BOOKMARKS

Words: Nhlanhla Masemola | Images: Sourced

Well, now seems as good a time as any to lose ourselves in books. And I don’t mean just because we’re all at home (or should be) on account of you-know-what. Reading also turns out to be a terrific way to cope. With sadness, stress, boredom, hopelessness and any other uncomfortable societal things happening in the world right now. All the icky things that make it that much easier to crawl beneath the covers and comfortably live out the rest of our lives there. And it doesn’t help that we’ve probably spent the better part of the day scrolling Twitter and forwarding breaking news alerts to all our group chats. It’s okay, life is strange at the moment and no one knows when everything will feel normal again. But here are a few reads that promise to create the illusion of normalcy for a while that I think you’ll enjoy.

Image courtesy of Penguin Random House

Genre: Fiction

What it’s about: Maurice Swift is super-handsome and obsessed with professional success. However, the one thing he doesn't have is talent. But that’s not important and definitely not going to let something so trivial stand in his way. This is a twisted physiological drama that shows how easy it is to get everything you’ve ever dreamed of – if you’re prepared to sacrifice your soul in the process.

Why you should read it: A brutally dark and addictive book about writing, publishing and ambition. The title is taken from the proverb “ambition is putting a ladder against the sky”, which points to an ambitious person throwing caution to the wind and taking every the risks to achieve a goal. If you’re looking for a captivating book about love, obsession, people and their stories, then this is your next read.

Image courtesy of Little, Brown and Company

Genre: Non-fiction

What it’s about: Catch and Kill is basically Pulitzer prize-winning investigative reporter Ronan Farrow's long journey to making the public aware of Harvey Weinstein's decades of predatory sexual assault and vile harassment against the women he worked with.

Why you should read it: This book is arguably one of last year's most talked-about books. Farrow’s thorough and brave page-turner reads like an outrageous spy thriller that makes it easy to sometimes forget that this book is about something incredibly real. Farrow builds an interesting story that takes a look at how Weinstein’s crimes weren’t isolated incidents, but part of a larger culture in which men abuse their power and use it to silence many of their victims. The book lands even harder when you know that Farrow is the son of Woody Allen.

Image courtesy of Little, Brown and Company

Genre: Non-fiction

What it’s about: Calypso is David Sedaris’s wacky collection of 21 semi-autobiographical essays. Sedaris takes his readers through his funny-yet-tragic thoughts on family, ageing, death and the body’s abundant "grossness".

Why you should read it: If like me you’ve never read anything by Sedaris. then this is a great entry point to get acquainted with what makes him such a spectacular writer. His ability to go from hilarious to heart-wrenching in a few short paragraphs is quite the experience.

Image courtesy of Orbit Books

Genre: Fiction

What it’s about: Five New Yorkers must come together to defend their city against an ancient evil in the first book in a series by Hugo award-winning author N K Jemisin.

Why you should read it: If you’ve ever watched any superhero movie or watched an episode of Power Rangers, this will likely feel familiar. With not one but three consecutive Hugo awards under her belt (the first author and the first black woman author to achieve that), Jemisin is fast becoming a literary sage. Known for her interest in telling marginalised stories through a fantastical lens, Jemisin’s The City We Became expands on her short story The City Born Great and promises memorable characters and impressive storytelling.

Image courtesy of Penguin Random House

Genre: Non-fiction

What it’s about: This is an outstanding and rigorously researched collection of cultural criticisms and unresolved meditations on athleisure and modern living in the age of the internet.

Why you should read it: There’s been a lot of hype around this one, but it really is that good. The New Yorker columnist Jia Tolentino has a real knack for articulating many of the thoughts and ideas that we’ve all been seeing across our screens and in cultural discourse in the late Twenty Tens. I admire how she isn’t exempt from her own criticisms. This is well worth a read.

Image courtesy of Penguin Random House

Genre: Non-fiction

What it’s about: At 36 and on the cusp of completing years of training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. One day, he'd a doctor treating the sick and dying and the next, he's a patient struggling to live. In this heartbreaking memoir, Kalanithi wrestles with profoundly moving questions on the meaning of life.

Why you should read it: I’m not one to usually get choked up when reading, but this one definitely tugged on heartstrings. Kalanithi wrote When Breath Becomes Air during the last months of his life and this permeates every beautifully written sentence. He wasn’t just a doctor, he was a phenomenal writer and voracious student of English and philosophy. Faced with his own mortality much sooner than he expected, this book serves as his last chance to understand what it means to die. It was published posthumously and to say that it’s good to read feels inadequate to the contribution Kalanithi gave to the world.

Image courtesy of Orbit Books

Genre: Fiction

What it’s about: Thomas Senlin is just your average mild-mannered headmaster of a small village school. Newly married to the love of his life, Marya, Senlin decides the best place to have their honeymoon is at the Tower of Babel, the greatest marvel of the modern age. Set in an alternate universe, the story begins with Marya getting lost on arrival and all manner of mayhem ensues.

Why you should read it: Sometimes you need something to make you feel warm and fuzzy inside like you did the first time you were read or told a magical story as a child. The closest thing that Senlin Ascends reminds me of is Enid Blyton’s The Faraway Tree series or even Harry Potter sans magic. But make no mistake, this is an emotionally intelligent book filled with mystery and heady ruminations on what it costs to do the right thing. Josiah Bancroft is also a remarkable writer whose passion for detail is mindblowing. You’ll definitely want to read the next two books in the series after this.