Spring Refresh: The Coco de Mer Reading List
With longer evenings on the horizon, there has never been a better time to delight in a good read and stir the imagination.
Allow us to share a few of our recent favourite reads. From insightful essays and poetic musings to the kind of fiction you can’t put down, we have got it covered.
Put your feet up, light a candle (naturally, we recommend our Roseravished Massage Candle) and allow us to inspire some well-deserved spring reading.
These books really will take you places...
All the Men I Never Married - Kim Moore
Bold and transcendent in equal measure.
Through this collection of 48 poems, Moore challenges the complexity of desire, through a refreshingly feminist gaze, taking the reader on a journey through rage, pain, intimacy and love.
These provocative poems have been written from a place of vulnerability, dismantling the policing of women's bodies through her own personal experiences.
Moore’s honesty and poetic witness stir all kinds of questions, making space for the reader to reckon with their experiences of desire in a world that silences women.
A History of Women in 101 Objects - Annabelle Hirsch
The history we didn't learn in school…
Through 101 inspiring and nuanced objects, Hirsch creates a new history, celebrating the too-often-overlooked history and influence of women. Delving into history, culture, politics, fashion and art, each object has been selected to stir curiosity and shine a light on the impact women have made on the way we live.
Hirsch’s writing is witty and personable, making this book an enjoyable yet educational Spring read. And it's not often we get to learn about the invention of a glass dildo and a safety bicycle in the same breath, right?
The Vanishing Half - Brit Bennett
The Vanishing Half is a captivating novel, exploring identity, race, class and sexuality.
The story follows the Vignes' identical twin sisters who grew up in a small southern black community. After running away at sixteen, their lives have played out dramatically differently as adults, from the communities they surround themselves with to their own racial identities.
One sister chooses to live with her black daughter in the same Southern town she once escaped, while the other intentionally passes for white, keeping her past life away from her white husband and family. Separated by silence and distance, the twins' fates remain entwined to the next generation.
Thought-provoking literature at its finest.
Unspeakable Shaking Pleasures - Lucy Debussy
Unspeakable Shaking Pleasures is an instantly engaging read, featuring a rich collection of erotic stories to tantalise and humour.
Through tales of women stepping into their sexual power, Debussy explores the possibilities of desire and sexuality, including queer and gender-bending stories.
Surrender to the sensual nature of Debussy’s writing, and have your very own spring awakening…
How You Might Know Me - Sabrina Mahfouz
Fascinating and emotional, How You Might Know Me explores the lives of four women, connected through their experience in different areas of the UK’s sex industry.
Through a poetic lens, Mahfouz draws upon both her own experience and the experience of women she has met in the sex industry to examine the politics of desire, the nuances of sex work and the current status of women’s equality in the UK.
Mahfouz’s writing is lyrical and urgent considering a broad range of backgrounds, ethnicities and ages, in a context that is full of varying sexual encounters and surprises.
A glorious reimagining of Nancy Mitford’s ‘The Pursuit of Love’, written from a contemporary lens.
The kind of novel you can finish in an afternoon, Darling begins in a Norfolk farmhouse, following teenage Linda Radlett who longs for love and feels destined for greater things. Through humour and imagination, Knight paints a vivid picture of Linda’s eccentric family and urgent accounts of love and desire.
After eventually leaving her Norfolk roots, Linda heads to London in pursuit of love, a journey of twists, romance and emotion that is more than she could have ever imagined.
If you’re looking for a spring escape, look no further.
Men Explain Things to Me - Rebecca Solnit
Men Explain Things to Me is a powerful collection of essays, exploring how sexism perpetuates itself, and what we can do to eliminate it.
Written for all the women who have ever felt belittled by men, Solnit examines the misogyny that is so inherent in our culture and the harsh consequences this has.
From everyday mansplaining to legal systems that fail to appropriately punish rape, this book is guaranteed to get you questioning and ignite a desire for change.
Delta of Venus is a groundbreaking collection of erotic short stories originally published in 1977.
As revolutionary now as it was back then, Nin writes about an enchanting cascade of sexual encounters, evoking a sense of female liberation.
The stories offer a refreshing new gaze on an area that was previously dominated by male writers. Following the lives of a Hungarian adventurer, a Parisian hatmaker, and many more fascinating characters, Delta of Venus takes the reader on a journey through the senses, daring them to reimagine their sensuality and lean into their desires.
Spring getaway on the horizon? Add this to your packing list.
Arias is a poetic exploration of intimacy, love and estrangement, where Olds combines tender details of her personal relations with her political conscience.
The book weaves together Olds’ experience with the family she grew up with, on becoming a mother herself and all the passion and encounters that happened in between. Her writing leaves nothing off limits, as she explores what it means to feel close to another and how it feels to be separated from people we love.
Meaningful and beautifully honest, this is a book that deserves a place on every woman's bookshelf.
This book is a raw and compelling memoir where Suleyman shares her devastating personal testimony of betrayal and the ways it changed her for the better.
Following a series of events, Suleyman discovers the truth her boyfriend has been keeping from her and many other women, leaving behind a trail of lies and trauma. This blends into an insightful exploration of the way women are continuously duped every day, as Suleyman challenges how our society continually allows this to happen.
A true celebration of sisterhood that delves into the power and importance of female friendships, and the ways women can help dismantle misogyny together.
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