A warm soak can be just what you need to take your racing mind off the stresses of the day. Working from home taking its toll on you? A great way to help switch off from work mode is to run a bath and allow yourself to unwind. The risk takers amongst us like to scroll through Instagram whilst in the bath, but if you’re familiar with the pain of a water damaged phone, you may want to stick with a book. 

We’ve sieved through hundreds of best sellers from 2020 so far and have narrowed it down to 5 books we think you’ll love. Perfect bath time reads, one to please every type of reader. Whether you are into down to earth humour, thrilling storylines, satisfying novels or practical lifestyle books, we’ve got you sorted.

 

 

All adults here - Emma Straub

This book is a heart warming read that brings us familiarity and relatability. Even though we are all from different walks of life, we all respond in similar ways to life changes, messy relationships and the obstacles we face raising a family. An eye opening experience get’s the main character thinking about her own life and the mishaps her now adult children are going through. 

“Straub perfectly captures the warmth and messiness of families, and the truth that no matter how old we get, our family always reduces us to childhood patterns. While Straub takes on some big topics: sexuality, abortion, gender identity, we’ll all see our own families reflected back to us through the Stricks. All Adults Here is a fresh and not unhopeful take on family dysfunction. It’s the perfect smart summer read.” - Amazon Book Review 

 

The glass hotel - Emily St John Mandel

A deeply imaginative world with the main character always on the run, this book you won’t be able to put down. A New York financier and his love lust relationship with a waiter is turned upside down with a mysterious note and an even more mysterious disappearance. 

“The Glass Hotel may be the perfect novel for your survival bunker. Freshly mysterious, Mandel is a consummate, almost profligate world builder. One superbly developed setting gives way to the next, as her attention winds from character to character, resting long enough to explore the peculiar mechanics of each life before slipping over to the next. That Mandel manages to cover so much, so deeply is the abiding mystery of this book. The 300 pages of The Glass Hotel work harder than most 600-page novels.” - Amazon Book Review 

 

 

The squiggly career - Helen Tupper & Sarah Ellis

Mundane jobs can suck the life out of us, this book explores the exciting concept of a not so linier career path. In a corporate world job progression means starting from the bottom and working hard non-stop. Whereas a ‘squiggly’ career is all about doing what you love and working smarter not harder. We spent the majority of our lifetimes working, so it might as well be doing something we love, right? 

“Many of us never take a moment to think about how we can sculpt our careers to match our interests. I was swept away with how effortlessly The Squiggly Career turns some of the most daunting conundrums into simple and rewarding reflections. Like going one-to-one with a personal career coach, it's impossible to leave this book without having a massive personal breakthrough.” - Amazon Book Review. 

 

 

Hamnet - Maggie O’Farrel

If you are into gripping, heart wrenching storylines - this is one for you. Hamnet - Shakespears’ son plays the main character of this historical and deeply moving read. This is a story of grief, love and incredible bonds, that has been shortlisted as a ‘2020 Book to Look Out For’ in Stylist, The Sunday Times, The Times, Observer, Cosmopolitan and Daily Mail. 

“The story of Hamnet Shakespeare has been waiting in the shadows for over four hundred years. Maggie O'Farrell brings it dazzlingly, devastatingly, into the light. A beautiful read. Intricate, and breathtakingly imaginative. A bold undertaking. Beautifully imagined and written. Richly sensuous...something special.” - Amazon Book Review