The Virgin Suicides

Jeffrey Eugenides

£9.99 £9.49

This book is what I would consider my favorite book. I reread it this year for the first time in years. It brought back memories of when I used to read it over and over again while in high school and college. Even all these years later, this book still holds such a special place in my heart and has remained such a vital part of my reading life. Jeffrey Eugenides’ writing in this book has a masterful, rhythmic poetic flow. Eugenides is able to take the reader inside the lives of the teenage girls who dominated the attention of the young men in their class and changed their lives. The way in which he writes about youth and how fleeting and difficult it can be is so honest.

in basket add to basket

Pet Sematary: Film tie-in edition of Stephen King's Pet Sematary

Stephen King

£9.99 £9.49

I read a lot Stephen King a few years ago as I was making my way through all his novels. I stopped when I scared myself after reading Salem’s Lot while living in Maine. This year I buddy read Pet Sematary for October and I’m so glad. I was terrified, but at least I was terrified with someone else—I had missed reading King’s work. This book in particular is one of my favorites that I’ve read from him. He explores a parent’s love, just how far a parent would go to protect their child, and what they’re capable of doing when their child is hurt.

in basket add to basket

White Oleander

Janet Fitch

£10.99 £10.44

I think this year had a theme because this was one of many books I read that dealt with mother-daughter relationships and the powerful hold and influence a mother can have on her daughter. White Oleander deals with a daughter who finds herself separated from her mother and has to deal with what that means for the first time in her life. She is trying to deal with the consequences of her mother’s actions while trying to find who she is as her own person.

in basket add to basket

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

£5.99 £5.69

Everyone should read this. Part love story and part study on what it is like to experience being black for the first time in a foreign country. I particularly enjoyed reading about Ifemelu’s experience being a student in the US and having to navigate her way through racism, a somewhat new concept for her. Having been raised in Nigeria, it wasn’t really something she had to deal with. Once she moved overseas to attend university, she had to grapple with being black, but not African American, the importance of a black women’s hair, and interracial relationships. To me, Ngozi Adiche presented something that I don’t think is really discussed too much and that it is, how does it feel to be an individual from African who has just moved to the states? What is their experience?

in basket add to basket

Salvage the Bones

Jesmyn Ward

£9.99 £9.49

I read this book after experiencing two active hurricane seasons which made reading this book a little emotional at times. The love that Esch and her brothers have for each other is so strong and really shows when they’re trying to survive Hurricane Katrina. From the family’s financial troubles, to Esch’s pregnancy, to Skeetah’s new litter of puppies and the incoming storm, it felt like such an honest telling of a family’s perseverance in the face of adversity.

in basket add to basket

Sula

Toni Morrison

£9.99 £9.49

Toni Morrison—like Joan Didion—is another author that I will read anything she has written. Sula was such an eye-opening read and unlike anything I’d read before. In Sula, Morrison presents what it means and feels like to be a black woman and how every decision you make is scrutinized. She explores what it means to be a black mother and the sacrifices you make for your children.

in basket add to basket

If Beale Street Could Talk

James Baldwin

£8.99 £8.54

Undoubtedly, one of my favorite books not just for this year, but of all time. To repeat myself again, Baldwin ranks among Didion and Morrison as an author whose work I want and need to read in its entirety. A love story told in a non-linear form that took me from the present to the past and back again. At times this was a little hard to keep up with, but that allowed me to go back and reread portions. I found this to be a beautiful story while also being incredibly heartbreaking. The love not only between the two main characters of the book, but between the members of Tish’s family was so powerful. Their need to be there for their loved ones and to do anything to protect and save them is something that so many can relate to. Baldwin also explores what it means to be a black man and the failure of the criminal justice system to treat everyone equal, something that hasn’t changed much since this book was published. That is one of the main reasons I find myself coming back to Baldwin’s work - he wrote and published much of his work between the 1960s to the 1980s all of which deal with race, sexuality, and class, and the issues in his books are ones that are still prevalent today.

in basket add to basket

Marlena

Julie Buntin

£8.99 £8.54

This book made me want to hug all my girlfriends and tell them how much I love and appreciate them. So many of us can relate to meeting a new friend and finding ourselves pulled into their web, wanting to spend everyday with them. Julie Buntin weaved a story of love, loss, and friendship that pulled me in and kept me turning the pages late into the night.

in basket add to basket