Swimmer Among the Stars by Kanish Tharoor
(Hardback, Picador, 239 pages)
So technically I got this one at the very end of April, but I'm going to include it here anyway. Swimmer Among the Stars is a fairly long collection of short stories and this edition was only published a couple of months ago, but I haven't seen or heard many reviews for it yet.
Two things in particular drew me to this book: the blurb and the cover. As some of you may already know, I am a recent convert to short stories because they're the perfect length to read on my commute. These ones sounded cool as they seem to be a little bit different to normal and include stories about "an interview with the last speaker of a language" and "the lonely voyage of an elephant". Secondly, any cover which has elephants and/or metallic foiling is always going to grab my attention. When I'm looking for my next fix of short stories I'll definitely be reaching for this collection.
The End We Start From by Megan Hunter
(Hardback, Picador, 127 pages)
One day I was randomly scrolling through Twitter and a photo of this book popped up on my feed. Like aforementioned, foiling on front covers is a weakness of mine (don't judge me okay), so that combined with the interesting premise of this book meant I just had to get it. The End We Start From is set during a "mysterious environmental crisis" in which London is submerged by a flood, it follows a woman who gives birth to her first child, referred to as 'Z', and their journey to escape the flood waters. It promises to be novel which explores motherhood and family in a unique way - I'm excited to read this short debut super soon.
Strange Heart Beating by Eli Goldstone
(Paperback, Granta, 194 pages)
The next three books came from a second hand book shop called 'Any Amount of Books' in London. Not only do they have a basement full of books for a pound, but they also have proof copies and hardback books that have only recently come out, sold at discounted prices - definitely worth a visit if you're a book-lover and in the area.
I've seen a lot of book tubers talk about this first book so I grabbed it when I saw it in the shop for five pounds rather than the usual thirteen. From what I can gather Strange Heart Beating is loosely based on the Greek myth of Leda and the Swan. When Leda is killed by a swan Seb, Leda's husband, discovers some mysterious letters from another man. The rest of the novel follows Seb on his journey to find out more about the letters, the man and Leda's past.
Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbhag
(Hardback, Faber & Faber, 118 pages)
I love brave designs that embody simplicity but are bold at the same time and this is definitely a good example of that. I pretty much know nothing about this book other than it centres around a poor family that comes into fortune unexpectedly and the consequences this results in. This book also only came out a month or so ago, so I'm keen to get to these new releases shortly because I always think there's something nice about reading a book around the time it comes out! Again, I only paid five pounds for this one too. I just can't resist a good bargain.
How Much the Heart Can Hold
(Hardback, Sceptre, 149 pages)
This collection of short stories about love came out last year and each story is written by a different author. I haven't tried a short story collection which has multiple authors yet but I thought it would be a good way to read lots of authors I hadn't necessarily heard of before quite quickly. How Much the Heart Can Hold supposedly examines seven different concepts of love, I'll be interested to see which stories I end up liking the most and hopefully I'll discover some good new authors too.
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
(Paperback, 4th Estate, 433 pages)
I think most people have heard of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie because of her well known TED Talk/Essay: 'We Should All Be Feminists' but she's also written a selection of novels - I've heard that this is one of her best. Another one of her novels was on my contemporary literature reading list at university. I never got round to reading it though, because of the typical 'so much to do, so little time' problem that so many English Lit students face. However, I was in Whitstable visiting my sister for her birthday yesterday and there's a little independent bookshop there so since I've been meaning to read more of Adichie's work I picked up this lovely 2017 edition. It explores how three character's lives intertwine in Nigeria during the 1960's against the backdrop of the Civil War. I'm hoping to do an author spotlight on Adichie once I've managed to get through some more of her work, so look out for that later on in the year.
And that's all of the books I've bought in May.
Do let me know if you have any book recommendations or have read any of the books in this post - I'd be interested to know your thoughts!
Laura.
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