HELLO HELLO Friday is here and that means you get to read another Friday debrief!
You know the drill, every week some of our glorious writers let us know what they have been reading this week. As always the full list is also available for easy browsing in our US and UK Bookshops! If you buy any of the books in our shops, not only are you actively supporting us and our work but you are also supporting independent bookstores with 10% of your purchase going directly to them at no extra cost to yourself, and all carbon emissions are offset! Good vibes all round. Now enough chat, big love and here is this week's debrief!
Girlhood by Melissa Febos - Cecilia
Wow. This one hurts a bit, but I’m a cathartic way. I read Febos’ Whip Smart (US) a few months back, fell in love, and proceeded to pick this one up. Her storytelling and voice is something else.
Aftershocks by Nadia Owusu - Karen
How do I even begin to encompass the brilliance of this memoir? I'm only a couple of pages in but my heart is fully in these words. There is a search for identity within these pages, of a home when not one has been found before, of family that has left you behind but wants you to forget as if the past didn't matter, of family secrets exposed to wound you, that cause more fractures in the aftershocks of seismic events in Owusu's life. I can't wait to continue reading this.
The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression by Andrew Solomon - Maggie
Depressed hot girl summer reading 💅
Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok - Melissa
I had to get my hands on this because it's the only Jean Kwok book I haven't read! So far, I love the main character, Amy, and I'm very intrigued at the family secrets that are looming around the edges of this mystery...
The Memory of Love by Aminatta Forna - Hannah Abban
Quite a lengthy read but one that has me captivated all the same. Stories of love and self-discovery of three protagonists intertwine in this novel set in pre and post-civil war Sierra Leone.
Daddy by Emma Cline - Nikki
The short stories in Daddy explore different ideas and perceptions of masculinity. Not sure yet how this will compare to The Girls (US & UK) (which I loved), but one thing I do know is that Emma Cline's writing is just so easy and effortless and absorbing.
My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing - Lucy
I was in a bit of a reading funk the last couple of days until I picked up this domestic thriller. It’s really binge worthy, and I’m loving it so far!
Falling by TJ Newman - Mel
Over the years I’ve been put off of thrillers (Karin Slaughter being the one exception I’ve made lately) because the high drama often falls flat but I’m awed by this debut, how quickly it hooked me into the story. Finding books like this one is why I persist in never giving up the genre entirely.
Buy it from our Bookshops - US.
Pretty as a Picture by Elizabeth Little - Jessica Maria
I dig the narration so far of a film editor who is hired for a mysterious job with an eccentric and famous director--love the movie references and I'm intrigued by where this story is going.