World Book Day: Must Reads
It’s World Book Day today and even though most of the world is still under strict pandemic regulations, working and schooling from home, I hope old readers and new readers alike get the chance to treat themselves to some downtime with a really good book. I’m kicking back and sharing with you a few I’ve enjoyed through the lockdowns. When I was asked to write this article, I gawked for a minute at picking only five books as “must reads” — there are so many good (and crappy) books out there! — but I’ve managed to narrow it down to my favourites in the last two years.
THE DEATH OF VIVEK OJI - AKWAEKE EMEZI (2020)
My first pick is a delicately heavy and raw one. Emezi blew me out of this earthly realm with their first novel, Freshwater (2018), so it should really have come as no surprise what they did to scatter ground with The Death of Vivek Oji. We are weaved through Vivek Oj’s poignantly short-lived youth, fully engaging with us both in life and in death. The title might allude to a mystery to be solved, yes, but the novel also unfolds to reveal glimpses of true selves, true understanding, true love and true acceptance. There are times when it felt I was reading the characters in colour and other times, as a black-and-white motion picture. You might see parts of yourself in this, or someone you know, or you might not, either way, I hope this book reaches all the hearts and hands it’s meant for, I hope this voice is heard by all the ears that need it.
EVERYTHING INSIDE - EDWIDGE DANTICAT (2019)
This past year brought death and grief to our front doors, with all kinds of loss and heartbreak attached. Sometimes they served as reminders of old wounds, and other times as strange new incisions. Death and grief that were sometimes familiar, death and grief that we did not know how to name. We’ve either all lost someone or know someone who’s lost someone in the past year. We’ve been the support or have needed the support more than ever. Collective and individual grief surround us constantly, and no one person can give any of us a blanket solution to navigating this plane. Danticat, who has always delved into the beauty and ugliness of pain, brings us face to face with such navigation in this brilliant collection of short stories. In the last year, I have gone back to the stories here, to find new acknowledgment and recognition, every single time.
PATSY - NICOLE DENNIS-BENN (2019)
Patsy, was the novel on an immigrant woman’s life I didn’t know I’d see myself and so many other women in. Three generations of women revealed to us as their lives unravel through the span of a decade between the United States and Jamaica. This story holds you together at its seams, allowing you to almost feel the very fabric used to sew it together. Pasty is intimate and distant, it is hopeful and painful, and Dennis-Benn does not shy away from the messiness of mother-daughter relationships across borders at all. She doesn’t make motherhood or girlhood pretty or quaint around the edges, she tells it as it is, with sheer honesty and skillful storytelling, in vibrant hues and colours to really move her reader’s hearts.
FRYING PLANTAIN - ZALIKA REID-BENTA (2019)
Another wonderful semi-autobiographical collection of twelve short stories, light-hearted at times and heavy-handed at others, centered around a young Jamaican girl moving from childhood to young adulthood. I might be slightly biased in my review because Frying Plantain is one of my favourite things to do BUT also because the stories are based in Toronto, a city I’ve lived in for the past decade. I found myself screeching or laughing out loud as I recognized places and slangs, neighbourhoods and communities myself, family and friends have come from or been a part of. I think what Reid-Benta tries to do is keep the innocence and joys of girlhood alive, but also show us the ways in which it can be painful, lonely and scary in the discovery of and transition to womanhood. There’s no doubt you’ll find moments of sadness, but also moments of happiness, contentment and satisfaction in her writing.
LOVE IN COLOUR - BOLU BABALOLA (2020)
My absolute favourite read of 2020! I really didn’t think I was a sucker for romance but Love in Colour h as definitely made me rethink that. Babalola draws her inspiration from real life stories, folktales and mythologies across the world, to expertly re-tell stories of love and heartbreak, of acceptance and rejection, of joy and pain, of laughter and misery. Her writing is witty and intentional, blink and you might miss something! You’ll want to read this slowly, taking your time settling into each story as it’s so hard to put down! I’ve read this collection three times and will probably go back to it a few more times in anticipation of her forthcoming debut novel, Honey & Spice.