In my opinion, the perfect book needs to make you laugh, cry and you’ll never forget it. Fortunately, I cry very easily so most books fulfil at least one of my requirements. On this page I’ll post my honest reviews of all the books I’m currently reading. From young adult to historical fiction, latest releases to classics, I’ll share my unfiltered opinion in 500 words or less.
Àbíké-Íyímídé, Faridah – Ace of Spades
Àbíké-Íyímídé, Faridah – Where Sleeping Girls Lie
Abulhawa, Susan – Mornings in Jenin
Acevedo, Elizabeth – Clap When You Land
Adebayo, Ayobami – Stay With Me
Adegoke, Yomi – The List
Adegoke, Yomi & Uviebinené, Elizabeth – The Offline Diaries
Adeyemi, Tomi – Children of Virtue and Vengeance
Alammar, Layla – The Pact We Made
Aldarra, Suad – I Don’t Want to Talk About Home
Alderton, Dolly – Ghosts
Alvarez, Julia – How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
Alvarez, Julia – In the Time of the Butterflies
Amaka, Rosanna – The Book of Echoes
Amaka, Rosanna – Rose and the Burma Sky
Angelou, Maya – Letter to my Daughter
Anyakwo, Diana – My Life As A Chameleon
Aoyama, Michiko – What You Are Looking For is in the Library
Arthurs, Alexia – How to Love a Jamaican
Ashour, Radwa – Granada
Atta, Dean – The Black Flamingo
Atwood, Margaret – The Testaments
Azumah-Nelson, Caleb – Open Water
Babalola, Bolu – Love In Colour
Barker, Pat – The Silence of the Girls
Beard, Mary – Women & Power
Beashel, Amy – We Are All Constellations
Benary, Margot – Castle on the Border
Bennett, Brit – The Vanishing Half
Benson, Jendella – Hope & Glory
Bishop, Katie – The Girls of Summer
Blackburn, Lizzie Damilola – Yinka, Where is your Huzband?
Bola, J.J – The Selfless Act of Breathing
Bourne, Holly – Am I Normal Yet?
Bourne, Holly – The Places I’ve Cried in Public
Bracken, Alexandra – Lore
Brady, Fern – Strong Female Character
Braithwaite, Oyinkan – My Sister, The Serial Killer
Brathwaite, Candice – Sista Sister
Brashares, Ann – Sisterhood Everlasting
Broder, Melissa – Milk Fed
Bromley, Freya – The Tidal Year
Brookmyre, Chris – The Cliff House
Brooks, Geraldine – People of the Book
Brown, Amber and Danielle – Someone Had to Do It
Brown, Diane Marie – Black Candle Women
Brown, Rita Mae – Rubyfruit Jungle
Bsharat, Ahlam – Trees for the Absentees
Buchanan, Cathy Marie – Daughter of Black Lake
Burns, Anna – Milkman
Burton, Jessie – The Miniaturist
Butler, Octavia – Parable of the Sower
Butler, Octavia – Kindred
Carty-Williams, Candice – Empress & Aniya
Carty-Williams, Candice – People Person
Castillo, Elaine – America is Not the Heart
Chadwick, Elizabeth – The Summer Queen
Chadwick, Elizabeth – The Winter Crown
Channing-Brown, Austin – I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness
Chen, Katherine J. – Joan
Clark, C.L. – The Unbroken
Clarke, Diana – Thin Girls
Coel, Michaela – Misfits
Cole, Teju – Every Day is For the Thief
Cooper, Daisy May – Don’t Laugh It’ll Only Encourage Her
Cruz, Angie – Dominicana
Cruz, Angie – How Not to Drown In a Glass of Water
Dalcher, Christina – Vox
Dangarembga, Tsitsi – Nervous Conditions
Daré, Abi – The Girl with the Louding Voice
Davis, Viola – Finding Me
Dawson, Juno – Clean
Dawson, Juno – Meat Market
Dawson, Rachel – Neon Roses
Dillsworth, Lianne – Theatre of Marvels
Diop, David – At Night All Blood is Black
Domingo, Sareeta – Who’s Loving You
Edim, Glory – Well-Read Black Girl
El-Mohtar, Amal – This is How You Lose the Time War
Emelumadu, Chikodili – Dazzling
Ephron, Nora – Heartburn
Ephron, Nora – I Feel Bad About My Neck
Evaristo, Bernadine – Girl, Woman, Other
Evaristo, Bernadine – Hello Mum
Evaristo, Bernadine – Mr Loverman
Evaristo, Bernadine – Manifesto: On Never Giving Up
Fu, Melissa – Peach Blossom Spring
Fulford, Lucy – The Exiled
Galgut, Damon – The Promise
Garcia, Gabriela – Of Women and Salt
Garmus, Bonnie – Lessons in Chemistry
Garthwaite, Annie – Cecily
Garza, Alicia – The Purpose of Power
Gill, Amber Rose – Until I Met You
Gregory, Philippa – Tidelands
Groff, Lauren – Matrix
Guin, Ursula Le – Lavinia
Guron, Ravena – This Book Kills
Gyasi, Yaa – Homegoing
Gyasi, Yaa – Transcendent Kingdom
Hague, Molly-Mae – Becoming Molly Mae
Hall, Araminta – One of the Good Guys
Harari, Yuval Noah – Sapiens
Harper, Elodie – The Wolf Den
Harper, Elodie – The House with the Golden Door
Harris, Kai – What the Fireflies Knew
Haynes, Natalie – A Thousand Ships
Haynes, Natalie – Pandora’s Jar
Haynes, Natalie – Stone Blind
Healey, Jane – The Animals at Lockwood Manor
Heisey, Monica – Really Good, Actually
Herbert, Adrienne – Power Hour
Honeyman, Gail – Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
Hosseini, Khaled – A Thousand Splendid Suns
Hui, Angela – Takeaway
Jackson, Naomi – The Star Side of Bird Hill
Jackson, Tiffany D. – Grown
Jenkins-Reid, Taylor – Malibu Rising
Jenkins-Reid, Taylor – The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Johnson, Daisy – Sisters
Johnson, Sadeqa – Yellow Wife
Kent, Hannah – Burial Rites
King, Stephen – On Writing
King, Tracy – Learning to Think
Kingsolver, Barbara – Demon Copperhead
Lahens, Yanick – Moonbath
Lawrence, Patrice – Orangeboy
Lawton, Georgina – Raceless
Larsen, Nella – Passing
LB, Jade – Keisha the Sket
Lefteri, Christy – The Beekeeper of Aleppo
Lee, Jing Jing – How We Disappeared
Lee, Min Jin – Pachinko
Little, Liv – Rosewater
Loupas, Elizabeth – The Red Lily Crown
Lupton, Rosamund – Three Hours
Lynch, Evanna – The Opposite of Butterfly Hunting
Machado, Carmen Maria – Her Body & Other Parties
Makumbi, Jennifer Nansubuga – Manchester Happened
Makumbi, Jennifer Nansubuga – Kintu
Mantel, Hilary – The Mirror & the Light
Marais, Bianca – The Witches of Moonshyne Manor
Mas, Victoria – The Mad Women’s Ball
Mason, Meg – Sorrow and Bliss
May, Nikki – Wahala
McCurdy, Jeanette – I’m Glad My Mom Died
McDaniel, Tiffany – Betty
McGill, C.E. – Our Hideous Progeny
Mengiste, Maaza – The Shadow King
Mendez, Paul – Rainbow Milk
Miller, Kei – The Last Warner Woman
Millwood-Hargrave, Kiran – The Mercies
Millwood-Hargrave, Kiran – The Dance Tree
Mitchell, David – Unruly
Moylan, Julie Owen – 73 Dove Street
Morgenstern, Erin – The Starless Sea
Morris, Brittney – The Cost of Knowing
Morris, Stephen – Black Tea
Morrison, Toni – The Bluest Eye
Multiple Authors – My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird
Murata, Sayaka – Convenience Store Woman
Murata, Sayaka – Earthlings
Mustapha, Sahar – The Beauty of Your Face
Nawras, Nofel – Brighton Funk
Nealon, Louise – Snowflake
Nichols, Grace – The Fat Black Woman’s Poems
Ng, Celeste – Our Missing Hearts
Noah, Trevor – Born A Crime
Nwelue, Onyeka – The Strangers of Braamfontein
Obama, Michelle – Becoming
Obaro, Tomi – Dele Weds Destiny
O’Donoghue, Caroline – Promising Young Women
O’Donoghue, Caroline –Scenes of A Graphic Nature
O’Farrell, Maggie – Hamnet
O’Farrell, Maggie – The Marriage Portrait
Okechukwu, Nzelu – The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney
Onuzo, Chibundu – Sankofa
Osman, Richard – The Thursday Murder Club
O’Leary, Beth – The No Show
O’Porter, Dawn – So Lucky
O’Porter, Dawn – Cat Lady
Owens, Delia – Where The Crawdads Sing
Park, Sang Young – Love In the Big City
Parker, Morgan – Who Put This Song On?
Parker-Chan, Shelley – She Who Became the Sun
Papillon, Buki – An Ordinary Wonder
Persaud, Ingrid – Love After Love
Peters, Torrey – Detransition, Baby
Philyaw, Deesha – The Secret Lives of Church Ladies
Prose, Nita – The Maid
Quế Mai, Nguyễn Phan – The Mountains Sing
Quế Mai, Nguyễn Phan – Dust Child
Rahman, Khurrum – East of Hounslow
Rahman, Yasmin – All The Things We Never Said
Ratinon, Claire – Unearthed
Reid, Kiley – Such a Fun Age
Rhys, Jean – Wide Sargasso Sea
Rice, Eva – The Misinterpretation of Tara Jupp
Riley, Lucinda – The Seven Sisters
Rooney, Sally – Normal People
Roy, Arundhati – The God of Small Things
Rushdie, Salman – Midnight’s Children
Russell, Kate Elizabeth – My Dark Vanessa
Ryan, Madeleine – A Room Called Earth
Saint, Jennifer – Ariadne
Saint, Jennifer – Elektra
Sealey, Jasmine – The Island of Forgetting
Sebald, W.G. – The Rings of Saturn
Selmi, Habib – The Scents of Marie Claire
Semenya, Caster – The Race to be Myself
Shamsie, Kamila – A God in Every Stone
Shamsie, Kamila – Home Fire
Shafak, Elif – 10 Minutes, 38 Seconds in this Strange World
Shinkai, Makoto – She and Her Cat
Shreeves – Lee, Jac – Broadwater
Shukla, Nikesh – Brown Baby
Sinclair, Safiya – How to Say Babylon
Slimani, Leïla – Lullaby
Smart, Ciannon – Witches Steeped in Gold
Smith, Ali – Girl Meets Boy
Smith, Zadie – Intimations
Söderberg, Hjalmar – Doctor Glas
Straub, Emma – All Adults Here
Stringfellow, Tara M. – Memphis
Stuart, Douglas – Shuggie Bain
Stuart, Douglas – Young Mungo
Taddeo, Lisa – Three Women
Tahir, Sabaa – All My Rage
Tartt, Donna – The Goldfinch
Taylor, Brandon – Real Life
Taylor, Sharma – What A Mother’s Love Don’t Teach You
Teo, Sharlene – Ponti
Thomas, Angie – The Hate You Give
Thomas, Angie – Concrete Rose
Thomas, Sonja – Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence
Tolkein, J.R.R. – The Hobbit
Tolkein, J.R.R. – The Fellowship of the Ring
Tolkein, J.R.R – The Two Towers
Tolkein, J.R.R. – The Return of the King
Villada, Camilla Sosa – The Queens of Sarmiento Park
Ward, Jesmyn – Men We Reaped
Washington, Bryan – Lot
Washington, Bryan – Memorial
Weir, Alison – Katherine of Aragon
Weir, Alison – Anne Boleyn
Weir, Alison – Jane Seymour
Weir, Alison – Anna of Kleve
Weir, Alison – Katheryn Howard
Weir, Alison – Katharine Parr
Weir, Alison – Henry VIII: The Heart and the Crown
Wellington, Joelle – Their Vicious Games
West, A.J – The Spirit Engineer
West, Dorothy – The Wedding
Whitehead, Colson – The Nickel Boys
Wilkerson, Charmaine – Black Cake
Wilkinson, Lauren – American Spy
Williams, Alicia.D – Genesis Begins Again
Williams, Tia – Seven Days in June
Williams, Tia – A Love Song for Ricki Wilde
Wilson, Elspeth – Too Hot to Sleep
Wilson, Jessica – It’s Always Been Ours
Winman, Sarah – Still Life
Winn, Raynor – The Salt Path
Woodson, Jacqueline – Red At The Bone
Yorke, John – Into the Woods
Yousafzai, Malala – We Are Displaced
Zafón, Carlos Ruiz – The Shadow of the Wind
Zauner, Michelle – Crying in H Mart
Zayyan, Hafsa – We Are All Birds of Uganda
Zoboi, Ibi – American Street
Multiple authors – The Haunting Season
Here’s my rating system:
***** = I hold this book in my heart everywhere I go. I will mention it in every conversation until I die. The characters will haunt me throughout my days.
**** = I will recommend this book to everyone I come into contact with for the next three months. Several of my friends and family will receive it for their birthday presents.
*** = I will forget the details of the plot after a couple of weeks but I will smile when I see it on my bookshelf.
** = I will cry with disappointment at the time wasted trying to finish this book.
* = I stopped reading before my soul was crushed.