11 Reads For World Book Day

Today is World Book Day, an annual opportunity to celebrate the transporting, absorbing power of a great read. Here, the SheerLuxe team share the very best books they’ve discovered over the past year, from hilarious memoirs to heartbreaking novels.

How to Murder Your Life by Cat Marnell

Georgie Coleridge Cole, Founder & Editor

This memoir from former Condé Nast beauty editor and socialite Cat Marnell is a shockingly honest, compelling and gritty story of addiction in New York’s Downtown scene.
 

Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton

Jess Roberts, Account Executive

Journalist and former Sunday Times dating columnist Dolly Alderton’s debut is a mix of personal stories and satirical observations that are hilarious and relatable for women of any age.
 

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

Poppy Rushforth, Editor of the Brief
Last year’s Booker prize-winning novel draws on the life of Abraham Lincoln and the death of his 11-year-old son, Willie, at the dawn of the Civil War. Inventive, grotesque, hilarious, moving – I was in awe throughout.
 

The Girls by Emma Cline

Eve Crosbie, Content Co-ordinator

A gorgeous and sumptuously written, heady fiction novel based on the summer of '69 and the Manson cult. A must read.
 

The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan

Tor Cardona, Health & Beauty Editor

This was the first book I read in 2018 and will be surprised if I find another like it this year. This beautifully written, heartbreaking novel should be on everyone's list.

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Lu Hough, Head of Fashion & Product

It’s easy to see why this funny, moving novel dominated the charts last year. Awkward, lonesome Eleanor Oliphant learns to confront her illusions and start anew.
 
 

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

Charlotte Collins, Fashion Editor

This story about young black slaves in the Deep South escaping their cotton plantations for a better life is gripping, distressing and entertaining in equal measure. 
 

The Panopticon by Jenni Fagan

Astrid Carter, Deputy Editor

Fifteen-year-old Anais is tenacious, laugh-out-loud funny and heartbreakingly vulnerable all at once. The story follows her life in a young offenders’ institute, the bond she makes with others in there and the failings society has on her. Set in a modern Scotland-cum-alternate reality, the book sits somewhere between Irvine Welsh and Margaret Atwood. 
 
 

Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys by Viv Albertine

Rosy Cherrington, Features Editor & Sub-Editor

This memoir by Slits guitarist Viv Albertine came out in 2014, but I recently spotted it on a friend's bookshelf and it caught my eye. For anyone at all interested in 70s punk music – including the fateful tale of Sid and Nancy – this is a must-read.
 

How to be a Grown Up by Daisy Buchanan

Mia Luckie, Marketing Manager

A feel-good book that reassures us we all have the same fears – no matter how old or successful we are. If you’re in your 20s this will have you laughing out loud, and if you're older I’m sure you'll find it packed full of the nostalgic mistakes we all make in our younger years.
 

Marie Curie: Little People, Big Dreams by Isabel Sanchez Vegara

Emma Wilson, Assistant to the Founder & Editor

I have had a real issue reading traditional fairy tales to my girls, how women are represented just doesn't sit right with me. These books, however are amazing and, although not adult literature, the best books I've read all year.
 
 

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