Happy Easter Monday, folks! As is traditional I have spent my weekend mostly reading. I also did some library reorganising for added bookish activity. It’s been a good long weekend.

March has been…wet. I’m starting to miss taking the dog on long, fun expeditions – much as I like the four parks near our house. I really hope we get a few dry days soon. On the plus side our front garden is full of daffodils, tulips and pansies.

Books read

The First Woman by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
In this novel, Kirabo is raised in a rural Ugandan village by her grandparents. When, aged 12, she begins to experience flying outside of her body, she begins a search for women’s place in modern Uganda – as well as a hunt for her own estranged mother. I really enjoyed this a lot.

Silk Vol. 1: Threats and Menaces by Maurene Goo, Takeshi Miyazawa
Silk started again at issue 1 with his series in 2021, but continuity-wise it follows on from the previous series by Robbie Thompson et al. Cindy Moon is working as a reporter for J Jonah Jameson’s new media start-up. When she investigates a series of attacks on criminal gangs in Queens, it is inevitable that her alter ego Silk will also get involved. I liked this but it’s not my favourite Silk storyline to date. (Silk reset to issue 1 again in 2023, this time with a new setting and tone as well as new writers. I get so confused by all the resets.)

The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood
In her 1993 retelling of the folk tale “The robber baron”, Atwood reimagines the story with women at the centre. The robber character is Zenia, a woman is mysterious background who went to the same college in Toronto as Tony, Charis and Roz. These three women in turn befriended and were betrayed by Zenia. They thought they had buried her several years ago, but the story opens with them spotting her very much still alive – and reflecting back on their personal histories. What a brilliant novel. I mean, of course, it’s Atwood.

Cormorant by Elizabeth Parker
This brand new poetry collection is by a good friend of mine so I am of course biased when I say you should read it! But I do honestly think it’s great. Lizzie uses nature as a lens to reflect on her own life – including motherhood, friendship and grief. There are some beautiful descriptions of places in the Forest of Dean, where we both grew up.

You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat
This novel was recommended in several reading lists of Palestinian fiction. Its unnamed narrator is Palestinian-American, so the focus was less on Palestine than I had hoped, but it’s still important to learn about the growing diaspora. In this novel a bisexual woman in her late 20s is in her first serious, stable relationship but things are falling apart. She seeks counselling, which leads to her interrogating her complex relationship with her mother, her summer holidays since early childhood in Jordan and Palestine, her habit of becoming romantically obsessed with inaccessible partners. This is a compelling story, as long as you have at least a passing interest in therapy.

Across the Empty Quarter by Wilfred Thesiger
I do like a travelogue but old books by white Europeans about their travels in Asia or Africa can be troubling. So I was pleasantly surprised that Thesiger’s writing appears to me to be free from racism, Islamophobia or stereotypes. He crossed the “Empty Quarter” of the Arabian Peninsula twice, in 1946–47 and in 1947–48, travelling with Bedouin guides. He had been living with Bedouin since 1945 to study locusts. I found his writing exciting, generous but a little dry with geographical details.

Salt by Nayyirah Waheed
I borrowed this volume of poetry from a friend after picking it up from her bookshelf and enjoying the first few. I had never heard of Waheed but apparently she’s famous on Instagram (I looked her up and wasn’t quite sure which was her actual account and which were admirers reposting her poems). The poems are mostly very short – many are just two or three lines – but they have emotional heft. Subject matter includes being Black, being a woman, love and modern life – but also with brevity that adds rather than detracts. Very glad I was introduced to this writer.