between the pages of a book is a lovely place to be
Afua Hirsch is an award-winning writer, journalist and broadcaster. She is a columnist for the Guardian and appears regularly on the BBC, Sky News and CNN. Brit(ish) is her first book and is a sharp exploration of race and identity in the UK, and what it means to be British.
Robin DiAngelo is a sociologist with a PhD in multicultural education, working as a diversity trainer across the US for more than 20 years. White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism is her third book on the topic of racial inequality, where she confronts the disbelief and sensitivity white people exhibit when they are told they are complicit in society’s institutional racism. While it was written in 2018, this book is still desperately needed today.
Such a Fun Age is Kiley Reid's first novel and is a compelling satire of the white pursuit of wokeness, and is equal parts entertaining and informative.
With everything going on at the moment, it felt necessary to take a break from my current read (The Uninhabitable Earth) for something a little more light-hearted! Reasons to be Cheerful by Nina Stibbe is the perfect way to escape the coronavirus and head back in time to Leicester in the 1980s.
Ali Smith's 'Autumn' was released four months after the results of the EU referendum and has the rather strange honour of being the first book to be published on the topic of Brexit.
Nimko Ali is a British-Somalian feminist, activist and anti-FGM campaigner. And now with her first book 'What We're Told Not to Talk About (But We're Going to Anyway)', she can add author to this impressive list.
Elif Shafak is a Turkish-British activist and award-winning novelist who regularly speaks on women's rights, minority rights and freedom of speech.
Her eleventh novel, '10 Minutes, 38 Seconds in this Strange World' is about Leila, a Turkish sex worker, who is found dead in a rubbish bin on the outskirts of Istanbul. In the 10 minutes and 38 seconds it takes for her mind to shut down, the reader is taken with her on a journey through her memories, from a little girl living in the countryside to the woman murdered on page one.
Okay, you're either going to love or hate the title of this book - but I promise it is so worth the read.
cvngh 