The Bone Readers is the first book in Jacob Ross’ crime thriller trilogy, Ross’ first novel Pynter Binder was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Regional Prize (2009) and chosen as one of the British Authors Club’s top three Best First Novels. I have recently been reading a lot of short stories and was glad for the … Continue reading Book Review: The Bone Readers By Jacob Ross
Little Boy Blue was sent to me for free in exchange of an honest review. Thank you Jamal for the opportunity to read your work and also for reminding of the rebellion that is the Diaspora. The word diaspora has its roots in the Greek words dia, meaning between, through or across and the speiro meaning … Continue reading Diaspora and Poetry: Making yourself at home
This very apt photo is from : Zamirbhimji So I have to own up and say that I have been hiding from the news and Trump’s daily debacles. I have retreated into my mind, into books or into Netflix to avoid what is happening in the world right now because I feel like IS THIS … Continue reading #WriteYourResistance: Plans for My Upcoming Anti-Trump Blog Feature
It really is true what they say about the universe: you ask and it delivers. Just when I was thinking I needed to find more BAME/ethnic minority (I hate both these terms but am forced to use them) writers from the UK, specifically from London, Irenosen Okojie’s Speak Gigantular landed in my lap.
I don’t know why Amazon categorises this book as ‘erotica’, yes there was like ONE story about a foot fetish, but Speak Gigantular has many more layers. While I can immediately draw parallels to the work of Isabel Allende, Helen Oyeyemi and Angela Carter, it is SO much more. It is a weird and wacky collection of short stories with elements of magic realism, feminism, erotica overlaid with a big chunk of horror. Okojie has managed wildly diverse but well developed characters ranging from vigilante chickens, serial killing women and ghosts that haunt the Victoria line.
Continue reading “‘To all the misfits who dare to tilt worlds’ – Irenosen Okojie’s Speak Gigantular”
So much YES!
Although I haven’t stepped into the YA genre for a while I’m glad I got the chance to read and review this gem. I loved so much about this book. I found myself nodding and laughing out loud at so many points in the story. It was like speaking to an old friend who you just lost touch with but you meet after years and nothing has changed, you guys can reminisce about the old days and still complete each other’s sentences.
Ishara Deen is so right to dedicate this books to ‘all the girls that never got told they could, not even in books’.
Continue reading “Review: Ishara Deen’s God Smites and Other Muslim Girl Problems”
Over the last few weeks I have gone into hibernation, I just want to be warm and sleep for days on end. So I’ve been feeling like I’ve been slacking a bit, and not just in terms of the blog… My reading lists for this month (or year) didn’t get completed because I suddenly got … Continue reading Translated Lit in the Shadows
Between the Assassinations is a collection of short stories looking at the years between the assassinations of India’s third Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (1984) and her son (also Prime Minister) Rajiv Gandhi’s (1991). Adiga explores this time of political uncertainty and increasing modernisation in India through the unique lens of the inhabitants of a small coastal town in South-West India; Kittur. Moving beyond his vaguely Malgudi Day’s style of writing, at the heart of it, this book tells the story of the (still) ignored people of India; the poor, the farmers, the labourers, the invisible, silent mass.
Continue reading “It’s Complicated: Arvind Adiga’s ‘Between The Assassinations’”
I’m so excited to write about this I don’t know where to start…
I went into London Book Reviews on my lunchbreak to get a copy of Island of Lost girls which has been recommended to me by many people but I just haven’t got around to getting it for some reason. Instead I bought Panty, on a whim, and I’m so glad I did!
Panty is originally written in Bengali by Sangeeta Bandhyopadhyay (SB) and has been translated into English by Arunava Sinha. SB is described as “the woman who reintroduced hardcore sexuality into Bengali literature”[1] so I was both intrigued and bit wary of a mills and boonesque horror awaiting me. Instead, I was met with a no-nonsense portrayal of contemporary Indian society, which explores female sexuality as only one of its themes. Among other things Panty deals with issues of nationhood, religion and questions what it means to be a feminist through a complicated relationship between the protagonist and her lover/boyfriend/partner? (we never find out).
Continue reading “The Female Gaze , showing Fifty Shades How its Done and Other Mind Blowing Things”
A big frustration of mine is that I can read my mother tongue, Kannada. I spent my early years learning Hindi and English and only speaking Kannada at home and with family. This is hugely annoying for me, especially because I know that Kannada literature has so many rich stories to offer. It also really annoys me that I can’t read street signs, shop signs, truck signs etc. etc. (which is actually a weird pass-time of mine) when I’m back in India. The overall effect of being so well versed with the narrative of a language but being blind to its writing and physical language is a disorienting one.
Continue reading “Ghachar Ghochar : The tyranny of the mundane and my pseudo-language barriers”
The last few weeks have been crazy busy especially with my dreaded dissertation and I have been feeling all sorts of emotions – not to mention boredom and being forced to take a step back from my first love (books if you don’t already know). It’s been a tough few weeks basically! But I found … Continue reading The talented women that are reintroducing me to poetry
Not Chai-Tea 