#SundayRead: Vox

Sep232018 by MeneeshaNo Comments

#SundayRead: Vox

#SundayRead: Vox I read The Handmaid's Tale when it was first published. It’s one of those novels that stayed with me all these years later. Vox will be the same. In the last month, I’ve received two books with similar themes. In fact, Elle magazine says this novel is a “petrifying re-imagining of The Handmaid’s Tale in the present”. (more…)

Sep162018 by MeneeshaNo Comments

#SundayRead: F**k Plastic

Books

#SundayRead: F**k Plastic I’ve written extensively about my plastic-free journey this year. If, like me, you’d like to join the war on plastic, get your hands on this nifty pocketbook. It offers you 101 ways you can join the campaign. There are 51 trillion particles of plastic in our oceans - possibly more than the marine life that inhabits it. It’s a sobering thought. In this book, you can find simple tricks and tips you can do in your everyday life to reduce your plastic footprint on the earth. The message is simple: cut down on single-use plastic and help save the world. From opting for an ice cream cone instead of ice cream in a plastic container to changing over to a shampoo bar rather than the liquid variety…

Sep92018 by MeneeshaNo Comments

Sunday read: The ‘Adults’

Books

#SundayRead: The ‘Adults’ Many things give it away – the quotes in the headline, the definition at the beginning of the novel. This is a novel about people who believe they are adults – mature and perfected – but who, in reality, are not. And to be honest, how can you have “normal” family once parents divorce? Really? Really! Claire and Matt are divorced and have a daughter Scarlett. They decide that, in spite of their divorce, they would have a “normal” family Christmas together – along with their new partners and Scarlett’s imaginary rabbit friend, Posey (the irony of this name did not escape me). Claire arrives at Happy Forest Holiday Park with her new boyfriend, Patrick, and Matt joins them with Alex, the “love of his life”. And if you…

Sep22018 by MeneeshaNo Comments

Sunday read: Meet Me at the Museum

Books

Sunday read: Meet Me at the Museum I had two penpals when I was younger. Penpals? That’s a word I had to explain to my own Generation Z children, who only understand the world of emails and instant messaging. Every month I would receive a handwritten letter from Sylvia in Oldenburg, Germany, and Christopher in Paris, France. [caption id="attachment_2512" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Love stories happen every day.[/caption] The letters would arrive about two weeks after they were posted and I would respond immediately and it would take two weeks before they received my letters. A month - that’s how long it took to send and receive news between two people in different countries. Today, of course, I am able to chat with cousins in Canada, colleagues and students in France, and…

Jul152018 by MeneeshaNo Comments

Sunday read: Our House

Books

Sunday read: Our House Murder, property fraud, adultery, betrayal - Our House is brimming with suspense and twists. Fi arrives at her home to find a family moving into her house. The home she and Bram, her husband, had owned for years and had no intention of selling, suddenly belongs to someone else and Fi cannot account for how that happened. (more…)

Jul82018 by Meneesha1 Comment

Sunday read: indulge me an opportunity to reflect

Books

Sunday read: indulge me an opportunity to reflect Today, I want to reflect on why I read. I definitely have a “type” of novel I gravitate to. I definitely don’t read a book because someone says it’s a bestseller or because it’s been shortlisted for or the winner of a literary award. I read because I love the act. I read because it allows me to lose myself in a solitary space in the pages of a book peopled with characters that I can imagine as I wish them to be. I read because a book is “unputdownable”. (more…)

Jul12018 by MeneeshaNo Comments

Sunday read: The Poet X

Books

Sunday read: The Poet X The Poet X is a novel-in-verse by award-winning slam poet Elizabeth Acevedo. To truly appreciate it’s beauty you The Poet X should not be read but spoken. Take a look at Acevedo’s video to understand how this beautiful piece of writing was conceived. (more…)

Jun162018 by MeneeshaNo Comments

Sunday read: Who Fears Death

Books

Who Fears Death Let me say it up front: this is not an easy novel to read. But it is still one of my top novels of 2018 and I think it’s worth reading. Nigerian-American author Nnedi Okorafor’s Who Fears Death is set in post-apocalyptic Sudan. Her protagonist is Onyesonwu – a daughter of genocide. Her dark-skinned mother of the Okeke people is brutally raped by her pale-skinned father, a Nuru. His people believe they are the chosen ones. Onyesonwu’s father hopes that the son born out of this rape will help him annihilate all of the Okeke people. What he doesn’t bank on is that Onyesonwu (whose name means “who fears death” in Igbo) is a girl who will grow into a fiery-tempered woman with magical powers. Her mission will…

Jun102018 by MeneeshaNo Comments

Sunday read: An American Marriage

Books

Sunday read: An American Marriage An American Marriage kicked off the resurrection of the Oprah Book Club, so there has been quite a bit of hype around it. And I could not wait to get hold of this book. The novel itself has all the necessary ingredients for a tragic love story. But it is so much more. An American Marriage is a timely interrogation of themes and issues that reverberate in African-American society. But it also takes the discussion into new realms. (more…)

May202018 by MeneeshaNo Comments

Sunday read: The Last Romeo

Books

Sunday read: The Last Romeo Someone described The Last Romeo as Sex and the City meets Bridget Jones’s Diary. James is 34 and has just emerged from a 6-year relationship with Adam. He hates his job and his best friend Bella is heading off to Russia - leaving him behind. And what is there to do when you’re adrift, single and lonely in London? Online dating, of course! (more…)