Toni Morrison’s Beloved is another classic that has taken me a while to come to. Why? As with many revered books, that is a question with a very long answer! Beloved is obviously in a league all it’s own. I…
Woman At Point Zero is a powerful translated novel, narrated as a first hand account of Firdaus’ life. It was written by Nawal El Saadawi through her real life case studies of Egyptian Women in prison in the early 1970s.…
The Hundred Wells Of Salaga by Ayesha Harruna Attah has reminded me that I don’t know enough about Ghanaian history! A reason historical fiction is a favourite genre of mine is that it always makes me want to research. Impossible…
Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour satirises the experience of being a minority in a corporate environment. The only Black person at a start up to be precise. Darren Vender is a high school valedictorian who didn’t persue academia but coasts,…
During the beginnings of Social Distance life in 2020, I ordered The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett. I’d heard so much good about it and also, it was lockdown times- occasionally I would buy a book just to make me…
In The Palace Of Flowers has been pure escapism for me over the past few days. Everything about it is insistent on me being somewhere else. The time, place, social norms, the sex even. I love historical fiction for teaching…
Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is a genuine classic for me. There is just so much to be said on the themes and ideology that make up this story. No matter what I say, I’m sure someone, somewhere, some academic…
I loved Gloria Naylor’s writing in The Women Of Brewster Place. The type of story telling that makes you feel like your aunt or grandmother is sitting you down telling you about someone’s life RIGHT NOW! There are passages that…
How The One Armed Sister Sweeps Her House begins with a cautionary myth told to Lala by her grandmother. An attempt to protect her from the startling hurt that follows generations of women in their family under the guise of…