New Books!

I'm really looking forward to reading the following books:

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy

I loved The God of Small Things and am excited that almost 20 years later Roy has finally released a follow-up. Roy is a master of weaving complex tales and I anticipate The Ministry of Utmost Happiness to follow in the same imaginative and intricate footsteps as The God of Small Things.

The tale begins with Anjum—who used to be Aftab—unrolling a threadbare Persian carpet in a city graveyard she calls home. We encounter the odd, unforgettable Tilo and the men who loved her—including Musa, sweetheart and ex-sweetheart, lover and ex-lover; their fates are as entwined as their arms used to be and always will be. We meet Tilo's landlord, a former suitor, now an intelligence officer posted to Kabul. And then we meet the two Miss Jebeens: the first a child born in Srinagar and buried in its overcrowded Martyrs' Graveyard; the second found at midnight, abandoned on a concrete sidewalk in the heart of New Delhi. - Blurb from Penguin Random House Canada

If you live in Toronto, Roy will be appearing at the Bloor Street United Church on June 22. Details here.

Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay

I, like many, fell in love with Roxane Gay with her 2014 essay collection Bad Feminist. Her frankness and boldness and incisiveness are awe-inspiring. Hunger looks to be a sharp, and deeply personal, memoir that explores the pressures put on women's bodies today.

“I ate and ate and ate in the hopes that if I made myself big, my body would be safe. I buried the girl I was because she ran into all kinds of trouble. I tried to erase every memory of her, but she is still there, somewhere. . . . I was trapped in my body, one that I barely recognized or understood, but at least I was safe.” - Excerpt from HarperCollins Canada

What books would you add to this list?

XOXO

(Photo by Drew Coffman)