this summer – please do let me know what you’ll be adding to your TBR!

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My children are two of the most fun people I know. I love nothing more than a 5pm kitchen disco with my sons, or playing ‘Would You Rather?’ around the breakfast table (‘Would you rather wear socks made of pizza or eat a pizza made of socks?’). I even enjoy the bizarre step in my three-year-olds bedtime routine which involves (prior to brushing teeth and stories) spending exactly six minutes throwing sticky lizards at each other. I love hearing my children giggle at naff jokes (‘What flys and wobbles?’ ‘A jellycopter!’); building elaborate marble runs and painting their nails in rainbow colours. Unquestionably motherhood has encouraged me to be more playful. Nevertheless — after long days with my little hooligans — I still crave a grown-up good-time. Sometimes, I don’t want silliness or whimsy — I want something sexier, smarter, more provocative or raucous. Now that my children are out of the baby and toddler years, an the occassional evening spent drinking spicy margaritas with frien…

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Some of the most important friendships I have made as an adult, have been made through motherhood.

Several years ago, I was walking home from my second child’s eight-week check up. A woman fell into step with me and gestured to my son, curled up in my baby-wearing coat. ‘It’s so great when you learn to breastfeed them in a sling, isn’t it?’ she said. We continued walking, talking about everything from fussy first-born children to Literary Speed Dating. After fifteen minutes, we both arrived at our destination – it turned out we lived opposite each other on the same street! This woman – my friend Mel – has become one of the people I text at 7.30 am when my children are threatening nuclear levels of unhappiness over pancakes and I only have one egg. And she is one of the friends I text on a grey Monday afternoon when I’m feeling low and in need of a ‘friendship top-up’. I know she will offer me coffee, energising conversation, and for my three-year-old there is the priceless allure of ot…

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Welcome to the very first Crib Notes of 2025!

I began the year with soaring ambitions for decluttering and strength training, as well as plans for frosty winter walks to keep the winter blues at bay. All of this was swept aside when everyone became sick, sick and sick again. There was not a single week in January, during which everyone was well. The full catalogue of ailments included: Generic Back to School Bug (my eldest son), severe menstrual migraines (me), Actual Flu (my youngest son and then me again) and finally noro virus (everyone). It was so terrible, it was funny… except it wasn’t funny. It was fucking miserable and by the end of the month I was wondering what parent-on-parent crime I'd committed to get this apocalypse-scale karmic pay-back (Had I gloated about swerving nits or something?). Somehow, in spite of four weeks under house arrest, either feeling totally rotten or tediously restless, I managed not to lose my mind. As ever, books offered entertainment and an escape hatch.

Taking inspiration from my absolute shitshow of a month, I am recommending five books to take refuge in when things are Not Going to Plan.

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Another Marvellous Thing by Laurie Colwin

This 1980s gem introduces us to New Yorkers, Billy and Frank, who are happily married – but not to each other. When they meet at a cocktail party, they do not yet know they are embarking on a love affair, but soon the realisation hits them. Billy is a delightful antithesis to ‘mistresses in French movies who rendezvous at cafes in expensive hotels and take their cigarette cases out of alligator handbags’. She is grouchy, often serious and a bad dresser. She considers Frank an ‘extraordinary irritant’, but is, nevertheless, an insatiable kisser. Frank is older; he is indifferent to Billy’s interest in the Medieval Wool Trade, enjoys making money and has a perfumed, party-giving interior-designer for a wife. He feels perpetually confused and tongue-tied by Billy. There’s nothing salacious in Another Marvellous Thing, which pithily mocks the clichés of lovers in novels, basking in a breathless afterglow. Instead, this is a book about two people who unexpectedly and unintentionally fall for each other, taking the reader from the beginning of their romance to its inevitable ending. Later, after they have parted, the book gives way to Billy’s experience of early motherhood. Colwin writes about birth and the anguished, first flushes of maternal love with a glittering truthfulness, which feels ahead of its time for 1986. Gazing at her baby son in neo-natal intensive care after a difficult labour, only able to see him during visiting hours, she tells a nurse, ‘This is like having an affair with a married man’. Another Marvellous Thing is a wise and wryly funny novel about the absurdities of attraction and the bittersweet silliness of the human heart.

When to Read It: I have always found Laurie Colwin’s effervescent writing a tonic for tough times. When I was debilitatingly sick during pregnancy and struggled to read, only Colwin’s droll romantic comedy Happy All the Time could lift me out of lethargy. Last September, when both of my children had Back-To-School-Lurgy, I read Colwin’s Shine On, Bright and Dangerous Object. And so, in January, during my third week of house arrest, as one child recovered from flu and the other succumbed to a vomiting bug, I reached for Another Marvellous Thing. It was exactly what I needed.

How to Read It: The gorgeous (and mercifully short at 144 pages) paperback edition (buy it here), newly reissued by Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

What to Read Next: I highly recommend Laurie Colwin’s Happy All the Time, as well as Katherine Heiny’s story collections Single, Carefree, Mellow and Games and Rituals (read my reviews here, here and here). Meanwhile, I’m looking forward to delving into another recently reissued Colwin gem: Family Happiness.

Greatest of All Time by Alex Allison

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I finally managed to compile this last night (December 30th), whilst spending hours and hours putting both of my wildly out-of-routine children to bed.

So it’s a bit no frills.

Some stats:

• I read 54 books in 2024.

• 10 were audiobooks.

• 4 were short story collections (This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things, Openings, She’s Always Hungry and Winter in the Air).

• 4 were rereads (Middlemarch, Jane & Prudence, In The Cut and Heartburn).

• I Did Not Finish 5 books. (I didn't actively dislike any of these books but I lost interest in them. On the other hand, I read the entirety of one novel I was hoping to love but which left me cold).

I loved so many of the books I read this year, it was a real challenge to pick just ten.

There's a real mix between books I read when the mental load felt weighty, and I wanted enjoyment and comfort; and books I read when I felt like my brain needed a jump-start.

Here they are.

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Five years ago, on December 19th 2019, I sent out the first ever Crib Notes newsletter.

This is what I wrote:

‘Since becoming a mother, reading has become more essential than ever to my sense of self. It helps me feel tethered to the woman I was before I had a baby. With it, motherhood has brought an onslaught of visceral new emotions, and these have coloured my reading habits. In the early days, I sometimes felt so vividly alive that I sought writing to match this mental incandescence. At other times, exhausted from rocking a baby who cried endlessly, I craved comfort. Sometimes I wanted books which dug deep into motherhood and held it up to the light; sometimes I wanted escape.’ — Crib Notes, December 2019

In the first Crib Notes, I recommended six books for new and knackered mothers with thoughts on how and when to read them. Sprinkling my reviews with my own experiences of early motherhood, I described listening to audiobooks as I lapped the park with the pram, and novels that kept…

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If you’ve been a Crib Notes subscriber for a long time, you’ll know that I love finding a big, chunky book that I can return to over and over again. Narratives like this felt particularly anchoring during the early days of motherhood, when I used to breastfeed through the night, or listen to audiobooks whilst lapping the park with the pram. Parenting is seasonal, though – and recently, things have shifted for me. Now, my reading needs to slot neatly into the daily routine of pick-ups, drop-offs, bathtime and bedtime. More and more, I find myself reaching for shorter books and short stories.

There’s something satisfying about stories in particular: the way one can be fitted into 15 minutes spent drinking a coffee, listened to post school-run, or on the commute.

Meanwhile, novellas and shorter books stop me from losing momentum. If I’m reading something longer than 250 pages, I often lose the spark of interest after a busy week with the boys. By comparison, reading a short novel over a few days feels like a dazzling achievment! Last week I didn’t manage to call the dentist; call the vet; book my toddler’s flu jab; sort laundry, or go to the post office, but I did finish Samantha Harvey’s Booker Prize winning novel, Orbital (144 pages).

In this issue of Crib Notes, I’ve written about two collections of short stories, two short novels and one short memoir, all of which are ideal for reading when you are in the rush hour of parenting. I hope you find something here that meets your reading needs!

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5 Books to Read When You Have 0 Time

1. This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things by Naomi Wood 

In nine tart, thorny, delicious stories (nine stories for nine months of pregnancy, incidentally!) Naomi Wood skewers the traps society sets for mothers – and, pleasingly, provocatively shows us some women who trangress them. One woman explodes during an enforced corporate therapy group for new mums; another spends the day simmering with rage and arousal whilst her six-year-old attends her ex-partner’s wedding. ‘Comorbities’ is a radiant and wry look at a couple with young children trying to reboot their sex life. It is some of the best writing I have read about finding the time to be horny when you’re busy catastropjohising about climate change and Whether Our Children Have A Future. ‘Flatten the Curve’ is a moving but sharp story about family life, as a woman spends lockdown resenting her husband and fantasising about her hot neighbour. Some stories flirt with even darker facets of motherhood: a pregnant film-director manipulates her star into delivering a palm d’Or winning performance. In ‘Dino Moms’ a reality-tv series shows teenage girls and their mothers living on a ‘dinoranch’, side-by-side with…, you guessed it, actual dinosaurs. This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things is one of the best books I have read this year – I think you’re going to love it. 

When to Read It: On one level, This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things is simply a toothsome collection of stories: a total pleasure to read between mundane moments of mothering. On another level, this book is an enormously readable fuck you to the patriarchy, allowing readers to indulge in a fantasy of ‘bad’ female behaviour. And finally, whilst Wood shows how the world is ludicrously rigged against mothers, she also captures the utter glory of maternal love. She shows how wildly-romantic and bone-deep it can be. In one story, the narrator muses, ‘I had only recently understood that having a child felt like a long and dependable love affair [...] It is not very interesting to be in love with your child: it’s commonplace, this sacrificial love and yet whenever I thought of Paola I thought about my heart; how all of my feelings for her were in that tender, silken, sewn-up pocket.’ To summarise, this book will make you feel seen and it will give you a very good time. 

Sensitive content: Mentions of post-natal depression and miscarriage. 

How To Read It: I read the extremely stylish hardback, which is out now from Phoenix. At 241 pages it isn’t too unwieldy, but if you’re reading with a baby in cradle-hold or juggling toddler paraphernalia, you might opt for the ebook or the audiobook (I think the latter would be especially enjoyable!). 

What to Read Next: I’ve been reading and very much admiring Lucy Caldwell’s collection of stories, Openings (read my thoughts here). And let me nudge you in the direction of Helen Ellis’s American Housewife (read my review here). 

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Crib Notes is back!

For this long overdue issue, I wanted to go back to basics and recommend the kind of writing which I have sought out most in my six years of motherhood: sure-handed storytelling that sweeps you up, soothes you, entertains you and nourishes your mind. Perhaps you’re in the early days of motherhood and reading through the nightfeeds. Perhaps you are climbing into bed at the end of a long day of toddler-herding, or re-adjusting to the rigamorale of the school term (I still can’t remember which days my son does PE). Wherever you are in your motherhood journey, I hope you will find something here that you love sinking into during your hard-earned, well-deserved reading time.

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