Reading with Kaye
Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3…
I’m baaaaaaaack!
Did you miss me and my unsolicited bookish thoughts? Because I know I did!
Hi, and welcome back to my column series, Reading with Kaye, where I talk about the books I love while helping you diversify your bookshelf, one recommendation at a time.
The last time we spoke, I left you all with a list of my summer hopefuls. Of the three I gave you, my favourite was...
Seven Days in June by Tia Williams.
A vortex of emotions, I must say.
This book was so unapologetically Black. I must admit, I haven’t read many books where both characters in love were Black, so I made it a mission to do so this year. And boy, am I glad that I did; I am in dire need of more of it on my bookshelf.
When they meet at a literary event unexpectedly, sparks fly between Shane and Eva, raising not only their past buried traumas but every eyebrow of New York’s Black literati. What nobody knows is that teenage Eva and Shane spent one crazy week madly in love twenty years ago. While they may be pretending that everything is fine now, they can’t deny the chemistry between them - or the fact that they’ve been secretly writing to each other in their books since.
Over the next seven days, in the middle of a Brooklyn summer, they reconnect, but Eva is unsure how she will be able to trust the man who broke her heart. She wants him out of New York so her life can go back to normal, but not before she gets the answers to the questions circulating in her mind since he disappeared the first time.
This book was funny, warm, sexy, romantic, and everything in between. Williams was able to conjure up two wonderfully, deeply complex characters in their own different ways, but they complimented each other beautifully, and the two grow and mend together. A story of second chances. Soulmates, even after all that time. Deep sigh.
And then Tia Williams commented on my bookstagram post about it, which basically means we are best friends.
September 15-October 15 is also Hispanic Heritage Month.
The main reason I write these posts is that I think diversifying your reads helps you become a well-rounded individual and learn about the world around you. It’s also about accountability at the end of the day, and one thing is that I don’t have too many books that share these stories. But I do have some on my TBR (to be read), and one I really want to read is Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, a Mexican Canadian author.
The gothic horror novel follows glamorous debutante Noemí Taboada, who follows her cousin’s claims about her husband trying to kill her. I have a few friends that have read this book and have seen it on Bookstagram, and people have really good things to say about it.
If any of you have read it, I’d love to hear your thoughts! And if you have any recommendations on what else I should add to my TBR for this month, please do not hesitate to send them my way, and I will love you until the end of time.
I hope you have all been having a great start to your semester, and I can’t wait to share all my thoughts and recommendations with you throughout this school year <3
Keren