Fruit of the Lemon and the Stories of Our Elders
Synopsis “Faith Jackson fixes herself up with a great job in TV and the perfect flatshare. But neither is that perfect – and nor are her relations with her overbearing, though always loving family. Furious and perplexed when her parents announce their intention to retire back home to Jamaica, Faith makes her own journey there, where she is immediately welcomed by her Aunt Coral, keeper of a rich cargo of family history. Through the weave of her aunt’s storytelling a cast of characters unfolds stretching back to Cuba and Panama, Harlem and Scotland, a story that passes through London and sweeps through continents.” – Goodreads For me, Fruit of the Lemon…
How to Get Your Reading Mojo Back
When the world first began to properly grapple with COVID-19 and we went into lockdown, some of us pledged to use that time to work on ourselves: to learn a new language or instrument, to learn to cook, or to finally make time for reading. But the truth, that many of us weren’t prepared for, is that living through a pandemic is hard. Being in lockdown is hard. And for people who were still working full-time, that free time we thought would materialise simply did not. I was one of the people who wanted to make the most of lockdown and upskill, especially as I was not in full-time employment.…
2021: My Bookish Goals
At the end of 2019 I wrote a post detailing my reading pledges for 2020. This was, of course, pre-pandemic and I was looking forward to the new year and feeling hopeful. Suffice it to say, I didn’t meet those pledges. I started my reading challenge, but then lockdown and the difficulties it brought to other areas of my life (which I wrote about here), meant that I hit a reading slump as my mind was constantly elsewhere. In February, I broke my pledge not to buy any new books for the first six months of the year when I attended an author event with Candice Carty-Williams and Sareeta Domingo.…
The Vanishing Half: Love, Identity & Empathy
Synopsis “The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it’s not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it’s everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation,…
On ‘Diversifying’ Your Bookshelf
Over the summer, as the Black Lives Matter protests took hold across the globe and non-Black people began to realise that our lives actually do matter, there was a surge in buying books about race and racism. In June Reni Eddo-Lodge became the first Black British author to top the UK’s official book charts with her fantastic book Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race. Newspapers and magazines started publishing anti-racist reading lists for those who wanted to “learn more.” And of course, people posted their black squares (that’s not book related, but I just had to throw it in there because I found it so hilarious…
The Bluest Eye and the Pervasiveness of White Supremacy
Note: This post is written as if you have already read the book, but does not contain major spoilers that will prevent you from reading it if you haven’t. In fact, I hope that after reading this you order yourself a copy – it will be worth the read, trust me. Toni Morrison’s debut novel, The Bluest Eye, was first published 50 years ago. Set in Ohio during the Great Depression, the novel tells the story of Pecola Breedlove, a dark-skinned Black girl who is made to believe that she is so ugly that she wishes for her eyes to be blue. Of course, that is a very simplistic summary.…
Purple Book Club: 5 Books that Have Shaped Me & Why
We’ve all read books that have impacted us, that have stayed with us and helped shape our understanding of the world. Last year, I was invited to give a talk at an independent girls’ school about literature that has done so for me. I’ve read so many books that at first I thought it would be an almost impossible task, but when I thought about it, I realised that at each stage of my life and education I’ve come across a book that has introduced me to or educated me on significant socio-political issues that have shaped my beliefs and influenced who I am today. These books have, in some…
Review: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Author: Colson Whitehead Published by: Fleet, 2017 Genre: Historical Fiction Rating: 💜💜💜💜 Synopsis “Cora is a slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. Life is hell for all the slaves, but especially bad for Cora; an outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is coming into womanhood where even greater pain awaits. When Caesar, a recent arrival from Virginia, tells her about the Underground Railroad, they decide to take a terrifying risk and escape. Matters do not go as planned Cora kills a young white boy who tries to capture her. Though they manage to find a station and head north, they are being hunted. In Whitehead’s ingenious conception, the Underground Railroad is no…
Purple Book Club: My 2020 Reading Pledges
Every year, without fail, I pledge to read more books. I reminisce about the days when I was much younger and I used to polish off books quicker than I’d polish off any chocolate dessert I was given (ok, that’s hyperbole). I remember my mum buying me Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire the summer before I started Year 7. The book didn’t last me the summer as I read all 600+ pages in a day. But alas! I’m all grown up now and life routinely gets in the way of how much and how quickly I read. I don’t have time to sit and read all day without…
Purple Book Club: Our First Book!
Thank you for joining Purple Book Club! Ready for our first read? Drumroll please…. Sooooo…in celebration of the launch of the blog and book club, I thought it apt that our first read should be the novel from whence the site takes its title. The Color Purple by Alice Walker Studying this novel for A Level introduced me to the concept of womanism, one that has greatly influenced me as an adult (see my post on this here). As we read it over the next four weeks I’ll be updating this page and our Instagram page to have a discussion on how we’re finding the novel. If you have a…
