That Old Country Music

In Poor, his first poetry collection, Caleb Femi gives the reader a snapshot of growing up Black, male and poor on a North Peckham housing estate.

Part speaking truth to power, part love letter to his home Femi described the collection as ‘an ode to a troubled yet enchanted world, and the Black boys raised in it’.

Having always had her nose buried in a book, Cathy Rentzenbrink is someone whose life beyond that of her imagination ought to be nothing much to write home about. However, as anyone who has read her bestselling memoir The Last Act of Love will know, the tragic death of her brother Matty was an event that profoundly affected her – and continues to do so. What’s more, although it could never quell the pain, chronicling that awful experience also confirmed her as an exceptional memoirist, with the ability to recount stories of her life with style and panache.

In Dear Reader, Rentzenbrink canters through her whole life to date, punctuating her experiences (including the time around Matty’s accident) with many of the books she read along the way. It’s a wonderfully engaging device, leaving readers with another captivating memoir and a stunningly diverse list of books to turn to in good times or bad.

When Life Gives You Mangoes by Kereen Getten has everything you want in a story. It has a deep sense of place, characters that you completely believe in, and a mystery that pulls at you all the way through. I read it cover to cover in one night.

The story is set in a small village in Jamaica where we meet Clara and her friends, living a seemingly normal life, apart from that Clara can’t remember anything that happened the previous Summer. Throughout the book we get hints at what could have happened and as a new girl, Rudy, arrives from England things start to change.

I read The Good Hawk by Joseph Elliot a while ago now and it has really stuck with me.

Set in mythic Scotland, probably the Isle of Skye, two unlikely heroes must make a dangerous journey to protect their people’. The book is dually narrated by two characters, both members of the Tuath clan but with different roles within the clan structure.

The Good Hawk is an absolute must read for every fantasy fiction fan out there.