Liz Between The Lines

I’m not even being hyperbolic when I say this is the best book emhlabeni (this year). Kin is a thoughtfully written narrative that follows the lives of Annie and Vernice (Niecy) as they navigate through their lives as black children turned young adults, moving into adulthood in 1950s/60s America. The book is one of friendship, which is precisely what God brought us onto this earth for, if you ask me. Niecy herself, in convincing Annie that there is a God, uses the fact that they were placed in the same cradle as kids as evidence.  Annie and Niecy follow completely different paths after leaving their hometown but their bond, thicker than blood, holds them together no matter how far apart. In one of her letters, Niecy apologises for sharing Annie’s business but explains that she simply could not explain who she was without explaining who Niecy was and that’s — KIN!!!! One of my favourite things about Kin is the unwavering nature of all the characters, no matter the consequence. ...

September has been the busiest month in a while in the SA bookish industry and let me tell you, I am having a time! The first event was Lola Akinmade Akerstrom's evening at Exclusive Books in Hyde Park where we discussed Bitter Honey with the ever so talented Cheeky Natives. I've actually never read any of her books but when an acclaimed international author with credentials from my trusted reviewers is in town, I have no choice but to honour the invite. The event was basically clash of the book clubs, and I love any excuse to see my Prose & Icons girlies. Immediately   on the day after, we sat intimately at Love Books in Melville with Yewande Omotoso launching Krystle Zara Appiah's Half Lives. Krystle is a well of talent and I cannot wait to get into her latest!  My favourite of the three nights has to be Selali Fiamanya's evening at Artistry on the 8th. Dr. Alma and Adv. Letlhogonolo yet again blessed us with a Cheeky eve ning, discussing one of the best debuts I ...

  When I think Historical Fiction, I’m afraid my immediate thoughts jump to the  Kirstin Hannahs Rating: 4 🌟  and Kate Quinns of this world, which while I have read a few (heavy on the few), I cannot say I quite enjoy. It then goes without saying that when Homegoing was winning all the awards in the latter half of the 2010s, I did not feel the nudge to engage. Though I must add that my genre of choice was primarily psychological thrillers at the time. Now I’m not sure if it’s age or whatever they say about the cerebral cortex developing, but I’ve been gravitating a lot towards historical fiction lately. Tebs gifted me a copy of Homegoing as a parting gift when I changed jobs and I am rather ashamed to only discover now, how well Yaa Gyasi’s coat of accolades fits - not that I had any doubts before. I also cower when I realise how little I know on African History beyond the little borders of South Africa, so I am grateful for the pieces I can pick up in fiction. (Unrelat...

One of my favourite parts of adulthood is my monthly book club sitting. The Prose & Icons met at Forking Good in Bryanston this month and we discussed Yellowface! Yellowface is a satirical novel by R.F. Kuang, although sometimes the satire left the room with the author’s overt lashings on the industry. We follow the story of June who, when her big-time young author friend dies with an unpublished manuscript by her side, steals her life. [Unrelated, there’s a sanctification that seems to be bestowed amongst those who have passed which I find interesting, probably either in reverence of death and its finality?} June is in anyway as annoying as any entitled mediocre MC can be but oh did we love to hate her! The callousness with which she carries herself throughout her shenanigans would be admirable if it weren’t so haphazard to everyone else around her. I have never engaged with Kuang’s work prior to this but the book feels almost autobiographical where I could not separate the ...

I first encountered Joy Watson’s writing in her debut novel The Other Me . I’m hardly one to read young adult fiction, particularly due to my protest against attributing a character’s choices to their juvenile minds. On the other hand, an author’s own wiser thoughts can leak out of the younger character with a level of maturity I struggle to believe an 8 year old would possess or articulate in that manner. Nevertheless, The Other Me held a perfect balance between my two conflicts with a level of realness that kept me captivated all the way to five stars at the end and cemented Joy as an auto-read author in my books.   Because I love you similarly impressed me from the first line: “ This is not a book about breakups. It’s a book about erasure. About the quiet violence that can live inside love, the kind that doesn’t leave bruises on your skin but rewires the architecture of your mind. ” The nonfiction anthology shares the stories of three women, Zara, Mira and Thuli, whose lives ar...

There’s an insurmountable amount of both joy and devastation in how many books there are in the world and how many great books I am yet to read. And, really, you have to kiss some toads and frogs on the journey to them.  I read Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns in 2017 and The Kite Runner in 2020 and the former immediately cemented him as an auto read author in my books. I cannot give any explanation for the delay in reading And the Mountains Echoed, but I am very happy I didn’t read it until now — I think I can appreciate the skill better.  Khaled doesn’t introduce you to a character or a setting.  There’s no talking stage.  No starter.  You plunge straight into the meat and dessert with the familiarity of a third book in a trilogy, even though you’ve never met any of the characters before. One second you haven’t started the book, the next you’re deep in Shadbagh — an Afghan city that doesn’t even exist! You hardly even know whose pov you’re reading f...

I unintentionally got a spoiler of The Comrade's Wife months ago (granted, it was the spoiler that made me want to read the book in the first place). I was entirely captivated by the first few pages, but my chest was clenched in anxious anticipation. I found chapters are slightly long, but that’s on me and my attention span and not on the author’s writing.  Watching Anita lose so much of her resolve, bit by bit, was heartbreaking. Mind you, this was only three months into the relationship. What stressed me the most was that she has the language for what she’s going through, given her educational background, but seems blinded to it all. I suspect this was done deliberately to show the contrast between her academic and lived experiences.  Also, drawing parallels between this and A Spell of Good Things by Ayobami Adebayo that I finished recently, the exact same red flags were exhibited: Diminishing her job (in this case, completely disregarding it), minimising any qualms raised b...

    Oh that was horrible — 5 stars, please!  🌟  Firstly, I borrowed this from the Manchester City Library solely because Gillian Flynn was on the cover. I often see “perfect for fans of Gillian Flynn/Gone Girl” (which I am), but hardly ever see the good sis endorse work herself so that got me. Sarah Pinborough (another top author on my thriller list) also described the book as a “bistering satire of suburban life with serious emotional stakes. A fantastic literary thriller.” The book is described as a ruthless portrayal of suburbia that excavates the perils and betrayals of motherhood and friendships and the dangerous clash between social hierarchy, childhood trauma, and fear. These are so intricately interwoven it’s difficult to accept the characters’ ills, and they were all grotesque, without at least trying to understand what makes them who they are. Sarah did an excellent job of depicting these complexities. This book also included a map of the neighbourhood, wh...

 I just got home from the launch of Angela Makholwa's latest book, The Reed Dance Stalker. This is a sequel to Red Ink, which I read a few years ago and will be on Showmax later this year. Now this is not just about the book but my experience at the launch.  Firstly, Karabo Kgoleng. Karabo is an award-winning broadcast and print journalist and was the interviewer on the book launch panel tonight. I absolutely love it when interviewers thoroughly engage with the author's work prior to the interviews because, not only does it show in the quality of the questions asked, but it also makes the entire event a pleasurable experience for all. Karabo steered the boat very well and kept us fully engaged with her interview style.  Angela prefaced the interview by mentioning that parts of our protagonist (Lucy) are borrowed from her own personality (disclaimer: she emphasised that very, very little parts), which brings up a pattern I have noticed from attending book launches. Authors...

 Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent I want to preface this post by stating that Liz Nugent is one of my favourite authors of all time, therefore read my thoughts below with more than un peu de sel (I'm learning French here - a pinch of salt), albeit warranted praise given the Irish author's first-class narrative skills. The book started with five pages of reviews and praise from other renown authors and not a single lie was uttered.  A supreme skill of the author is encapsulating a steady plot, not just to get the reader to a resolution at the end of the book, but also unravelling the main character on a journey through their life. In fact, the detail (or what we'd expect to be the killer plot twist) is usually provided upfront in the early stages of the book. In this story, we're told in the blurb already that Sally's father has died, and she has followed his instructions to the tee by putting his dead body out with the rubbish. We then follow Sally's life as ...

Every Vow You Break by Peter Swanson  I want to preface this by saying I picked this book off the shelf without reading the blurb or any reviews. That’s how much I believe in Peter’s thrillers and I was not disappointed. Abigail’s fairytale seems to begin when millionaire Bruce Lamb asks for her hand in marriage, but a drunken one-night stand before the wedding results in consequences she could not have anticipated and neither can she comprehend.  When the other party to the affair shows up at their expensive honeymoon resort, with intention to reunite, does she tell Bruce and ruin their idyllic honeymoon—and possibly their marriage? Or should she handle this psychopathic stalker on her own?  To make the situation worse, strange things begin to happen on the island. No one believes when she mentions things are amiss; not even her perfect rich husband. At first I was very impressed with Abigail’s almost criminal thinking; but somewhere along the line, she seemed to be lack...

An under appreciated gem in the reading community is secondhand bookstores. These stores are usually kept by the owners so there is a personal feel to them and you can walk out with an entire stack of books for less than R300. Most also allow you to return books and purchase others at a lower price. (This doesn’t apply to the hoarders like me though. I want to keep all my books.) The affordability and generally good service is a good selling point, but you’re guaranteed that at my favourite bookstore chain (Bargain Books) anyway. Like most readers, I love the scent of books a lot. I suspect that this scent, like wine, only gets better with age. When reading a new book, I find myself literally sticking my nose into the book to enjoy that scent but, secondhand books just jump at you. I’m currently reading Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult that I bought at a bookstore in the small town of Sabie (Mpumalanga) and the scent is so strong I don’t want to make Forty Winks tea because I’m worried i...

If you were given the opportunity to take a DNA test that reveals exactly who your DNA match is, would you take it? And if you were already in a relationship with someone, would you want to find out if the person is your DNA match? Let's say the person isn't your match, do you stay? Do you seek your match? How far would you be willing to go to find The One ? Judy's life feels stagnant so when conversations with her DNA match warm her intestines, she figures she has nothing to lose by flying across the world to be with him. Except - he doesn't know she's coming and he's not the only one who'll be surprised. When Christopher isn't killing women, he's either stalking them on apps or reading up on serial killers and mental illness. When he signed up for his DNA match, he did not expect to be completely distracted by her. Do opposites really attract? Also, what's the opposite of a serial killer? Mandy hadn't even spoken to her DNA match wh...

Trigger Warning: Domestic Abuse.  Lily’s childhood was not easy but getting out of small Maine and moving to Boston, coupled with a lot of hard work, has made her the bold businesswoman she is. Merely hours after fleeing her father’s funeral, Lily Bloom meets the unrealistically attractive neurosurgeon, Ryle Kincaid, on the rooftop of a building in Boston and when the spark between them blazes, nothing could be better. Not only is Ryle attractive and smart, but he’s also confident, compassionate and caring – well most times. His aversion to romantic relationships is affirmed when their relationship is threatened by the resurfacing of Atlas, Lily’s first love.  Whenever we hear about a woman being abused (which happens way too often), the question “why doesn’t she leave?” is always posed. Besides the risk of being killed for leaving and the threat of financial insecurity, Colleen also explores another factor we often forget to consider when looking at domes...

I usually avoid or get bored by anything set before the 1990s, so I have absolutely no idea how this Historical Fiction novel made it onto my ‘to be read’ pile. I was shocked when I read the first few pages and realized it was set shortly after world war 2, but could not abandon the network.  Charlotte, or Charlie as she prefers, visited England with her mother to sort out her ‘Little Problem’. In Southampton, Charlie is haunted by the memories of her closest cousin who disappeared in the country during the second world war. Charlotte meets Eve, an ex-spy, and her ex-con (I’m not sure how I feel about this word) acquaintance, and the unlikely trio sets out on adventure to find Charlie’s long-lost cousin.  Recounts of the first world war from Eve show how violently wars ruined people. Those who survived the war were emotionally killed by the grief and the trauma. Kate Quinn based The Alice Network on the story of a true war heroine who showed that women were at t...

Disclaimer: I am just an avid thriller and suspense reader; not an expert. This recipe is based on nothing but my observations and what I like when reading. Suspense, Crime or Mystery Thriller books are some of the highest earning genres of books (2nd only to Romance/Erotica). With so many books already published, how do authors still manage to write bestsellers? I've decided to compile a recipe from what I've observed from a few of my favourite authors. 1. UNRELIABLE NARRATOR  This is the main ingredient in The Perfect Thriller recipe. Unreliable first person narrators do not necessarily lie (except Amy Dunn from Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl) but give the reader just omit enough material information to steer the reader in the direction they want them to go. Your narrator must be pretty convincing for this to work. 2. TRUST and SECRETS I love a mess. Fragile relationships between the characters due to a lack of trust or keeping secrets from each other helps drive th...