World Book Day 2018

Well, I'm a little late this year, or extremely early if you go by the other World Book Day date of 23rd April. Carrying on the tradition of 2015, 2016 and 2017, here's my annual Book Day roundup.

The book  I have just finished reading:

The Rising of Bella Casey by Mary Morrissy was a surprise find. I stumbled upon it whilst looking for something else and was soon smitten with talk of pianos. It really was a good read. It tries to answer the mystery of why playwright Seán O'Casey killed off his sister ten years early in his memoirs.

The two books I am currently reading:

I'm really loving The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan. It retells the history of the world with a focus on the Orient and the Middle East, and how the later-developing politics of the Western World were formed by these trade routes. It's really well written, more of an epic adventure than a history book.

Also currently reading a novel by one of my all-time favourite authors, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, for which it was my great pleasure to actually read her work in India recently. I even took a photo of the cover in front of the Water Palace in Jaipur. Earlier in the year I'd also read Before We Visit the Goddess.

Collections

Huge shout out to this wonderful work of adult fiction by Rwandan writers, called Versus. Published by Huza Press. A real treat to read such varied voices across so many genres, from romance to Sci-fi. It's the first anthology of its kind in the country and well worth picking up a copy.

Author crush of the year:

My author crush of the year goes out to Ralph Pullins for Antiartists. He's said some very nice things about my work in the past and it was an absolute pleasure to stick my face in his book. The pages flew past. It's dark and packed with insecurity, self-harm and humour. Fabulous debut novel and I look forward to reading more from him.

Non-fiction

Brought to you by Kate Harrad, the author of All Lies and Jest, Purple Prose is an excellent introduction and exploration of bisexuality in Britain. I contributed to the crowdfunder for this but it's taken me far too long to get around to reviewing it. Worth the wait. Very satisfying.

  

Classics

After watching too much Black Sails, I decided to delve into the original Treasure Island. Ignoring a drifting scene in a coracle, it was swashbucklingly good adventure with a few interesting language lessons. Gaaaarrrr. Worth having a read before International Talk Like a Pirate Day comes around.

Poetry

I have read remarkably little poetry this year. I think this book comes closest. It's called This Could be Such a Beautiful World... by a lady called Rosalind Welcher. I found it in the second-hand bin at a local café. I'm a sucker for old-smelling books. It's described as a short essay, but it's extremely poetic and very beautiful in parts.

TBR

Top of my TBR pile this year is a murder mystery called The Honking by Ugandan author Mulumba Ivan Matthias. I picked it up at Acacia Book Café a couple of months back and was intrigued by the back blurb. Looking forward to reviewing it.

For more reading suggestions, check out my Juicy Reads tab.