Books by rating

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.

Abulhawa, Susan – Mornings in Jenin

Aldarra, Suad – I Don’t Want to Talk About Home

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

Atta, Dean – The Black Flamingo

Atwood, Margaret – The Testaments

Babalola, Bolu – Love In Colour

Bennett, Brit – The Vanishing Half

Brady, Fern – Strong Female Character

Bromley, Freya – The Tidal Year

Butler, Octavia – Parable of the Sower

Butler, Octavia – Kindred

Castillo, Elaine – America is Not the Heart

Cruz, Angie – How Not to Drown In a Glass of Water

Davis, Viola – Finding Me

Edim, Glory – Well-Read Black Girl

Ephron, Nora – Heartburn

Evaristo, Bernadine – Girl, Woman, Other

Garthwaite, Annie – Cecily

Harper, Elodie – The Wolf Den

Haynes, Natalie – A Thousand Ships

Hosseini, Khaled – A Thousand Splendid Suns

Johnson, Sadeqa – Yellow Wife

Kent, Hannah – Burial Rites

Lee, Jing Jing – How We Disappeared

Lee, Min Jin – Pachinko

Makumbi, Jennifer Nansubuga – Manchester Happened

McCurdy, Jeannette – I’m Glad My Mom Died

McDaniel, Tiffany – Betty

Mitchell, David – Unruly

Multiple Authors – My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird

Ng, Celeste – Our Missing Hearts

Noah, Trevor – Born A Crime

O’Farrell, Maggie – Hamnet

Peters, Torrey – Detransition, Baby

Reid, Kiley – Such a Fun Age

Roy, Arundhati – The God of Small Things

Russell, Kate Elizabeth – My Dark Vanessa

Sealey, Jasmine – The Island of Forgetting

Shamsie, Kamila – Home Fire

Smith, Ali – Girl Meets Boy

Tahir, Sabaa – All My Rage

Taylor, Brandon – Real Life

Ward, Jesmyn – Men We Reaped

West, Dorothy – The Wedding

Wilson, Jessica – It’s Always Been Ours

Yousafzai, Malala – We Are Displaced

———– [FOUR AND A HALF]———-

Bishop, Katie – The Girls of Summer

Bracken, Alexandra – Lore

Brashares, Ann – Sisterhood Everlasting

Clarke, Diana – Thin Girls

Dawson, Juno – Meat Market

Diop, David – At Night All Blood is Black

Emelumadu, Chikolidi – Dazzling

Fu, Melissa – Peach Blossom Spring

Garcia, Gabriela – Of Women and Salt

Groff, Lauren – Matrix

Gyasi, Yaa – Transcendent Kingdom

Hall, Araminta – One of the Good Guys

Harper, Elodie – The House with the Golden Door

Honeyman, Gail – Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

Hui, Angela – Takeaway

Jackson, Naomi – The Star Side of Bird Hill

Jackson, Tiffany D. – Grown

Jenkins-Reid, Taylor – Malibu Rising

Larsen, Nella – Passing

Lawton, Georgina – Raceless

Lupton, Rosamund – Three Hours

Makumbi, Jennifer Nansubuga – Kintu

Miller, Kei – The Last Warner Woman

Millwood-Hargrave, Kiran – The Mercies

Morrison, Toni – The Bluest Eye

Murata, Sayaka – Convenience Store Woman

Mustapha, Sahar – The Beauty of Your Face

Nealon, Louise – Snowflake

Obama, Michelle – Becoming

O’Donoghue, Caroline – Scenes of a Graphic Nature

Owens, Delia – Where The Crawdads Sing

Philyaw, Deesha – The Secret Lives of Church Ladies

Shafak, Elif – 10 Minutes, 38 Seconds in this Strange World

Shreeves-Lee, Jac – Broadwater

Sinclair, Safiya – How to Say Babylon

Straub, Emma – All Adults Here

Stringfellow, Tara M. – Memphis

Stuart, Douglas – Shuggie Bain

Stuart, Douglas – Young Mungo

Teo, Sharlene – Ponti

Thomas, Angie – The Hate You Give

Whitehead, Colson – The Nickel Boys

Wilkinson, Lauren – American Spy

Williams, Tia – Seven Days in June

Winn, Raynor – The Salt Path

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

Anyakwo, Diana – My Life As A Chameleon

Aoyama, Michiko – What You Are Looking For is in the Library

Azumah-Nelson, Caleb – Open Water

Beard, Mary – Women & Power

Benary, Margot – Castle on the Border

Blackburn, Lizzie Damilola – Yinka, Where is your Huzband?

Bola, J.J – The Selfless Act of Breathing

Bourne, Holly – Am I Normal Yet?

Braithwaite, Oyinkan – My Sister, The Serial Killer

Brathwaite, Candice – Sista Sister

Brookmyre, Chris – The Cliff House

Brooks, Geraldine – People of the Book

Buchanan, Cathy Marie – Daughter of Black Lake

Chadwick, Elizabeth – The Summer Queen

Clark, C.L. – The Unbroken

Coel, Michaela – Misfits

Cruz, Angie – Dominicana

Dalcher, Christina – Vox

Dangarembga, Tsitsi – Nervous Conditions

Daré, Abi – The Girl with the Louding Voice

Dawson, Juno – Clean

Dawson, Rachel – Neon Roses

Evaristo, Bernadine – Mr Loverman

Evaristo, Bernadine – Manifesto: On Never Giving Up

Garmus, Bonnie – Lessons in Chemistry

Garza, Alicia – The Purpose of Power

Gill, Amber Rose – Until I Met You

Gyasi, Yaa – Homegoing

Harris, Kai – What the Fireflies Knew

Haynes, Natalie – Pandora’s Jar

Healey, Jane – The Animals at Lockwood Manor

Herbert, Adrienne – Power Hour

Jenkins-Reid, Taylor – The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Johnson, Daisy – Sisters

King, Stephen – On Writing

King, Tracy – Learning to Think

Kingsolver, Barbara – Demon Copperhead

Lynch, Evanna – The Opposite of Butterfly Hunting

Marais, Bianca – The Witches of Moonshyne Manor

Mason, Meg – Sorrow and Bliss

May, Nikki – Wahala

McGill, C.E. – Our Hideous Progeny

Millwood Hargrave, Kiran – The Dance Tree

Morgenstern, Erin – The Starless Sea

Morris, Brittney – The Cost of Knowing

Murata, Sayaka – Earthlings

Nichols, Grace – The Fat Black Woman’s Poems

Obaro, Tomi – Dele Weds Destiny

O’Donoghue, Carloline – Promising Young Women

Okechukwu, Nzelu – The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney

O’Leary, Beth – The No Show

Onuzo, Chibundu – Sankofa

Osman, Richard – The Thursday Murder Club

Papillon, Buki – An Ordinary Wonder

Park, Sang Young – Love in the Big City

Persaud, Ingrid – Love After Love

Prose, Nita – The Maid

Quế Mai, Nguyễn Phan – Dust Child

Rahman, Khurrum – East of Hounslow

Ratinon, Claire – Unearthed

Rice, Eva – The Misinterpretation of Tara Jupp

Riley, Lucinda – The Seven Sisters

Roy, Arundhati – The God of Small Things

Saint, Jennifer – Ariadne

Saint, Jennifer – Elektra

Semenya, Caster – The Race to be Myself

Shamsie, Kamila – A God in Every Stone

Shinkai, Makoto – She and Her Cat

Shukla, Nikesh – Brown Baby

Slimani, Leïla – Lullaby

Taddeo, Lisa – Three Women

Tartt, Donna – The Goldfinch

Taylor, Sharma – What A Mother’s Love Don’t Teach You

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

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

Wellington, Joelle – Their Vicious Games

West, A.J – The Spirit Engineer

Wilkerson, Charmaine – Black Cake

Williams, Alicia D. – Genesis Begins Again

Winman, Sarah – Still Life

Yorke, John – Into the Woods

Multiple authors – The Haunting Season

———– [THREE AND A HALF]———-

Adebayo, Ayobami – Stay With Me

Adegoke, Yomi – The List

Adegoke, Yomi & Uviebinené, Elizabeth – The Offline Diaries

Adeyemi, Tomi – Children of Virtue and Vengeance

Alderton, Dolly – Ghosts

Benson, Jendella – Hope & Glory

Bourne, Holly – The Places I’ve Cried in Public

Broder, Melissa – Milk Fed

Brown, Amber and Danielle – Someone Had to Do It

Brown, Rita Mae – Rubyfruit Jungle

Bsharat, Ahlam – Trees for the Absentees

Channing-Brown, Austin – I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness

Cooper, Daisy May – Don’t Laugh It’ll Only Encourage Her

Dillsworth, Lianne – Theatre of Marvels

Domingo, Sareeta – Who’s Loving You

El-Mohtar, Amal – This is How You Lose the Time War

Galgut, Damon – The Promise

Gregory, Philippa – Tidelands

Haynes, Natalie – Stone Blind

Heisey, Monica – Really Good, Actually

Lefteri, Christy – The Beekeeper of Aleppo

Little, Liv – Rosewater

Loupas, Elizabeth – The Red Lily Crown

Mantel, Hilary – The Mirror & the Light

Mas, Victoria – The Mad Women’s Ball

Mendez, Paul – Rainbow Milk

Mengiste, Maaza – The Shadow King

Morris, Stephen – Black Tea

O’Farrell, Maggie – The Marriage Portrait

O’Porter, Dawn – So Lucky

O’Porter, Dawn – Cat Lady

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

Tolkein, J.R.R. – The Fellowship of the Ring

Woodson, Jacqueline – Red At The Bone

Washington, Bryan – Lot

Williams, Tia – A Love Song for Ricki Wilde

Zafón, Carlos Ruiz – The Shadow of the Wind

Zauner, Michelle – Crying in H Mart

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.

Àbíké-Íyímídé, Faridah – Where Sleeping Girls Lie

Amaka, Rosanna – Rose and the Burma Sky

Ashour, Radwa – Granada

Barker, Pat – The Silence of the Girls

Beashel, Amy – We Are All Constellations

Burns, Anna – Milkman

Burton, Jessie – The Miniaturist

Carty-Williams, Candice – Empress & Aniya

Carty-Williams, Candice – People Person

Chadwick, Elizabeth – The Winter Crown

Chen, Katherine J. – Joan

Cole, Teju – Every Day is For the Thief

Ephron, Nora – I Feel Bad About My Neck

Evaristo, Bernadine – Hello Mum

Fulford, Lucy – The Exiled

Guin, Ursula Le – Lavinia

Guron, Ravena – This Book Kills

Hague, Molly Mae – Becoming Molly Mae

Lahens, Yanick – Moonbath

LB, Jade – Keisha the Sket

Lawrence, Patrice – Orangeboy

Machado, Carmen Maria – Her Body & Other Parties

Moylan, Julie Owen – 73 Dove Street

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 AND A HALF]———-

Nawras, Nofel – Brighton Funk

Weir, Alison – Henry VIII: The Heart and the Crown

Two Stars = I will cry with disappointment at the time wasted trying to finish this book.

Brown, Diane Marie – Black Candle Women

Harari, Yuval Noah – Sapiens

Nwelue, Onyeka – The Strangers of Braamfontein

One Star = I stopped reading before my soul was crushed.

Sebald, W.G. – The Rings of Saturn