BookOfCinz Book Club is going into its sixth year in 2024. For the last five years we have been meeting in person in Trinidad and Tobago and online so we can have people from all over the world joining. In 2023 we started reading Caribbean and African male authors. We do continue to read and celebrate Women- Caribbean Women, Women of Caribbean heritage, Black Women and Women of Colour.
In 2018 I decided to start BookOfCinz Book Club to meet and engage with Readers. I read a lot, but getting to sit and discuss one book with a group of persons, that experience in and of itself is unmatched. For the last five years we have been meeting both offline and online to facilitate everyone outside of Trinidad and Tobago. Since the start of the Book Club, we have seen over 700 unique Book Clubbers. We have had Book Clubbers from all over the Caribbean, the US, UK, Europe, Africa and as far as India.
For 2024 we will continue to meet and read books that moves us, that gets under our skins and stay there, books we cannot shut up about. I do hope you make the time to Read, read More, read Widely and READ CARIBBEAN in 2024. Come join book club and read with us!
If you missed the previous book clubs, here’s what we read in 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020 and 2019. You can purchase the book club pick in Trinidad at Uppercrust, in the UK or the US. Want to join the book club? Go here to sign up!
Come and read and find your community with us in 2024! Join the community here!
January | HOW TO SAY BABYLON by SAFIYA SINCLAIR
I have read a lot of memoirs and this one shines the brightest and I think it is because Sinclair was able to lay bare all the things that happened to her and how she dealt with it. I learned so much about Jamaica’s history with Rastafarianism and I thank Sinclair for putting in the work and research and shining light on the massacre that happened to Rastafarians living in Jamaica. This was also the first time I read a book that details what it is like being raised with a devout Rastafarian parent. I am excited for more people to read this book!
February | THE SECRET LIVES OF BABA SEGI’S WIVES by LOLA SHONEYIN
Shoneyin is a great storyteller and she gripped me with this story. I loved that she told it from the different POVs and how we are given tidbits along the way to keep you interested. I loved how you get the history of the wives before they end up with Baba Segi and what lead them to that fate. Yes! The book is hilarious in certain areas and sobering in others and I think the author did an exceptional job of toeing that line. If you are looking for a fast paced, interesting read, this is it.
March | DRINKING FROM GRAVEYARD WELLS by YVETTE LISA NDLOVU
I love a collection of short stories and this may be the best one I read for 2023 and I think is the best collection to add to our reading list. Yvette Lisa Ndlovu can write and it shows this in the collection. I loved every single story, but especially the one on immigration and what you lose when you give up your citizenship.
April | THE HOUSE OF PLAIN TRUTH by DONNA HEMANS
In Donna Heman’s House Of Plain Truth we are taken to a family home in Jamaica where the father is spends his last moments asking his daughter to find his children. Pearline, left Jamaica over 20 years to make a life for herself and provide for her family back home. She spent majority of her life in Brooklyn, married, with a daughter who she hardly gets a long with because she works so much. When she hears that her father may be dying she decides its finally time for her to move back home to Jamaica.
May | DOMINOES by PHOEBE MCINTOSH
Debut novel about a mixed-raced young woman in London who did some digging and found out her fiance’s family maybe have been slave owners. How does she move forward, can they move forward? The book explores what happens when the past, meets the present.
June | A TRACE OF SUN by PAM WILLIAMS
Raef is left behind in Grenada when his mother, Cilla, follows her husband to England in search of a better life. When they are finally reunited seven years later, they are strangers – and the emotional impact of the separation leads to events that rip their family apart. As they try to move forward with their lives, his mother’s secret will make Raef question all he’s ever known of who he is.
July| I DO NOT COME TO YOU BY CHANCE by Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani
Nwaubani is an excellent author who will take you on the most amazing adventure with characters you can’t help but cheer for. In I Do Not Come To You By Chance we meet Kingsley who grew up in a family where education was to be the way, the truth and the light. He saw both his mother and father worked to get their education and they instilled in him the value and doors a degree would open for him. It is not until Kingsley graduated from University with a degree as an engineer, started apply for jobs in the oil and gas industry that he realized he was sold a dream. Fresh graduate with the world before him, Kingsley is now realizing that it is not the degree that will open doors, but it is his uncle who is the head of a 419 scam organization.
August | THE MOTHER ACT by Heidi Reimer
Heidi Reimer writes a brilliant debut novel and I am not sure why more people are not talking about it. I flew this read because it was so well written and the theme explored is one of my favouite. The book opens with a daughter who is estranged from ther mother attending the opening night of her mother’s show. They have had a very tumultuous relationship, a lot is left unsaid, there is a lot of hurt and no way forward.
September | THE LOST LOVE SONG OF BOYSIE SINGH by Ingrid Persaud
This book is specatular. It is clear that Ingrid Persaud did her search into the history and culture of Trinidad and Tobago during that period. She writes the Trini dialect with amazing precision and brings each character to life their they specific tone and voice. I think that is the think I love most about Persaud’s writing, her ability to capture characters who are believable while still be flawed. Yes, I didn’t love Boysie Singh, but I found myself wanting to see him win, even though, historically I know how story ends. The women in the book are layered, engaging, and keep you invested. Through the writing, you understand who they “fell” for a man like Boysie and you journey with them as they come to their senses.
October | THE LESSON by Cadwell Turnbull
Cadwell, took his time in The Lesson to explore the history of colonialism and what the invasion meant for an island that have a history of being invaded and taken over. We get a historical look on how the island was colonialized, and the question was posed to the reader and the members of the community, whether the Ynaa invaded or they arrived.
November | NEIGHBORS: STORIES by Diane Oliver
This is what a collection of short stories should read like. Every story felt complete, and completely different. The characters were all well developed and felt so real that for days after reading the collection I could not shake them.
December | THE STARSIDE OF BIRDHILL by Naomi Jackson
What I absolutely LOVED about this novel is how it genuinely captures the island of Barbados. As a Jamaican, living in Trinidad and visited Barbados at least three times, I can say Jackson know her island. There was something magical and tropical about Jackson’s writing that I loved. I am really looking forward to her second book. If you are a Caribbean national, you will love this authentic piece of gem!
