I’ve organised my reviews by star rating so you can easily find your next read!
Five Stars = 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.
Alvarez, Julia – How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
Alvarez, Julia – In the Time of the Butterflies
Angelou, Maya – Letter to my Daughter
Arthurs, Alexia – How to Love a Jamaican
Atwood, Margaret – The Testaments
Babalola, Bolu – Love In Colour
Bennett, Brit – The Vanishing Half
Castillo, Elaine – America is Not the Heart
Edim, Glory – Well-Read Black Girl
Ephron, Nora – Heartburn
Evaristo, Bernadine – Girl, Woman, Other
Garthwaite, Annie – Cecily
Haynes, Natalie – A Thousand Ships
Hosseini, Khaled – A Thousand Splendid Suns
Kent, Hannah – Burial Rites
Lee, Min Jin – Pachinko
Makumbi, Jennifer Nansubuga – Manchester Happened
McDaniel, Tiffany – Betty
O’Farrell, Maggie – Hamnet
Peters, Torrey – Detransition, Baby
Reid, Kiley – Such a Fun Age
Roy, Arundhati – The God of Small Things
Shamsie, Kamila – Home Fire
Taylor, Brandon – Real Life
Ward, Jesmyn – Men We Reaped
West, Dorothy – The Wedding
Yousafzai, Malala – We Are Displaced
———– [FOUR AND A HALF]———-
Bracken, Alexandra – Lore
Dawson, Juno – Meat Market
Diop, David – At Night All Blood is Black
Gyasi, Yaa – Transcendent Kingdom
Honeyman, Gail – Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
Jackson, Naomi – The Star Side of Bird Hill
Jenkins-Reid, Taylor – Malibu Rising
Larsen, Nella – Passing
Lawton, Georgina – Raceless
Lupton, Rosamund – Three Hours
Miller, Kei – The Last Warner Woman
Millwood-Hargrave, Kiran – The Mercies
Morrison, Toni – The Bluest Eye
Mustapha, Sahar – The Beauty of Your Face
Nealon, Louise – Snowflake
Owens, Delia – Where The Crawdads Sing
Shafak, Elif – 10 Minutes, 38 Seconds in this Strange World
Shreeves-Lee, Jac – Broadwater
Straub, Emma – All Adults Here
Stringfellow, Tara M. – Memphis
Stuart, Douglas – Shuggie Bain
Thomas, Angie – The Hate You Give
Whitehead, Colson – The Nickel Boys
Wilkinson, Lauren – American Spy
Zayyan, Hafsa – We Are All Birds of Uganda
Zoboi, Ibi – American Street
Four Stars = 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.
Àbíké-Íyímídé, Faridah – Ace of Spades
Acevedo, Elizabeth – Clap When You Land
Alammar, Layla – The Pact We Made
Amaka, Rosanna – The Book of Echoes
Azumah-Nelson, Caleb – Open Water
Beard, Mary – Women & Power
Benary, Margot – Castle on the Border
Blackburn, Lizzie Damilola – Yinka, Where is your Huzband?
Bourne, Holly – Am I Normal Yet?
Braithwaite, Oyinkan – My Sister, The Serial Killer
Brathwaite, Candice – Sista Sister
Brooks, Geraldine – People of the Book
Chadwick, Elizabeth – The Summer Queen
Clark, C.L. – The Unbroken
Coel, Michaela – Misfits
Cruz, Angie – Dominicana
Dalcher, Christina – Vox
Daré, Abi – The Girl with the Louding Voice
Dawson, Juno – Clean
Evaristo, Bernadine – Mr Loverman
Garza, Alicia – The Purpose of Power
Gyasi, Yaa – Homegoing
Haynes, Natalie – Pandora’s Jar
Healey, Jane – The Animals at Lockwood Manor
Herbert, Adrienne – Power Hour
King, Stephen – On Writing
May, Nikki – Wahala
Morris, Brittney – The Cost of Knowing
Nichols, Grace – The Fat Black Woman’s Poems
Okechukwu, Nzelu – The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney
Onuzo, Chibundu – Sankofa
Osman, Richard – The Thursday Murder Club
Papillon, Buki – An Ordinary Wonder
Park, Sang Young – Love in the Big City
Rahman, Khurrum – East of Hounslow
Roy, Arundhati – The God of Small Things
Saint, Jennifer – Ariadne
Shamsie, Kamila – A God in Every Stone
Shukla, Nikesh – Brown Baby
Slimani, Leïla – Lullaby
Taddeo, Lisa – Three Women
Tartt, Donna – The Goldfinch
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
Wilkerson, Charmaine – Black Cake
Williams, Alicia D. – Genesis Begins Again
Yorke, John – Into the Woods
Multiple authors – The Haunting Season
———– [THREE AND A HALF]———-
Adebayo, Ayobami – Stay With Me
Adeyemi, Tomi – Children of Virtue and Vengeance
Alderton, Dolly – Ghosts
Benson, Jendella – Hope & Glory
Bourne, Holly – The Places I’ve Cried in Public
Bsharat, Ahlam – Trees for the Absentees
Channing-Brown, Austin – I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness
Domingo, Sareeta – Who’s Loving You
Galgut, Damon – The Promise
Gregory, Philippa – Tidelands
Lefteri, Christy – The Beekeeper of Aleppo
Loupas, Elizabeth – The Red Lily Crown
Mantel, Hilary – The Mirror & the Light
Mengiste, Maaza – The Shadow King
Morris, Stephen – Black Tea
O’Porter, Dawn – So Lucky
Parker-Chan, Shelley – She Who Became the Sun
Quế Mai, Nguyễn Phan – The Mountains Sing
Rhys, Jean – Wide Sargasso Sea
Rooney, Sally – Normal People
Ryan, Madeleine – A Room Called Earth
Smith, Zadie – Intimations
Söderberg, Hjalmar – Doctor Glas
Thomas, Angie – Concrete Rose
Woodson, Jacqueline – Red At The Bone
Washington, Bryan – Lot
Zafón, Carlos Ruiz – The Shadow of the Wind
Three Stars = I will forget the details of the plot after a couple of weeks, but I will smile when I see it on my bookshelf.
Ashour, Radwa – Granada
Burns, Anna – Milkman
Burton, Jessie – The Miniaturist
Carty-Williams, Candice – Empress & Aniya
Chadwick, Elizabeth – The Winter Crown
Cole, Teju – Every Day is For the Thief
Ephron, Nora – I Feel Bad About My Neck
Evaristo, Bernadine – Hello Mum
Lahens, Yanick – Moonbath
LB, Jade – Keisha the Sket
Machado, Carmen Maria – Her Body & Other Parties
Parker, Morgan – Who Put This Song On?
Rahman, Yasmin – All The Things We Never Said
Rushdie, Salman – Midnight’s Children
Selmi, Habib – The Scents of Marie-Claire
Smart, Ciannon – Witches Steeped in Gold
Two Stars = I will cry with disappointment at the time wasted trying to finish this book.
Nwelue, Onyeka – The Strangers of Braamfontein
One Star = I stopped reading before my soul was crushed.
Sebald, W.G. – The Rings of Saturn