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…
