FORTUNE by Amanda Smyth
Fortune is set in 1920S Trinidad and Tobago, during the oil boom, when oil was seen as the black gold. The book opens with Eddie Wade truck breaking down on his way to Port of Spain where he is going to get investors to invest in an oil drilling project. As luck would have it, […]
Hungry Ghosts by Kevin Jared Hosein
Atmospheric, immersive, un-put-down-able, truly impressive storytelling from a Caribbean voice you will want to hear from again…and again…. Hungry Ghosts opens with four boys doing a blood pact that will make them brothers for the rest of their lives. Do they know what this pact means? How will it impact their individual lives? That is exactly […]
The Islands by Dionne Irving
Solid collection that explores Jamaicans living in Jamaica and around the world- well written and deeply insightful The Islands is a collection of ten short stories that explores immigration, classism, the effects of colonialism and Jamaicans trying to seek a better life in the diaspora. Truly this was a great collection, majority of them I absolutely […]
The Island of Forgetting by Jasmine Sealy
Contemporary novel set in Barbados that centers a local family who owns a hotel… GIVE IT TO ME! The Island of Forgetting is Jasmine Sealy’s debut novel and what am stunning debut this is! The novel starts out in Barbados in the 1960s and goes until the early 2000s. Similar in structure to HOMEGOING each chapter […]
If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery
Fresh, biting, laugh out loud funny, chilling, relatable and brazen! A debut collection that you won’t soon forget! If I Survive You is a collection of interconnected short stories told from a Jamaican family living in Miami. While it is a collection of short stories, it does read like a novel because each story connects and […]
Lest We Find Gold by Melanie Schwapp
BookOfCinz Book Club Pick Absolutely loved this book and of course I had to make it a book club pick! Lest We Find Gold is Melanie Schwapp’s sophomore novel. The book follows the life of Milly from her early years to her present life with her husband. Milly has a lot going for her, well educated, […]
Tea By The Sea by Donna Hemans
Tea By The Sea is Donna Hemans new novel about grief, abandonment and agency. The story opens up in Jamaica, we meet a young man, Lenworth and a new born baby girl looking for a specific house in remote town outside of the second city- Montego Bay. Lenworth doesn’t know how to navigate this new […]
May-July 2019: Why Caribbean Women?
As part of the #ReadCaribbean challenge I wanted to take the next months to highlight books written by women of colour who are from Caribbean heritage. For the next three months at BookOfCinz Book Club we will be reading debut novels by women of Jamaican heritage. They include: May: Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams June: Here […]
Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
I could not wait to get my hands on a copy of Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams mainly because the main character is a Jamaican. I was also drawn to this book because it is being dubbed as “Bridget Jones meets Americanah” and while I see why that is the case, in some (most) instances I […]