Well that was quite the about turn from wet lingering winter to sudden summer. In the first half of May I powered through books, for lack of much else to do. Then finally the sun came out and we managed a few long(ish) bike rides. I am quite far behind previous years in my cycling practice for annoying health reasons but I’m pleased to find I can keep pootling along, albeit much slower than Tim.

I watched the TV adaptation of One Day, which was great and just like the book it made me cry. And we’ve started season 3 of Bridgerton, which is fun as ever. And I’m excited to see that a TV adaptation of Queenie is coming soon.

Books read

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker
A retelling of the Trojan War from the perspective of Briseis, a queen who is kidnapped by the Greeks and awarded to Achilles as his “prize”. Her focus on slaves and the hospital tent is intriguing but this is my least favourite so far of this style of novel. For one thing the use of modern idioms sometimes includes modern knowledge that jolted me out of the story. And the latter half of the novel focuses increasingly on Achilles, which I found tedious.

Saha by Cho Nam-joo
Translated from Korean by Jamie Chung
This speculative fiction thriller opens with a man running away from a dead body in the woods. He is from a housing estate called Saha, home to the lowest tier of society in Town. This independent state is run by a private company with harsh laws. We meet residents of Saha in turn, piecing together how their lives interconnect and what happened to the dead woman. I really liked this, though it did get confusing towards the end.

The Woman Next Door by Yewande Omotoso
Hortensia and Marion are next-door neighbours in a Cape Town suburb. They are both in their 80s, widowed, and had successful careers. They are also sworn enemies, for some reasons based on misunderstandings and others that are very real. This being South Africa, it’s relevant that one is black, one white. But they are also very different people who are of course thrown together by circumstances. This is a sweet comedy about unlikely friendship.

Boxers by Gene-Luen Yang
A graphic novel about the 1898 Boxer Rebellion in China, told from the perspective of a young peasant. Little Bao learns kung fu from a rebel passing through and he goes on to lead his own band of rebels, defending villages against foreign devils. A disturbingly clear illustration of the path from standing up to local bullies to committing large-scale mass murder.

Don’t Touch My Hair by Emma Dabiri
A detailed account of Black people’s hair, especially women’s. Dabiri starts from her own experience as a mixed-race woman raised in Ireland with almost no access to knowledge about how to style Black hair. From there she tells the history of Black hair in both Africa and the diaspora. It’s a fresh angle from which to look at racism and also African culture and achievement.

Saints by Gene-Luen Yang
The partner to Boxers, here the same timeline follows an unwanted fourth daughter who doesn’t have a proper name. She finds belonging thanks to a Christian missionary and is soon an avid convert. Again, a really clear story about why large numbers of Chinese people welcomed and joined forces with foreigners during the Boxer Rebellion.

Her Majesty’s Royal Coven by Juno Dawson
This was a lot of fun. In a modern world where witches are real, formerly close friends must choose their sides when a terrible prophecy looms. I really liked that this deals with current issues around inclusion and intersectionality in a thrilling, action-packed story. I love the characters too and may well check out the sequel The Shadow Cabinet.

Salome: a Tragedy by Oscar Wilde
This was the May pick for work book club. It’s a pretty interesting choice: a one-act play from 1891 based on the Bible story of John the Baptist (Jokanaan). With minimal stage directions, Wilde gives us a fierce-willed woman, a creepy proselytiser and some comically petty fights between Jewish sects. There’s also some pretty flowery language so it’s not super accessible but it’s only 40 pages long.

Split Tooth by Tanya Tagaq
In Nunavut, Canada, in the 1970s an Inuk girl hangs out with friends, gets drunk, takes drugs. She also experiences bullying and violence. She escapes from reality with visions of snow and wild animals – or are they visions? I found it hard at times to understand what was happening in this book.

The Sea Clock & Other Stories by Nayrouz Qarmout
Short stories about growing up in Gaza – a reminder that children are children everywhere, even in the hardest circumstances. These are simple stories in a complex setting and I found them beautifully illuminating.

Time is a Mother by Ocean Vuong
A poetry collection from the author of novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous. These poems deal with loss, family and what it means to be American. As I said on Instagram at the time, grief makes for some beautiful poetry.

We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian
A gay romance set at a New York City newspaper in the 1950s. People have been recommending Cat Sebastian to me for years and I wish it hadn’t taken me this long to follow it up. I loved this sweet story. Of course, it has to deal with the homophobia and legal situation of the time, as well as some police brutality. But for the most part this is an adorable story.

The Wasted Vigil by Nadeem Aslam
In post-9/11 Afghanistan, a disparate group of people are thrown together by circumstances. Marcus is an English doctor whose progressive, outspoken Afghani wife was murdered by the Taliban. Lara is a Russian woman looking for evidence of her soldier brother who disappeared decades before during the Soviet invasion. David is an American former spy who has been helping Marcus figure out what happened to his daughter who disappeared during the last war, but can’t bring himself to tell Marcus the whole truth. Casa is a young Afghani whose hatred of the West plunges him into the depths of zealotry. And James is a Special Forces soldier who doesn’t question the dangerous role his country has played in Afghanistan. Aslam’s language is gorgeous but I found this story so unbearably sad.