Best Of The Year: Books

My BOTY list is more of a what I read this year list than it is a selection of my best reads this year. This list is so close to my heart because after almost 2 years I picked up a book, something that had started to feel impossible. Thanks to Hey Anci (she reads a lot, I just aspire to get to her level of reading and joining her book club kept me motivated) and lockdown because I just had nothing else do after a while.

1. Dead to Me by Lesley Pearse

In this book set during the second world war, the lives of two girls from different worlds collide forming a bond for life. Their friendship goes through trials but it still comes out on top in the end.

2. Reefer Men: The Rise and Fall of a Billionaire Drug Ring by Tony Thompson

This book details the marijiuana trade in American around America’s free spirit hippie phase from the 60s to the 80s, how much was made, how it was made and how The Ring all came tumbling down. I am never one for non-fiction books but this book had me! I don’t know how many times I asked myself “This happened?” while reading it. Sometimes real life is more interesting than fiction.

3. This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga

What stood out the most for me in this book was how it addressed mental issues. How easily we can be tipped over by circumstances. How even though it is set in a turn of the century setting it is relevant. How things that were wrong with my country then are still wrong with my country now or ….even worse.

4. A Song of Wraith and Ruins by Roseanne A. Brown

This Afro-fantasy novel was just a joy for me to read. It’s story is also of two different worlds destined to collide. No matter what happens and how it happens sometimes we can’t say no to destiny.

5. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

This book! I have no words but I will try. It gave me a better understanding of who the slave trade worked how those who left were scared just as much as those that stayed. It humanised the people who went through it. They aren’t just numbers . This was my BEST READ.

My Current Reads

What did you read this year and what was your best read of the year?

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