7 books to add to your TBR (To Be Read) list …
Every month we’ll bring you a selection of books to add to your reading list. This month we recommend:
SAFE: On Black British Men Reclaiming Space – edited by Derek Owusu
SAFE is a powerful anthology of essays collated and edited by Mostly Lit podcast host Derek Owusu. With contributions from writers, poets, actors, journalists, and musicians SAFE explores the experience of Black men in Britain with regards to identity, race, and diversity, and what it really means to reclaim and hold space in the landscape of our society. SAFE also examines where Black men belong in schools, the media, their families, in the conversation about mental health, in the LGBT community and in grime music and how their voices can inspire, educate and add to ongoing conversations about diversity.
SAFE is available to buy from all good book shops and online book retailers, now.
Queenie – by Candice Carty-Williams
Queenie is not in a good place. She’s on a ‘break’ from her long-term boyfriend, her boss is constantly on her back, and her family is not much help either. She was named to be the queen of everything but Queenie is struggling to rule her own life.
This much-praised debut novel from Candice Carty-Williams is a brilliantly comical and subversive take on modern life through the eyes of a young Black British woman that will have you rooting for her every step of the way.
Queenie is available to buy from all good book shops and online book retailers, now.
It’s Not About the Burqa: Muslim Women on Faith, Feminism, Sexuality, and Race – by Mariam Khan
Curated by Mariam Khan, It’s Not About the Burqa … is a wonderful selection of essays by a diverse group of Muslim women on a range of subjects including the hijab, faith, love, feminism, sexuality, and race.
Passionate, warm, funny, challenging and at times sad, It’s Not About the Burqa, has created a space for Muslim women to speak in their own words and in their own terms what it means to them to be a Muslim woman in Western society.
It’s Not About the Burqa: Muslim Women on Faith, Feminism, Sexuality, and Race – is available to buy from all good book shops and online book retailers, now.
Kill the Black One First – by Michael Fuller
Kill the Black One First is a memoir by Michael Fuller, Britain’s first ever Black Chief Constable. At a time where there were few Black police officers and relations between the police and the Black community was at breaking point, Fuller experienced a meteoric rise up the career in policing, and took a pivotal role in the formation of Operation Trident before being appointed as chief constable of Kent.
Kill the Black One First offers an unflinching account of life in the police force during a tumultuous period of race relations in the UK.
Kill the Black One First is available to buy from all good book shops and online book retailers, now.
My First Trip to The Gambia – by Makayla Safiya Williams
Written by 12-year-old Makayla Safiya Williams, My First Trip to The Gambia is her account of her holiday to The Gambia and how she got over her initial fears about going. During her visit, Makayla realised that much of her fears and worries were based on what she had seen and heard in the media, which she discovered were not the truth. Instead, she found beautiful and amazing people with great stories to tell.
My First Trip to The Gambia is available for purchase at www.makaylahwilliams.com
Black, Listed – by Jeffrey Boakye
In Black, Listed, Jeffrey Boakye continues to explore the theme of black identity through a list of insults, insights and everything in between. Using cultural and social examples including entertainment, sport, art, politics, music, and history, Boakye investigates the ways in which black people have been represented, oppressed, mimicked, celebrated and othered throughout history.
Black, Listed is available to buy from all good book shops and online book retailers, now.
Darling – by Rachel Edwards
“I knew she was trouble from the moment I saw her. I felt it as she stood in the doorway that day: disaster. Not just because she was so different, that skin and that hair, as different from me as it’s possible to be. There was something wrong about her. Wrong for us. It was never going to work. Now she is dead and only I am left to love him. She is dead, and it’s all my fault.”
A teenage girl clashes with her new stepmother in this thought-provoking exploration of a complex relationship between a mother and a daughter. A deep, dark and thrilling debut by Rachel Edwards.
Darling is available to buy from all good book shops and online book retailers, now.