Amanda's Bookshop Corner

Have I got recommendations for you? Yep! In fact much more than I can fit on this one page!

I’m not yet a bookstore affiliate, so I don’t have a handy shopping link for you, but in support of independent bookstores, if you’re buying online, why not check-in with bookstore.org?

These are books I rate highly so forgive me for waxing effusive and saying they’re all unforgettable must-reads … I’m also terribly distracted by themes and telling you the themes as I perceived them, beats giving you spoilers!

After Sappho - Selby Wynn Schwartz

Selby Wynn Schwartz’s After Sappho delights us with the courage and defiance of women like Lina Poletti. We live their joy and daring with them – but later feel their fear and dismay as fascist ideas take hold, even among those they call friends - and the war drums begin. Set between the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth, historical sources are augmented with bold imagination to tell us a feminist story. It’s a story of women stepping forward in art and politics, debating and challenging gender norms by their very existence, while building communities of support. Infused with wit and love, After Sappho is a celebration of feminism - particularly queer feminism - and a reminder that yesterday’s struggles continue today.

This book is available here

Being Mortal: Illness, Medicine and What Matters in the End - Atul Gawande

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande is a must-read. How do we prepare for death in a timely fashion, so we can embrace it with grace and dignity? It’s never too soon to read this book. To all the trans-humanists out there, this one is for you too! 😉

This book is available here

Here Comes the Sun - Nicole Dennis-Benn

Set in Jamaica, Here Comes The Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn is a book to awaken the sleeping feminist within. If intersectionality doesn’t mean anything to you, it will after you spend time with Margot and Thandi. Poverty, classism, colourism, homophobia and misogyny are each hard enough on their own. But Margot is fighting all these at once – while seeking escape for her sister Thandi.

This book is available here

Home - Amanda Berriman

What does it mean not to have a home? Amanda Berriman’s Home is a poignant adult story, written entirely from four-year-old Jessika’s point of view. Be prepared for the tears when you read this multi-layered book! A heart-breaking and intense read with the relief of a happy resolution at the end.

This book is available here

How Bad Are Bananas?: The carbon footprint of everything - Mike Berners-Lee

When I found Mike Berners-Lee’s How Bad Are Bananas? I finally had useful estimations for questions like: paper books or e-readers? Should we feel guilty about Christmas cards? What’s the greenhouse impact of fireworks? Or wars? Or shipping bananas across the Atlantic? It’s an easy-to-use handbook for being an emission-conscious citizen, a sort of A-Z with the right sort of everyday details about things like boiling a kettle, food choices and getting around. System change will be essential but in the meantime, Mike Berners-Lee’s informed guidance is welcome. And surprise, surprise! Shipping bananas isn’t as emission-heavy as it sounds!

This book is available here

In Love and War - Alex Preston

Alex Preston’s In Love and War opens with the son of an English fascist being sent to Florence as punishment for his transgressions. There he is reformed, but not in the way his father would have hoped because when Florence is drawn into the war, he joins the Resistance against Mussolini. Evocative, affective and atmospheric, this is a novel that left me with a deep sense of the physicality of what it is to be human, and the spirituality of what it is to be honourable.

This book is available here

Love After Love - Ingrid Persaud (Winner of the 2020 Costa First Novel Award)

What is family? Can we hope to find love and forgiveness after betrayal? Love After Love by Ingrid Persaud is as tender in exploring love as it is raw in its depiction of brutality. On another note, the author guides readers through the culture, cooking and places of interest of Trinidad like an undercover tourist guide! But that’s just an added treat to an absorbing and unforgettable story.

This book is available here

Love the Dark Days - Ira Mathur

Spanning three continents, Love The Dark Days by Ira Mathur is a memoir rich with the drama of good fiction. This memoir is a loving tribute to the author’s grandmother Burimummy and to her mentor, the Nobel Prize Winner Derek Walcott. It’s also an exploration of intergenerational family traumas. And woven through the narrative is a little girl, needing more than anything to learn that she’s worthy of love. On top of all this, Love the Dark Days explores the post-colonial conscious process of de-colonisation as well.

This book is available here

My Cat Yugoslavia - Pajtim Statovci (translated by David Hackston)

Patjim Statovci’s My Cat Yugoslavia tells the story of a woman in Kosovo, married off reluctantly to a violent man just before the war in the late 1990’s begins. With the charm of magical realism, the protagonist’s parallel story is told. His is a struggle towards self-acceptance as a gay man – while his mother’s is a struggle towards freedom from the tyranny of her husband. Both face the traumas of being refugees in Finland, and My Cat Yugoslavia is as much a refugee story as an LGBTQ one.

This book is available here

The Overstory - Richard Powers (The million-copy global bestseller and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction)

Overstory by Richard Powers is a book people either love or hate. I thought it was a feat of sheer brilliance. The novel runs with a wide cast of passionate and unforgettable characters who will leave you asking moral questions you may never be able to answer. In Overstory the person is political. And the question is, are Richard Powers’ characters radicalised, or is it everyone else who is drugged up and dumbed down on something called ‘normal’? His novel left me contemplating the relationships I’ve had with individual trees over the years. It reminded me how disconnected I am from nature and invited me to find anew a regard for trees I can only describe as spiritual.

This book is available here