Book Review — Stories-Shayera Dark

Four Books Guaranteed to Expand Your Understanding the World

Here are four books guaranteed to illuminate your mind and broaden your world.

Book ReviewShayera Dark23 December 2023Maryse Conde, Segu, Andrzej Szczypiorski, The Beautiful Mrs Seidenman, Adania Shibli, Minor Detail, Ilan Pappe, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, Book Review, Nakba, Holocaust, African History, Recent

Ayòbámi Adébáyò|A Spell of Good Things

Adébáyò’s second novel, A Spell of Good Things, is an invigorating dive into the ramifications of poor governance on a working class family and middle class one, which would fatally and ultimately bind them.

Book ReviewShayera Dark4 September 2023Ayòbámi Adébáyò, A Spell of Good Things, Nigeria, African Literature, Political violence, Classism, Book Review, Recent

Daughter in Exile|Bisi Adjapon

Daughter in Exile by Bisi Adjapon is a pacy, character-driven novel that surveys the many burdens of living as an irregular migrant in the US.

Book ReviewShayera Dark19 August 2023Bisi Adjapon, Daughter in Exile, Of Frogs and Men, immigrant literature, Ghana, Senegal, African Literature, Feminist Literature, The Teller of Secrets, Book Review, Recent

Double Review: How Beautiful We Were|Imbolo Mbue; The Dragons, the Giant, the Women|Wayétu Moore

Moore’s memoir and Mbue’s novel celebrate and centre women as subjects of their own stories, capable of propelling and making history just like their male counterparts.

Book ReviewShayera Dark5 March 2023wayétu moore, how beautiful we were, imbolo mbue, book review, the dragons the giant the women, liberia, african literature, Recent

The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls|Mona Eltahawy

In this searing, unapologetic treatise, Mona Eltahawy presents seven tools women and girls can use to “defy, disobey and disrupt the patriarchy,” and free themselves from the claws of gendered beliefs and expectations.

Book ReviewShayera Dark23 February 2023mona eltahawy, the seven necessary sins for women and girls, feminism, patriarchy, male violence against women, gender equality, book review, Recent

Five Books Guaranteed to Expand Your Understanding of the World 2022

Here, a list of five fiction and non-fiction books to illuminate your mind, tickle your curiosity and expand your understanding of the world.

Book ReviewShayera Dark22 December 2022five book suggestions, book review, tahiti, climate change, susan abulhawa, against the loveless world, the nutmeg's curse, my song, harry belafonte, memoir, mornings in jenin, israeli-palestinian conflict, amitav ghosh, chantal t. spitz, island of shattered dreams

When We Were Birds|Ayanna Lloyd Banwo

One part magical realism, one part crime thriller, one part romance, and rendered entirely in patois, Banwo's debut novel—set in a fictional Trinidad—follows Emmanuel Darwin and Yejide St Bernard on separate paths to self-discovery that eventually lead them to each other, thanks to their disparate connection to death.

Book ReviewShayera Dark27 November 2022When We Were Birds, Ayanna Lloyd Banwo, Caribbean Literature, Book Review, Magical Realism, Trinidad, Recent

The Book of Night Women|Marlon James

Women lead the way in this historical novel set in eighteenth century Jamaica, which follows Lilith—the youngest and newest addition to the group of rebellion-plotting enslaved women who meet under the cover of darkness—as she strives to reach beyond the boundaries of the brutish life reserved for slaves on the sugar plantation of Montpelier.

Book ReviewShayera Dark18 September 2022The Book of Night Women, Marlon James, transatlantic slavery, Caribbean Literature, Jamaica, book review, African History, Haiti Slave Revolution, Recent

If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English|Noor Naga

Noor Naga’s debut novel explores the tensions around identity and othering through the eyes a destitute Egyptian man living in Cairo and a middle-class Egyptian-American “returning” to Egypt, a country she’s visiting for the very first time.

Book ReviewShayera Dark21 July 2022if an egyptian cannot speak english, noor naga, african literature, egypt, book review, identity, othering, hosni mubarak, arab spring, Recent