Top Ten Tuesday | 2017 Summer TBR

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

Every year I find myself making seasonal TBRs, usually made up of books that suit the season (floral books for spring, ghost stories for autumn etc.), but this year my summer TBR consists of two kinds of books: books I'm just in the mood to read right now, and books that have been on my TBR for far too long.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood: I'm ashamed to admit I still haven't read this and I definitely should have by now. I've been hearing amazing things about the new adaptation, but I want to read the book first and I'm determined to cross it off my TBR this year.

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller: Greece always makes me think of the summer, probably because I was lucky enough to go to Crete with my parents several times during my childhood early teens, and yet I don't think I've ever actually read any fiction set in Greece. I've been in an Ancient mood recently - the warmer weather makes me want to watch films like Troy and Pompeii - and I've heard so many brilliant things about this book that I think it's about time I read it.

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón: This has been on my TBR for years. Years. Every year I say I'm going to read it and then I never get around to it, but I've been lucky enough to have several city breaks over the past couple of years so I'm definitely in the mood to read a book set in Barcelona now that the weather's warming up. One of my colleagues read this recently and loved it, so I'm hoping I love it too!

The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng: This is another book that's been on my TBR for at least a year or so, and this past year I've been trying to make more of an effort to read books set in Asia written by Asian authors. I know so little about Asia thanks to my history lessons at school being so Britain-centric but there's nothing stopping me from doing my own research, and I learn as much from fiction as I do non-fiction. This book, in particular, sounds really interesting to me and I'm looking forward to getting to it.

The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant: So I went to Florence last year and it's become my favourite European city. It's the first time I've come home and felt homesick for the place I've left, and now I want to revisit it as much as I can in fiction. I picked up my copy of The Birth of Venus in the Uffizi Gallery giftshop after having just seen the real Birth of Venus painting - how could I not? - and I'm looking forward to reading it soon.

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi: This book has been everywhere and I still haven't read it, but I want to get to it this year. I love the idea of exploring how a family's history, of being enslaved or of being involved in the slave trade, can impact a family throughout the generations, and I think this is going to be a very eye-opening and important book.

Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi: I read my first Oyeyemi last year, White is for Witching, and unfortunately I didn't like it, but I want to give her another chance because I think she writes beautifully. This book follows a male writer who keeps killing off his female characters, only for one such character to turn up at his door. I'm looking forward to it!

Florence in Ecstasy by Jessie Chaffee: More Florence! This is a very recent release and I'm looking forward to sinking my teeth into it.

Stay With Me by Aọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀: I've heard brilliant things about this debut novel and it's another one I'm hoping to get to fairly soon, especially as I think there's a good chance it's going to be the winner of the Bailey's Prize this year.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini: Like The Shadow of the Wind, this book has been on my TBR for far too long and I've had countless people recommending it to me, so it's about time I bloody read it. I've heard amazing things and I'm sure it's going to make me cry, but I'm looking forward to reading it.

What did you talk about this week?

#DiverseAThon 2.0 TBR

DiverseAThon is back!

I'm sure it'll come as no surprise, if you've been following my blog for a while, that I'm a huge, huge lover of diversity in the publishing industry, in the media and, most importantly, in our stories - in whatever format those stories happen to take. I'm not perfect by any stretch of the imagination; I'm privileged and white and I'm sure there's a whole lot of crap I still perpetuate despite my constant work to improve myself and become a better human being. That's why I love to read diversely, particularly from diverse authors, because that's how I learn and get called out on the crappy stuff I may still be doing without even realising it. Ignorance is forgivable if I'm prepared to learn to do better, but that still doesn't excuse it.

Anyhoo, DiverseAThon was started over on BookTube last year as a response to a video that I'm not going to bother linking because it made me very angry, in which someone essentially tried to argue that we don't need diversity in our books anymore, that diversity isn't needed anymore.

Smell that? It's bullshit.

Sadly I was in a horrible slump when the last DiverseAThon came about, so I couldn't do anything more than recommend a few books/authors over on Twitter, but this year the DiverseAThon is back - from the 22nd-29th January - and I'm going to take part. So I've made myself a small TBR, and while I'm still not a big fan of TBRs these are a small selection of books that I'd like to read at least one or two of during the week, though I might pick up something else instead, but I thought I'd share them with you - not only to share these books with you, but also to share DiverseAThon with you just in case you weren't already aware of it. If you'd like to know more, here are some videos all about it!

The Other Half of Happiness by Ayisha Malik: I read and really enjoyed Sofia Khan is Not Obliged (reviewed here) last year, and I was contacted by the publisher who kindly sent me an ARC of the sequel which is due to be released in April. I've actually started this one already and it's so readable, just as the first one was, and I love reading about a Muslim protagonist written by a Muslim writer. Considering stories centred around Islam can often be so dark and racially stereotypical, it's super refreshing to read what is essentially Muslim Chick Lit. No, not even that - it's Chick Lit that just happens to have Muslims in it.

The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin: I've been in the mood to get back into fantasy in 2017 and after Natalie @ A Sea Change recommended Jemisin to me I bought and read The Fifth Season, and I really enjoyed it. I'm a bad finisher, which is why one of my 2017 Resolutions is to finish a series this year, so I want to continue with this trilogy. Not only is Jemisin herself an author of colour, but this has to be the most diverse fantasy series I have ever read. Ever. I don't know if I'll get to this during DiverseAThon, but I'm planning to read it soon either way.

As I Descended by Robin Talley: This is another ARC I received last year and still haven't read because I'm secretly a terrible person. I loved Robin Talley's debut, Lies We Tell Ourselves (reviewed here), and As I Descended is a lesbian retelling of Macbeth written by an LGBT+ author. Why haven't I read this yet? All of Talley's novels focus on the LGBT+ community, particularly lesbian relationships, and I think she's a super important voice in the YA world.

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi: I've heard nothing but amazing things about this one and I love the sound of the way it's written. I'd really like to get to this one during DiverseAThon if I can, but I'm not going to beat myself up if I don't.

What is Not Yours is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi: I've read the first story in this collection and I really enjoyed it, and then I put it down for a reason I can't remember. I really like the way Oyeyemi writes, though, so if I could return to and finish this collection during DiverseAThon that'd be great!

Love & Other Poisons by Silvia Moreno-Garcia: You all know how much I love Silvia Moreno-Garcia by now. Her debut novel, Signal to Noise (reviewed here), is one of my favourite books of all time, her second novel, Certain Dark Things (reviewed here), is fantastic, and I really enjoyed her short story collection, This Strange Way of Dying (reviewed here). Her third novel, The Beautiful Ones, is being released in October, so I've been saving her other short story collection, Love & Other Poisons, to fill the void in my Moreno-Garcialess life until October. She's such an original voice in the realm of speculative fiction and I can't recommend her enough.

Are you taking part in DiverseAThon? What are you planning to read?

Top Ten Tuesday | Shoulda Woulda Coulda... But Really Shoulda

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

It's no secret that 2016 was an absolutely rubbish reading year for me; I read half the amount of what I read in 2015 and, what's worse, there wasn't much I read that genuinely wowed me. As I'm sure you can imagine there were plenty of 2016 releases I ended up not getting to during 2016 and I'm hoping I can cross them off my TBR sooner rather than later!

A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers: Considering The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (reviewed here) is one of my favourite books of all time, I don't know why I haven't read this yet. I think I loved TLWtaSAP so much I've been nervous that A Closed and Common Orbit won't be as good, but I won't know until I try and, frankly, I'm excited to read a story about two ladies in space.

The Tidal Zone by Sarah Moss: This is one of those novels I've heard nothing but good things about so I'm hoping to get to it soon, as with every other book on this list!

The Muse by Jessie Burton: I enjoyed The Miniaturist (reviewed here) way more than I was expecting to and I think, like A Closed and Common Orbit, I haven't picked up The Muse yet for fear that it won't live up to my expectations. I do love stories about art, though, so I'd like to get to this one at some point in the coming months - especially as I've owned a copy since its release!

A Tyranny of Petticoats ed. by Jessica Spotswood: I love historical fiction centred around women, which is why it makes no since that I haven't read this anthology yet. My only excuse is that the only other anthology I read in 2016, Summer Days and Summer Nights, I ended up DNF-ing. March is Women's History Month, though, so I think I'll aim to read it around then!

Goldenhand by Garth Nix: I was so excited to discover Nix was bringing out another novel about Lirael, but it's been so long since I read The Old Kingdom series that I'm considering re-reading Sabriel, Lirael and Abhorsen before I tackle this one so I can refresh my memory.

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry: This book has pretty much everything in it that I love about historical fiction, it was voted Waterstones Book of the Year in 2016, and I've even read about a quarter of it, but I just wasn't feeling it this year and I've heard such good things that I decided to put it down so I could come back to it when I could give it the attention it deserves. Hopefully that will be sometime soon.

The Geek Feminist Revolution by Kameron Hurley: 2016 wasn't a great year for non-fiction, especially when compared with 2015, so a lot of the non-fiction releases I was looking forward to I just didn't get to. This is another one I'm aiming to get to soon!

Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly: This is another one I'm probably going to get to for Women's History Month if I can't read it before then. I'm really looking forward to the film!

What is Not Yours is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi: I've actually read the first story in this collection and really enjoyed it, but I ended up putting it down for some reason I can't remember. Hopefully I'll return to it soon.

As I Descended by Robin Talley: I have an eARC of this that I still haven't read because I'm not so secretly a terrible person. But this is also an LGBT+ retelling of Macbeth, so I will definitely be reading it at some point soon. I wonder how many times I've said the word 'soon'...

Which books made your list this week?

Review | White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi

White is for Witching

by Helen Oyeyemi

My Rating:

In a vast, mysterious house on the cliffs near Dover, the Silver family is reeling from the hole punched into its heart. Lily is gone and her twins, Miranda and Eliot, and her husband, the gentle Luc, mourn her absence with unspoken intensity. All is not well with the house, either, which creaks and grumbles and malignly confuses visitors in its mazy rooms, forcing winter apples in the garden when the branches should be bare. Generations of women inhabit its walls. And Miranda, with her new appetite for chalk and her keen sense for spirits, is more attuned to them than she is to her brother and father. She is leaving them slowly -

Slipping away from them -

And when one dark night she vanishes entirely, the survivors are left to tell her story.

"Miri I conjure you"

Sadly my first encounter with Helen Oyeyemi wasn't a great one. I was hoping to get out of the horrid slump I was in all last year with some spooky reading in October and I chose White is for Witching as my first pick, and unfortunately it ended up dragging me further into the slump and subsequently not reading any of the other spooky books I was hoping to pick up around Halloween.

Oyeyemi is a wonderful writer, she writes beautifully and while I didn't love my first foray into her work it hasn't put me off checking out more of her work in future. There were some parts of White is for Witching that I really enjoyed - there are some gorgeous descriptions, there's some LGBT+ romance which pleasantly surprised me, and the way the relationship between Miri and Eliot is written is just lovely. I think my favourite thing about the book was the house, which is also one of the main characters; I loved its relationship with the women of the family and how these women have brought the house to life through the ages and turned it into a rather sinister presence. It's fairly reminiscent of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House in places, I just didn't enjoy it as much as I enjoy Jackson's books.

Because The Haunting of Hill House is so weird it helps that we have one narrator and that we know who that narrator is (whether she's sane or not is another matter entirely), but the narratives switched without warning throughout White is for Witching and unfortunately I'm not the kind of person who can appreciate a clever narrative switch. I like to know who is telling me a story otherwise I get frustrated and I can't get into it as much as I'd like because I have no idea who's speaking to me.

I quite like slow stories, but this felt less slow and more like nothing was happening at all. I spent the entire time waiting for something - anything - to pick up the pace, and in all honesty I don't think that was the book's fault, but the blurb's. In fact I blame the blurb for my problem with this book as a whole; the blurb makes it sound as though Miri goes missing and that her brother and her best friend team up to search for her, and given the slump I was in when I picked this up that was exactly the kind of story I was looking for and it wasn't that story at all.

Ultimately I think I may have read this at the wrong time, but it wasn't what I was looking for and I'm sorry to say I wasn't the biggest fan of my first encounter with Oyeyemi's work. I do love the way she writes, however, and I'm really looking forward to reading What is Not Yours is Not Yours; I think I may prefer Oyeyemi's writing in a short story format.

I'm also in a minority here, so if you've had White is for Witching on your radar I'd still recommend picking it up - it could be you enjoy it a lot more than I did!

Top Ten Tuesday | My Winter TBR

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week's theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week's theme is a Thanksgiving freebie, so because I'm British and therefore don't celebrate Thanksgiving, and also just don't like the origin of the holiday (sorry America!), I'm going to talk about the books on my Winter TBR instead.

The majority of these are 2016 releases I want to read before the end of the year, along with a few seasonal reads!

The Muse by Jessie Burton: I read and loved Burton's debut, The Miniaturist (reviewed here!), last year, so it's pretty ridiculous that I haven't read this one yet. To be honest I just haven't been in the mood to pick it up yet, and I'm very much a mood reader, but I want to read it before the end of the year.

A Tyranny of Petticoats edited by Jessica Spotswood: I definitely should have read this anthology by now, especially as I love historical fiction about women which is what this collection is all about. I ended up DNFing the other YA anthology I tried this year so I'm hoping I like this one more.

The Tidal Zone by Sarah Moss: I've heard nothing but brilliant things about this book and this author, and for someone who doesn't usually like covers with people on I think there's something so striking about this one.

The Nutcracker by E.T.A. Hoffmann: A classic Christmas story I love but have never actually read, which is something I need to change!

The View from the Cheap Seats by Neil Gaiman: I was surprised by just how chunky this collection of Gaiman's non-fiction is when I bought a copy, but I think it'll be a really interesting collection to dip in and out of during the winter months.

The Butcher's Hook by Janet Ellis: I wasn't sure if I wanted to read this when it first came out, it sounds fairly bizarre, but I've seen so many good reviews that I couldn't resist picking up a copy for myself and I'd really like to read it this year.

The Winter Witch by Paula Brackston: I'm pretty sure this is the third year in a row this book has been on my Winter TBR. It's an ideal winter read so I need to get to it this winter.

Under a Pole Star by Stef Penney: I read Penney's debut, The Tenderness of Wolves (reviewed here!), back in January and while I didn't fall completely in love with it I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since finishing it. Under a Pole Star is another book with a wintery setting, something Penney wrote brilliantly in her debut novel, and I think it's going to be a brilliant book to read this winter.

What is Not Yours is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi: I have to be completely honest, the only reason I bought this is because it's a gorgeous book. I do love the sound of it, though! I read my first Oyeyemi novel this year and even though I sadly wasn't the biggest fan, I think I'll enjoy her style of writing much more in a story collection.

The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry: I've started this one, and gotten about a quarter of a way through it, and while I've enjoyed what I've read it just hasn't grabbed me because I've been an absolutely rubbish reader this year. I want to finish it soon!

What did you talk about this week?

Improving my #BAME Game

I've read 28 books so far this year, and only 4 of those 28 were written by non-white authors. Last year I read 97 books, and only 6 of them were written by non-white authors. Judging by my reading this year I'd exceed 6 non-white authors if I read 97 books, but one thing is certain: I need to improve my BAME game.

Why? Some might ask. Why make a conscious effort to read more BAME authors if you're naturally drawn to white authors? Are the authors really that good if you have to remind yourself to read them?

I don't like that train of thought. Isn't it awfully sad that so many white readers have to make an effort to read more BAME authors because they can't remember the last time they did? Isn't it awfully sad to have to make an effort to read them at all? Why aren't they as well known to us as our white authors? Is it because we're all racist?

Well, no. That's also unfair, and a ridiculous self-defense that many jump to when they feel like one person calling out the odd prejudice is akin to being labelled bigots. But we can be ignorant without being racist, and we can be ignorant while also being nice people. You might never consciously be racist, but you can still contribute to the issue without realising simply by not acknowledging that the reason you're only reading white authors isn't because 'only white authors can write'. (That is racist).

Anyhoo, below are a list of books by BAME authors I'd really like to try and read this year. Are any of them on your TBR?

I have read and loved the late, great Maya Angelou's 'Phenomenal Woman', which is probably one of my favourite poems, but I've never actually read a whole collection of hers. I picked up a copy of And Still I Rise on a whim last year, as I've been trying to read more poetry, and I'm really looking forward to reading it some time this year. I should have read it last year, it doesn't take me long to devour a poetry collection, so I'm determined to read it very soon.

Unlike the majority of the authors on this list, Salman Rushdie is an author I'm familiar with. In my first year of university I had to read Haroun and the Sea of Stories, and I loved it - if you're a fan of retellings you need to pick it up. Earlier this year I went to Florence, and ended up picking up The Enchantress of Florence in the Uffizi Gallery's gift shop because I couldn't not. I'm really looking forward to reading more of Rushdie's work, and I think reading a book set in Florence having been there will be wonderful.

I hadn't heard of Tan Twan Eng until last October when I came across The Gift of Rain in the Waterstones in Trafalgar Square. I didn't buy the book then, though I certainly considered it, and I kept thinking about it afterwards. Recently I finally picked up a copy and I'm looking forward to reading it; I've read so few books set in Asia, and I'm always interested in books that have mixed race protagonists.

I'm not totally unfamiliar with Octavia Butler. I actually started reading Kindred around this time last year, and I enjoyed it, but for some reason one day I put it down and didn't pick it back up. I want to read it properly this year because I've heard nothing but praise for Butler, and I'd like to read more science fiction and more historical fiction with poc protagonists.

Another author who's not a complete stranger to me, because last year I read Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's We Should All Be Feminists which I really enjoyed. Now, though, I'd like to read some of her fiction and I've yet to hear a bad word about Americanah; I know very little about Nigeria, so I'd like to explore it through the work of someone who is Nigerian.

Somehow Stacey Lee's Under a Painted Sky managed to completely pass me by last year, and as someone who loves historical fiction, and especially loves historical fiction when it's told from the point of view of people history has forgotten, I had to rectify that immediately. I still have yet to read it (story of my life) but I'm looking forward to a historical road trip following two girls of colour posing as boys along the Oregon Trail.

I'd heard of Helen Oyeyemi, but I wasn't properly introduced to her until about a month ago when she appeared in a documentary about the Brontë sisters on the BBC. Lately her latest short story collection, What is Not Yours is Not Yours, has been everywhere, and when I saw how beautifully it had been published I couldn't resist picking up my own copy. I'm really looking forward to trying out Oyeyemi's work, and if I enjoy her short fiction I may try one of her novels.

I should have read Zen Cho by now. The lovely Mikayla @ Mikayla's Bookshelf and I decided to buddy read her debut, Sorcerer to the Crown, back in February and I completely failed at it because I suck at buddy reads. It's like as soon as I 'have to' read a book it's the last thing I want to read, and I wish I wasn't so stubborn. I will be reading it soon, though, because it's more historical fiction and a little bit of magic, too.

I've owned my copy of Battle Royale for years, so it's pretty appalling I still haven't read any of Koushun Takami's work. After dystopian fiction started appearing everywhere, and I wrote about the genre for my dissertation, I went off it, and I haven't really read any dystopia since. I think I'll need to be in the right mood for Battle Royale, but I'm determined to cross it off my TBR eventually.

My relationship with Chigozie Obioma is similar to my relationship with Octavia Butler and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; I started reading his debut, The Fishermen, last year, and then for whatever reason put it down and didn't pick it back up, but I'd like to finish it and read more fiction set in Nigeria from a Nigerian author. Plus if Obioma's debut can make the Man Booker shortlist, I look forward to seeing what his future career will bring.

Who are some of your favourite BAME authors?