Booook haul!!
Yeaaaah, I know it's practically April and I've not posted much.
That doesn't stop me from telling you all about the books I want to read this year.
I've set myself a goal of 53 books. SAAAAY WAAAAH?
Admittedly I've only read 9 books, but for me right now, that's good going!
*This post will be a mix of reviews and synopsis' recorded in italic taken from goodreads.
001: caleb azumah nelson - open water
No wonder this book was “book of the month” for Waterstones recently… what a mesmerising piece exploring love in all its forms as well as what it means to be a black person in London. This novel comes full circle in its narrative while Nelson has one of the most unique ways of telling a story. I was pretty much hooked from the start.
It felt so full and when the story crashed I felt actual sadness for what one of the main protagonists was feeling. A must read.
002: won-pyung sohn - almond
"Yunjae was born with a brain condition called Alexithymia that makes it hard for him to feel emotions like fear or anger. He does not have friends—the two almond-shaped neurons located deep in his brain have seen to that—but his devoted mother and grandmother aren’t fazed by his condition. Their little home above his mother’s used bookstore is decorated with colorful post-it notes that remind him when to smile, when to say "thank you," and when to laugh. Yunjae grows up content, even happy, with his small family in this quiet, peaceful space.
Then on Christmas Eve—Yunjae’s sixteenth birthday—everything changes. A shocking act of random violence shatters his world, leaving him alone and on his own. Struggling to cope with his loss, Yunjae retreats into silent isolation, until troubled teenager Gon arrives at his school and begins to bully Yunjae.
Against all odds, tormentor and victim learn they have more in common than they realized. Gon is stumped by Yunjae’s impassive calm, while Yunjae thinks if he gets to know the hotheaded Gon, he might learn how to experience true feelings. Drawn by curiosity, the two strike up a surprising friendship. As Yunjae begins to open his life to new people—including a girl at school—something slowly changes inside him. And when Gon suddenly finds his life in danger, it is Yunjae who will step outside of every comfort zone he has created to perhaps become a most unlikely hero."
003: rachel cusk - outline
"A woman writer goes to Athens in the height of summer to teach a writing course. Though her own circumstances remain indistinct, she becomes the audience to a chain of narratives, as the people she meets tell her one after another the stories of their lives.
Beginning with the neighbouring passenger on the flight out and his tales of fast boats and failed marriages, the storytellers talk of their loves and ambitions and pains, their anxieties, their perceptions and daily lives. In the stifling heat and noise of the city the sequence of voice begins to weave a complex human tapestry. The more they talk the more elliptical their listener becomes, as she shapes and directs their accounts until certain themes begin to emerge: the experience of loss, the nature of family life, the difficulty of intimacy and the mystery of creativity itself."
004: gwen e. kirby - shit cassandra saw
I would have totally given this 4 stars, as this was a really unique collection of stories surrounding women through their struggles, triumphs and their viewpoints on the world, but I felt that the some of the stories based in the present day lacked something — compared to the ones set in the past.
I found this book the other week when I entered the brick lane bookshop and wandered around. the cover is super bright and unique and the actual title just spoke “bad ass” to me! (another “it’s a shame” thing, is that the leading title story is very short… I really wanted more out of it)
If you want something different to pick up this year, then do read it (with a pinch of salt, don’t go expecting too much in depth exploration)
005: margaret kennedy - the feast
"A Cornish cliff collapses on top of a seaside resort hotel, squashing everybody but those lucky enough to be away on a picnic. The story tells why some were spared and some were not..."
006: bernardine evaristo - the emperor's babe
"Bernardine Evaristo’s tale of forbidden love in bustling third-century London is an intoxicating cocktail of poetry, history, and fiction. Feisty, precocious Zuleika, daughter of Sudanese immigrants-made-good and restless teenage bride of a rich Roman businessman, craves passion and excitement. When she begins an affair with the emperor, Septimius Severus, she knows her life will never be the same. Streetwise, seductive, and lyrical, with a lively, affecting heroine, The Emperor’s Babe is a strikingly imaginative historical novel-in-verse."
Will you read any of these books?
♡
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