Crib Notes: Bingeable Books for Full-On, Hands-On Days with Kids

What to read when you're doing three things at once.

The school holidays are upon us once again and I have two hands-on, full-on weeks with my sons ahead of me. As I mentioned in my last Marginalia, when I am with both children I seem to be doing three things at the same time, all the time. For example: I could be cooking a child-friendly pasta-based dinner and also having an in-depth discussion about the solar system and also trying to stop my two-year-old from hurling himself off of the dining table. During these wildly chaotic times, reading feels especially essential for finding escape, retaining my sanity and keeping a grip on who I am beyond motherhood. Ironically, it simultaneously becomes almost impossible to pick up a book. And so, I reach for bingeable, instantly readable books. These are the books that end up looking ragged and love-worn when I’m done with them because they’ve been shoved in the buggy every day, taken into the bathroom whilst my kids bathe, and read hastily whilst I’m waiting for the microwave to ping. What I know about books like this, is that I will make time for them, in a way that I often don’t make time around the demands of family life. These are also the kind of books that kept me in good company throughout my debilitating bedridden pregnancies and long nights breastfeeding my babies. For this issue of Crib Notes, I have chosen a handful of books which have entertained and engrossed me during busy weeks with my boys. Wherever you are on your motherhood journey, I hope you find something here to meet your reading needs. 

The Straight-Up Binge Read 

Come and Get It by Kiley Reid 

Kiley Reid’s hotly-anticipated second novel introduces us to Agatha Paul, a visiting professor at the University of Arkansas. Agatha has a slick writing career, a stylish wardrobe and an ex-girlfriend back in New York, who she can’t get over. Researching how students navigate money, Agatha interviews a clique of privileged Southern girls and is scintillated by their total lack of self-awareness and their bitchy comments about people being ‘tacky’ and ‘ghetto’. Desperate for a distraction from heartbreak, her research begins to take a different, more problematic, turn. Meanwhile, working as a Residential Assistant at the girls’ dorm is Millie Cousins. Millie is hard-working, sensible and dreams of saving enough to buy a house after graduation. When Agatha offers her a (slightly off-the-books) opportunity to make some easy money, she quickly accepts. Soon, though, Millie is distracted from her hustle by an impossible crush on Agatha, and the animosity of girls in the dorm. Boundaries between all of these women blur, and power dynamics shift uncomfortably, with big consequences. 

How To Read It: Come and Get It is out now in hardback, from Bloomsbury. However, at a chunky 400 pages, you might find the ebook more convenient -- and a better option when it comes to picking up the novel for a quick one-minute read whilst you’re waiting at the school gates. 

What to Read Next: Kiley Reid’s equally page-turning debut, Such a Fun Age. Read my review (from February 2020s issue) of Crib Notes here.