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I love reading- but do you know what I adore more? A fab, blow my socks off, book hangover kind of read- a few recently have been The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, White Teeth by Zadie Smith and The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta. Yet, I am always looking for that new read which stops me in my tracks; here are the books I predict will do just that and why.
Granted this is a bold one to place on this list as I have never read Capote before but both personally and in terms of my academic interest this book fascinates me. A true crime book written as if it were a novel, this book is one of the first of it's kind to combine both journalism and traditional 'literary' writing, Maya Angelou's I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, for example, is one of my favourites. I find this area of writing so interesting and powerful that is hard for me to imagine the beginning of this relatively niche genre not being 5 stars for me!
The third in Smith's seasonal quartet this is one I have wanted for literal yonks (well a year and a half.) The first of her quartet- Autumn is what introduced me to her work so the remaining books have a special place in my heart. Clever, surreal yet real, beautiful, informative- her books have everything AND to top it all of the quartets are written and published in such a short frame of time that they truly do reflect on the season they are written in. This is going to be astounding and I know it.
This book was (rightly so) everywhere over the summer and I have known that it is a vital and educational read ever since- Eddo-Lodge is an amazing individual and her journalistic and interview writings I have read are important and vital. This is a 5 star read, no question.
Evaristo's work was my discovery of 2020- her writing is full of honesty, humour, vitality and love that I adore. Soul Tourists quite simply is pegged as a 5 star read for me as I have never met an Evaristo novel (case in point my many reviews for her work here and here) that didn't leave me reeling in the most perfect of ways.
What are your five-star predictions?