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Sharing my best of 2020 reading to help buy presents for the bookworms in your life.
Writers & Lovers by @lilykingbooks. "... portrait of an artist as a young woman. Blindsided by her mother’s sudden death, and wrecked by a recent love affair, Casey Peabody has arrived in Massachusetts in the summer of 1997 without a plan." @picadorbooks https://pagesofhackney.co.uk/webshop/product/writers-lovers-lily-king/
Sea Wife by Amity Gaige. "Juliet is failing to juggle motherhood & her anemic dissertation when her husband informs her that he wants to leave his job & buy a sailboat. The couple are novice sailors, but Michael persuades Juliet to say yes" @FleetReads https://www.waterstones.com/book/9780349726519
Memorial Drive by Natasha Trethewey. "When Natasha was nineteen and away at college, her stepfather shot her mother dead on the driveway outside their home." A compelling and heart-wrenching memoir. @BloomsburyBooks https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/memorial-drive-9781408840030/
A Ghost in the Throat by Doireann Ní Ghríofa "In the 1700s, an Irish noblewoman, on discovering her husband has been murdered, drinks handfuls of his blood & composes an extraordinary poem that reaches across the centuries to another poet." @TrampPress https://tramppress.com/product/a-ghost-in-the-throat-by-doireann-ni-ghriofa/
Indelicacy by @aminamemory. "In an undefined era and place, a cleaning woman at a museum of art aspires to do more than simply dust the paintings around her." Perfect for the writers in your life. @DauntBooksPub https://dauntbookspublishing.co.uk/book/indelicacy/
The Margot Affair by Sanae Lemoine. "French teenager Margot is the illegitimate daughter of a prominent stage actress and an influential politician." When she decides to make public a private affair, her world comes crashing down. @SceptreBooks https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-margot-affair/sanae-lemoine/9781529384673
Parallel Lives: Five Victorian Marriages by Phyllis Rose. A beautiful reissue by @DauntBooksPub. "In every relationship there are two narratives; more often than not these narratives do not converge" Instructive & an essential work of feminist non-fiction. https://dauntbooks.co.uk/shop/books/parallel-lives-five-victorian-marriages/
The Death of Vivek Oji by @azemezi. "This novel, and its celebration of the innocence and optimism of youth will touch all those who embrace it." I'll never forget this story. Published by @FaberBooks. https://pagesofhackney.co.uk/webshop/product/the-death-of-vivek-oji-akwaeke-emezi/
There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura, translated by Polly Barton was the most soothing and deeply meaningful book I read this year. @BloomsburyBooks https://www.waterstones.com/book/theres-no-such-thing-as-an-easy-job/kikuko-tsumura/9781526622242
I Choose Elena by @LuciaOC_ still haunts me even though I read it early in the year. It is an important book on trauma, memory and survival. A difficult story told with grace, clarity and strength. I’m in awe. https://www.theindigopress.com/i-choose-elena
Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line by Deepa Anappara is as brilliant as everyone says it is. It’s written with great care, empathy and humour. The publicity and marketing for this book brought me lots of joy. @ChattoBooks https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/1118019/djinn-patrol-on-the-purple-line/9781784743086.html
Burnt Sugar @avnidoshi was one of the first great books I read this year and I've not recovered since! @HamishH1931 https://www.waterstones.com/book/burnt-sugar/avni-doshi/9780241441510
Radical Attention by @JuliaBell is all the clarity this year needs. Please get this for your friends, family and yourself! Check out other @PressPeninsula essays for perfect bundle gift or separate stocking fillers. https://peninsulapress.co.uk/product/radical-attention
Strangers by @RebTamas. "Tamás explores where the human and nonhuman meet, and why this delicate connection just might be the most important relationship of our times." So good! @makinabooks
https://makinabooks.com/product/strangers/
https://makinabooks.com/product/strangers/
Whites by @OteghaUwagba is the perfect reminder for us to reflect on the Black Lives Matter movement of 2020 and reassess the changes we promised ourselves. If your anti-racist book list is long forgotten, read this essay! https://www.waterstones.com/book/whites/otegha-uwagba/9780008440428
Patch Work by Claire Wilcox is the perfect memoir for the season. Cosy, quiet, resilient and beautiful. Perfect gift for fans of clothes, @V_and_A and life! @BloomsburyBooks https://www.waterstones.com/book/patch-work/claire-wilcox/9781526614391
How to Stay Sane in the Age of Division by @Elif_Safak was just the balm I needed and one I bet you need too! @ProfileBooks. Small but mighty. https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/How-to-Stay-Sane-in-an-Age-of-Division-by-Elif-Shafak-author/9781788165723
Weather by Jenny Offill is such a triumph. A dystopian novel for climate change activists and all round good humans in your life. @GrantaBooks https://londonreviewbookbox.co.uk/products/weather-by-jenny-offill
Just Us: An American Conversation by Claudia Rankine is 
I leapt with joy when I learned we were being blessed with a Claudia Rankine book this year. It doesn't disappoint! A look at whiteness, privilege, guilt, horror. @AllenLaneBooks. https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/319/319488/just-us/9780241467107.html
I leapt with joy when I learned we were being blessed with a Claudia Rankine book this year. It doesn't disappoint! A look at whiteness, privilege, guilt, horror. @AllenLaneBooks. https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/319/319488/just-us/9780241467107.html
Rodham by @csittenfeld is a great book to lose yourself in this holiday season. I read it on holiday and found it gripping and it really added to my time off. @TransworldBooks @DoubledayUK https://www.waterstones.com/book/rodham/curtis-sittenfeld/9780857526120
My memoir titled My Past is a Foreign Country came out in paperback this year! It chronicles my fight for the right to my identity as a Muslim feminist with agency. It's a book about empathy, self-compassion and believing in yourself. @SceptreBooks https://www.waterstones.com/book/my-past-is-a-foreign-country-a-muslim-feminist-finds-herself/zeba-talkhani/9781473684058
Intimations (6 essays) by Zadie Smith were a saving grace of the first lockdown for me. A truly great gift, full of reflections, hope and clarity. @HamishH1931 https://www.waterstones.com/book/intimations/zadie-smith/9780241492383
I'm truly enjoying The Haunting of Alma Fielding: A True Ghost Story by Kate Summerscale. Brilliantly researched & written, with a hint of spooky. For fans of magic, ghosts, history, intriguing women & stranger-than-fiction life. @BloomsburyBooks https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-haunting-of-alma-fielding/kate-summerscale/9781526631053
Boy Parts by @FancyEliza. "Irina obsessively takes explicit photographs of the average-looking men she persuades to model for her, scouted from the streets of Newcastle." It only gets better from here. @Influxpress https://www.influxpress.com/boy-parts
