May Line Up

This month, the theme is Family Matters. I think family dynamics make for great reading and it’s interesting to read about situations that can be similar enough to your own to feel familiar yet different enough to make you feel like you’ve stepped into another life for a while. Regardless of how you define your family, it is often through these relationships that we learn to navigate our world and understand ourselves in relation to others. For May I have tried to choose works that explore notions of family in unexpected ways.

If you look at the list and it seems like I’ve added an extra weekend to May (I wish), I am trying to make up for lost time. There have been two weeks since I started this challenge that I didn’t make my reading goal, so I am going to add a book this month and next to get back on track (32 down … 20 more to go). Wish me luck.

May 4, 2019: Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo

Since discovering Chimamanda Adiche, I feel like my eyes have been opened to all this great fiction coming out of Nigeria. Recommended by one of my colleagues, Adebayo is a new author to me. The novel is set in Ilesa, Nigeria and follows the relationship of a couple who seem like they should be happy and secure in their marriage. Despite being deeply in love, Yejide and Akin are unable to have a child. The increasing pressure put on the couple to have a family begins to test the strength of the marriage. When Akin is coerced into taking a second wife, Yejide knows that she must get pregnant at any cost in order to save her marriage. Before picking up this book I hadn’t realized that polygamy used to be common practice in Nigeria; although it doesn’t seem to have had the same religious connection that it has in other cultures and I will admit that I am very curious about how it plays out on the page.

May 11, 2019: The Almost Sisters by Joshilyn Jackson

Leia Birch Briggs is a comic book artist. She is also 38 and pregnant for the first time. The father is an anonymous Batman she met at a comi-con. Before Leia can tell her traditional Alabama family about her impending single-motherhood, her stepsister Rachel’s marriage falls apart. To add to the chaos, Leia’s beloved grandmother begins suffering from dementia and Leia must return home to help her put her affairs in order. Jackson’s writing sounds witty and has that wry sense of humour that I like with the added bonus of inter-generational family drama.

May 18, 2019: The One-in-a-Million Boy by Monica Wood

Ona is 104 years old. Every Saturday morning, an eleven year old boy comes to help her out. As he goes about his chores, Ona finds herself telling him the story of her life including secrets she’s held on to for years. One morning, the boy doesn’t show up and Ona thinks perhaps he wasn’t the person she believed him to be. But then the boy’s father arrives, determined to finish his son’s work, and his mother isn’t far behind. I have a feeling this one is going to be a bit of a heart breaker…

May 25, 2019: Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris

Despite hearing his name probably dozens of times, I’ve never read anything by David Sedaris. He’s a regular contributor to NPR’s This American Life (again, heard great things but I’ve never listened myself). In this collection of essays, he recounts stories from his own family that show the absurdity in the everyday. Sedaris is one of the most renowned humour writers in America today so if you love to laugh, you might want to read along with this one.

May 31, 2019: A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza

A wedding is often a time for families to come together and it serves as the linchpin for Mirza’s debut novel. Hadia, the daughter of an Indian Muslim family, is getting married but as everyone gathers for the wedding, the focus is not on Hadia so much as her estranged younger brother, Amar, who is returning to the family fold for the first time in three years. The novel delves into the family’s tensions and secrets that drove a wedge between them as they struggle to try to find their way back to each other.

One of my favourite things about blogging about books is the conversations I get to have with other readers. I love hearing what others are reading. So now that you know what I’ll be reading for May, it’s your turn – what’s next in your TBR pile? Let me know if there is anything you think I should add to my summer reading list!

April Line Up

This month’s theme is, ‘can you keep a secret?’ Each of the novels for April center around secrets. One of them is a mystery in the conventional sense, but the rest are novels where secrets drive the story in other ways. There is something delicious about a good secret and as a reader, I find it so compelling to try to unravel them. I hope some of these secrets appeal to you and you find something in this month’s line up to read along with me.

April 6, 2019: Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

I’ve never read any novels by Taylor Jenkins Reid and I wasn’t too sure about this one – it’s set in the 1970s and follows a rock band as they make music and go on tour. No one knows why the group split after their last show in Chicago in 1979 at the height of their popularity but the secret is revealed over the course of the novel. I was on the fence about reading this one, but a new friend gave it the thumbs up so I decided to put it on the list for this month and happily borrowed her copy.

April 13, 2019: A Rule Against Murder by Louise Penny

Penny is a Canadian novelist and A Rule Against Murder is part of her Three Pines series (I think there are fourteen of them now). All of the novels are set in Quebec and I love them for the sense of atmosphere Penny creates and the cast of quirky characters that populate her fictional world of Three Pines. You don’t need to read the series in order, each mystery can stand alone although there are over-arching plots. In this one, family secrets lead to murder at a isolated Manior and Chief Inspector Gamache must solve the case.

April 20, 2019: The Library of Lost and Found by Phaedra Patrick

I’m a sucker for a book about books, which is what first led me to pick up Patrick’s latest novel. If you are a book nerd like me, how is this for a story line? The main character is Martha Storm, an awkward but kindhearted librarian. One day, a mysterious book of fairy tales arrives on her doorstep and the dedication is written by her grandmother, Zelda, who died mysteriously years before. Martha comes to believe her grandmother may still be alive and starts to follow the clues that ultimately reveal family secrets.

April 27, 2019: The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

At the end of the ball, Evelyn Hardcastle is murdered. But it doesn’t look like a murder, so the murderer doesn’t get caught. Until Aiden, one of the guests at the party, can solve the murder the day will repeat itself, over and over again and Evelyn will be killed each night. I really like it when authors take a genre you think you know and push its boundaries. This is Turton’s debut and I am really excited to see how this story unfolds.

March Line Up

The theme this month is, “Might I Recommend?” I love book recommendations because often the books that get recommended to me are not ones I would have picked up on my own. I’m lucky to have friends, family and coworkers with great taste in reading so I never have to look very far for my next read. Lately (and against my better judgement) I have also started listening to the podcast, What Should I Read Next? Somehow, the host, Anne Bogel, is living my best life. On her show, she interviews people who engage in what she calls, “the reading life”. At the end of each interview – and this is the part where I should really hit stop but I never do – she asks her guests for three books they loved and one book they hated and from there, she recommends other books she thinks they would enjoy. And I literally sit there listening with my Amazon app open. It’s not a good scene. Well, with those personal demons unleashed, here is this month’s line up:

March 2, 2019: Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson

Anne Bogol has recommended Meet Me at the Museum twice in recent episodes. It is a novel written in letters between Tina Hopgood, an elderly farmer’s wife from England, and Anders Larsen, a Danish museum curator. When Tina sends a letter to a man now long dead, she gets an unexpected response from Anders. Both of them are searching to make sense of their lives – Tina married young and never did the things she dreamed of as a girl; Anders has lost his wife, as well as his hopes for the future. Through their exchange of letters, their friendship grows and then Tina’s letters suddenly stop. Oddly, their friendship begins with their mutual interest in The Tollund Man, a preserved body unearthed in a peat bog in Denmark in 1950. This novel seems to have just the right amount of quirkiness to pique my interest right now.

March 9, 2019: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

This book won the Pulitzer and the National Book Award (and about half a dozen other major awards) but it is also recommended by Oprah, Barack Obama and one of my best friends. So who could ask for more than that? The Underground Railroad tells the story of a runaway slave, Cora, and her flight through the Underground Railroad with one key difference – in Whitehead’s novel, the underground railroad isn’t a metaphor, it’s a series of secret tunnels and tracks that run beneath the lands of the South. This isn’t a novel I would have naturally gravitated towards but I am trying to expand my own reading life a little more and I’m interested to see how Whitehead combines history and fantasy to examine the antebellum era.

March 16, 2019: Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

This novel is set on the coast of North Carolina. In late 1969, a man is found dead and locals suspect “Marsh Girl”, a young woman who has survived for years alone in the marshes. The book jacket doesn’t give much more away but it was recommended to me by a co-worker who hasn’t steered me wrong yet, and it was one of Reese Witherspoon’s book club picks (Reese is a bit more hit and miss than my co-worker). It’s also a debut novel and I am a bit of a sucker for a good debut so I am looking forward to chasing some gray March skies away with this one.

March 23, 2019: Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Another debut, Homegoing begins in eighteenth-century Ghana. Two half sisters, Effia and Esi are born in different villages and fate takes them in very different directions: one marries an Englishman and lives in relative luxury in the notorious Cape Coast Castle, the other is captured by slavers and shipped off from the same castle to America to be sold into slavery. The novels follow the families of the sisters through eight generations and examines the impact of slavery on those who were taken and those who stayed. It made a lot of “best book of the year” lists in 2016 and since then several people have told me how much they loved it. It’s been on my shelf for a while so it’s time to read it, I think.

March 30, 2019: My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

When I first heard about this novel on What Should I Read Next?, I couldn’t resist (damn you, Amazon app!) Here is the premise: the main character, Korede’s sister is beautiful and the favorite child. She might also be a serial killer who murders her boyfriends rather than just breaking up with them. And then Korede, the dutiful sister, must help her cover up her crimes. Korede is in love with a local doctor, but when he asks her for her sister’s number, she has to reckon with what her sister has become. Part thriller, part dark comedy My Sister, the Serial Killer was originally published in Nigeria and its yet another debut. I’m thinking a mix between a romantic comedy and Dexter?

I love the idea of having people tell you three books they love and one they hated. Listening to people tell you why they loved particular books is so much fun. Where do you get your book recommendations? If you’ve read any in this month’s line up, drop me a line and let me know! I’d ask for your recommendations but honestly, this To Read Pile is out of control.

February Line Up

Since it’s February, the theme this month will be “love” in honor of Valentine’s Day but before you go breaking out the Harlequins, you should know that I am not exactly a roses and chocolates kind of gal so I tried to choose books that would avoid all the cliched bodice ripping and come at the theme in unique ways.

February 9, 2019: An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

This book appeared on just about every “best of 2018” list I came across. Set in contemporary Atlanta, it is the story of newlyweds Celestial and Roy. While their marriage is troubled from the beginning, they seem passionately in love. Then Roy is convicted of a crime he didn’t commit and sent to prison. After five years, Roy’s sentence is overturned and he is free but when he returns, it is uncertain whether Celestial still considers herself his wife. Her career as an artist has taken off and she is in a relationship with her childhood best friend, Andre. When Roy arrives on her doorstep a free man, Celestial is left to choose between continuing to build a life with Andre, or trying to save her marriage.

February 16, 2019: Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal

This novel is about a group of women who join a writing class in London’s Punjabi community. The main character, Nikki, realizes that her students, mostly Sikh widows, have a wealth of memories and fantasies to share and their little community begins to express their creativity and secrets within the confines of the class. But a group called the Brothers threatens to expose their scandalous stories in reaction to what they see as the failings of the women’s morality. The book speaks to the power of women’s communities and stories while remaining heart-warming and funny.

February 23, 2019: The Power by Naomi Alderman

This is another book that made a lot of “best of” lists when it was published in 2016. The Power is a little nod to those of you who might be looking for something a little anti-Valentine’s to read this February. It was recommended to me by a couple of friends who said they couldn’t get through it fast enough. Set in a world that seems like ours, a new force emerges – women and teenage girls have suddenly developed incredible strength and they can cause pain or even death with only the slightest effort. With this one change, everything we recognize shifts drastically. I find speculative fiction like this interesting because in inventing a new world, it often provokes questions about our own.

So here they are, the February reads for 2019 and not a Danielle Steele to be seen. If you are planning to read any of these, or have already beat me to them, I would love to hear your thoughts. Until next time, happy reading!

January Line Up

Happy 2019 everybody! I hope you rang in the New Year in style. Thank you for all the comments and support in December – I was way behind schedule and you were very patient as I got back on track. It has been incredibly cool to hear all the people who have been reading and sharing the blog and I am really grateful to you for following along with me and sharing the books you are excited about.

I really enjoyed a lot of the books I reviewed last month and I hope my luck holds out for January. The theme for this month is going to be “keeping secrets” for no reason other than that all the books I really want to read next have secrets as a common feature. If you have read any of them, I would love to hear from you!

January 5, 2019 – The House at Riverton by Kate Morton

If you are following along at home, you might be thinking, “hey, she was supposed to review that last month.” And you would be right dear reader, but December was a month with 5 Saturdays and the novel is 471 pages long (I already started and it’s really good by the way) and well, I just couldn’t get through it all on time. Luckily, this is my blog and I get to make up the rules as I go along so I am reviewing it as my first book of 2019. (And I will catch up. I promise. Probably not until July though.)

January 12, 2019 – Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

I enjoyed Little Fires Everywhere so much that when I dug Ng’s other novel out of my pile, I couldn’t resist adding it to the January list. The story centers around the death of Lydia, the favorite child of the Lee family. Her death brings secrets to the surface and unravels the bonds that hold the Lees together.

January 19, 2019 – Melmoth by Sarah Perry

This novel is set in Prague but also jumps time and space to 1930s Cairo, the Ottoman Empire during the First World War, Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, Manila, central Africa and London. It is modern Gothic (which, if you haven’t noticed yet, I kind of have a weakness for) but seriously – there is a mysterious letter found in a Czech library, a surprise confession, the legend of Melmoth, a dark creature who seeks out the cowardly and complicit across history and a sudden disappearance – how can I resist all that? It seems like a perfect dark story for such a dark month.

January 26 – The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic by Leigh Bardugo

I am normally not a fan of short stories but I have read Bardugo’s YA fiction and she is a first-rate story teller. Her work infuses elements of fairy tales, folk lore, religion and magic in a world of her own creation. This new book is a collection of modern fairy tales influenced by the stories Bardugo read in her youth. While her subject matter is very different from Ami McKay’s, their writing shares that same quality of stories told by firelight with darkness all around.

I hope there is something here that inspires you to pick up one of these books this month. If you plan on reading any of them along with me, comment and let everything know your thoughts.

Now I have to go – there are still 300 more pages of The House at Riverton to get through before Saturday! Until then, happy reading!

December Line Up

OK, so, have you ever heard of Jolabokaflod? If you haven’t, get ready for this: it’s an Icelandic traditional that roughly translates to ‘the Christmas book flood’. It turns out that every year, publishers in Iceland release their new titles in the run-up to Christmas (side note: turns out the Icelandic are a very bookish people). So every year, the ‘Book Bulletin’ – a catalogue of the new books – is published and then everyone spends the next several weeks going through it and deciding what books they are going to give (and hope to get) for Jolabokaflod. Which is all very nice except I haven’t gotten to the best part – on Christmas Eve, Icelanders exchange books and chocolate and then sit around in their pjs reading their new books and eating their new chocolate. HOW GREAT IS THAT? So while I clearly do not need any new books this Christmas (don’t take that as a hint not to get me any), I thought I would go through my TRP and choose the books I would most like to read for the December Line Up – a little early Jolabokaflod gift to myself. So without further ado, here goes:

December 1: The Grave’s a Fine and Private Place by Alan Bradley

This is the ninth novel in Bradley’s Flavia de Luce mystery series. Flavia is a twelve year old chemistry genius with a penchant for solving murders. I love Bradley’s novels because they are darkly comedic and while they play with conventions of British mystery novels, they are not at all predictable. And … Bradley’s next novel in the series is coming out in January so I really do need to get a move on.

December 8: Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

This one came up on so many “best of 2018” lists this year that I felt like I had to read it. The novel follows the stories of two families who are connected but ultimately divided by a community conflict. It deals with the price of secrets, the nature of art and identity and the dangers that come from following the rules.

December 15: Half Spent Was the Night by Ami McKay

I really enjoyed Ami McKay’s novels The Birth House and The Virgin Cure. This novella follows the three witches from Witches of New York (which is also in the TRP) in the nights between Christmas a New Year’s. They receive an invitation to attend a New Year’s masquerade ball at the home of a stranger – and as the witches go into the New York night to meet their mysterious host, they may be facing unknown dangers.

December 22: Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty

I think I’m at the point where Liane Moriarty could publish the phone book and I might buy it. I have really enjoyed her other novels which are big, generous, gossipy stories set in contemporary Australia. In this novel, nine people gather at Tranquillum House, a health resort, to recover from what ails them. The main character, Frances, is soon fascinated by the houses’ owner. Within days, all the guests are asking, should they surrender to the “recovery” that Tranquillum House offers, or run while they still can?

December 29: The House at Riverton by Kate Morton

This one came recommended by a friend. The House at Riverton reminds me of The Thirteenth Tale – a story line that shifts between the early twentieth century and the contemporary world, a shocking death and secrets revealed. It sounds like the perfect book for unraveling in front of a warm fire over the holidays.

I am really excited for this month’s books. If you are planning on reading along, let me know. Happy Jolabokaflod, everyone. I wish you books and chocolate this holiday.

November Line Up

While I am usually happy with my home on the east coast, if there is one month I feel a little less than grateful, it’s November. It’s dark, cold, wet, dreary, gray – I could play this game for a long time, folks. So for this month, the theme is “Get Me Out of Here!” If I can’t escape the magical weather combination of drizzle and sleet that November brings in real life, at least I can travel via book. All of this month’s selections are set in other places so maybe you’ll find one in here too to help you beat the November blahs.

November 3: The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin. I first picked this book up because I loved the cover (I know what you’re thinking but let’s all admit, sometimes beautiful books actually do have beautiful covers). The concept behind the story is really interesting: one hot summer day in 1969, four siblings in New York City visit a psychic who tell each one the exact day they will die. The rest of the novel is divided into four parts, one devoted to each sibling as Benjamin reveals how the prophecy influences each of their lives. The story zigzags across the US as the siblings move away from their childhood home in NYC in pursuit of their dreams.

November 10: The Little French Bistro by Nina George. I really enjoyed George’s other novel, The Little Paris Bookshop, which hooked me with the idea of a bookshop in a canal boat that goes floating around the rivers of France. It was totally charming and sweet, oh, and there were recipes in the back of the book for all the French food George writes about in the novel. What’s not to love? In her new novel, George’s main character, Marianne, packs it in after she can stand her unhappy marriage no longer and leaves Paris for the Brittany coast. And there are recipes again, so I will let you know if I try any…

November 17: Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton. This is a recent Reese’s Book Club pick. I will admit, I really do love Reese Witherspoon. She is amazing in HBO’s Big Little Lies (if you haven’t watched it, read the book first, it is so good) and she does a lot to promote all things bookish. I also really love Cuba. The country, the people and the culture are beautiful and the island’s history is fascinating so I was sold on this book. The story is set between 1958, in the years before the revolution and in Miami in 2017 and follows two women, Elisa, a member of a wealthy Cuban family who is forced to flee during the revolution and Marisol, her granddaughter, who eventually returns to Cuba to scatter Elisa’s ashes in the country of her birth.

November 24: Dear Mrs. Bird by AJ Pearce. This novel is set in London during World War II. The main character, Emmeline, dreams of becoming a war correspondent. Instead, she ends up answering letters for Mrs. Bird, a renowned advice columnist. Mrs. Bird tells Emmy to throw any letters that involve Unpleasantness straight into the garbage but Emmy ends up reading them and answering them in secret. This book is supposed to be both funny and moving, so I am really looking forward to it.

So there we are, the continental US, France, Cuba and England. You can take your pick but while the November rain pours down, I am going to be somewhere cozy with a good book and I hope you will be too. Let me know if you plan on picking up any of November’s books!

October Line Up

Hello, hello, hello!

Welcome back! I hope you are ready for things that go bump in the night. October is one of my very favourite months: I love seeing the leaves changing, the nights getting longer, and there is something about an October moon that is equal parts eerie and enchanting. Winter is not quite upon us, Halloween is creeping in, and I start to feel that pull to find a cozy chair, curl up in a blanket and read some scary stories. Maybe you are like me and as a kid you stayed awake reading late into the night by flashlight because the book you were reading was just too scary and you couldn’t possibly go to sleep. I still love that shiver of fear that I get when I read a good mystery or thriller so this month for some All Hallow’s Eve fun, the theme is mystery and murder.

October 6: A Murder of Magpies by Judith Flanders. One of my best friends gave me this for my birthday and I’m really looking forward to reading it. I love mystery novels that feature a good amateur sleuth. I still get excited (like, too excited) if someone brings up Nancy Drew. Seriously, do not mention Nancy to me unless you are ready for a chat: consider yourself warned. This book follows in that tradition. Its main character is middle-aged Samantha Clair, who works in publishing. One of her authors is about to release a tell-all on a scandal within the fashion industry and someone is willing to go to desperate lengths to make sure that doesn’t happen … and – you guessed it – Sam has to get to the bottom of it. As a bonus, this book is supposed to be really funny. What’s not to love?

October 13: Fear by Dirk Kurbjuweit. This book seems reminiscent of Herman Koch’s The Dinner, another clever and disturbing mystery which definitely had me up reading way past my bedtime. Fear begins with the father of the main character, Randolph, being imprisoned for murder. The narrative then follows the events leading up to the father’s incarceration. The story line is unsettling and questions the moral codes of middle class life. I like stories like this because they push the expectations of the genre and this often makes them resonate longer with me. (And if that hasn’t sold you, there is an obsessive neighbour named – wait for it – Dieter. I’m assuming you’re sold now.)

October 20: in a dark, dark wood by Ruth Ware. Okay, this one I just want to read because of the title. I confess that I am someone who will pick up a book because I like the cover, or the title, or even the endorsement (in this case, Reese Witherspoon). But listen to that title: in a dark, dark wood. There is something about the notion of a dark forest that elicits the unknown, the fear that you are not alone and that unseen eyes are watching – that something is coming. That fear that makes you want to turn on the light and double-check that you locked the front door. This book features a reclusive writer, an eerie glass house in the middle of the woods and mystery … just perfect before Halloween.

October 27: The Massey Murder by Charlotte Gray. I have read several excellent historical novels based on real crimes: Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood, Burial Rites by Hannah Kent, and Slammerkin by Emma Donoghue to name a few. I am always interested in how the authors were able to weave together the actual events in such a way that brought history to life and that interest lead me to The Massey Murders. This book is non-fiction and recounts the murder of a member of one of Canada’s wealthiest families in 1915. His eighteen-year-old maid quickly confessed and what followed was a sensational trial. The history buff in me couldn’t leave this one on the pile.

So, that’s it for this coming month. Please let me know if you plan to read along with any of this month’s books, or if you’ve already read them – I love hearing what you think! Bonus points for anyone who can recognize the end papers in the picture below – post a comment! Happy reading, everyone – don’t stay up too late…

September Line Up

Hello, hello, hello!

First of all, I want to say thank you everyone who took the time to send me encouragement on my first blog post. Putting my little blog into the big wide world is slightly scary so I really appreciated the support and I really hope you will continue to come visit me here so we can talk books.

I wanted to give you an idea of the books I’ll be reviewing in September, in case you want to read along – maybe some of them are already lurking in your TRP … time to dust them off! Remember the theme for the month is to try something new or look at something old in a new way so with that in mind, here’s the line up:

September 1: Better than Before by Gretchen Rubin. As I mentioned in my first post, this is a non-fiction book that focuses on how to make and break habits. Seems like a good place to start at the beginning of a new school year.

September 8: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. I have to admit, I am a novel snob. They are my first and deepest love so they will pop up regularly on the blog. This novel looks at something old (a love story) in a new way – the protagonist and her love interest are well, weird (the book jacket describes Eleanor as having, “deadpan weirdness and unconscious wit” and her love interest as, “the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office”). So, Romeo and Juliet, they ain’t.

September 15: Very Good Lives: the Fringe Benefits of Failure and the Importance of Imagination by J.K. Rowling. This is actually a published version of a speech Rowling gave at Harvard University. I’m sure you can find it online but I bought the book because, really, she needs the money, poor girl. I’m excited to read it because I think that failure gets a bad rap a lot of the time and as a teacher and a mom, I know that sometimes the most valuable learning experiences we have are from when we fail. Ahem, like when my students or kids fail, we don’t need to get into #momfails here.

September 22: Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Adichie is a Nigerian-born author and I have read her novel, Half a Yellow Sun and her short story collection, The Thing Around Your Neck (despite the aforementioned novel snobbery). I really like the way her work examines both Nigerian and Western experiences because it helps you to see things from new perspectives so I am looking forward to reading this one.

September 29: Drunk Tank Pink by Adam Alter. This book looks at how the subconscious shapes our thoughts, feelings and behaviour and besides that awesome title, I decided to add another non-fiction book to this month because my husband read it and talked about it so much that I decided to read it too. It’s also recommended by Malcolm Gladwell in case you don’t want to take my husband’s word for it.

So that’s the line up, folks. There will also be a children’s or YA pick at some point during the month for a Throwback Thursday and I will put out one Bonus Book Blog to try to entice you into reading one of my favourites. Happy reading, everybody!