2024 has been such a joyful reading year for me so far. I’ve read so many fun books but also some masterful ones. For some reason I read more than usual in June and had a great time with all the books I read. So, I thought I’d take some time to discuss them all here! I would love to hear your thoughts on these books if you’ve read them, and if you haven’t, some books you think I might like based on my thoughts on these. I've also added where I got these books to show the range of how you can access books.
Fair Rosaline by Natasha Solomons – Borrowed from my local library
I saw Fair Rosaline on a library shelf while I was returning another book. At first, I thought it was the book that inspired the film Rosaline, a comedy which tells Romeo and Juliet from the perspective of Rosaline Capulet, Romeo’s first love and Juliet’s cousin. That turned out to be a different book, but Fair Rosaline follows a similar premise. However, instead of following a light-hearted romantic comedy route, Natasha Solomons highlights the darker side of the classic story that is often undiscussed by putting the predatory behaviour of men in the spotlight.
Having lost her mother to the plague and about to be sent to spend the rest of her days in a nunnery by her father, Rosaline is desperate and vulnerable. Looking for a taste of freedom, she attends a Montague party under cover and is quickly swept up by the charms of the older Romeo. After her honour is ‘ruined’, she discovers his ulterior motives and meets previous women he has harmed. She begins a quest to save her child cousin Juliet from him.
I became so quickly engrossed in Fair Rosaline. Solomons flips characters we all know so well on their head and prompts us to ask questions both of our society and the fictional ones we know from classic literature. I love retellings of classic tales, whether they be Shakespearean, Greek or Roman myths, or other historical tales. I think they’re so important for reclaiming marginalised stories through history and I think #MeToo and works like Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad has done a huge amount in this trend of classic story retellings.
Neon Roses by Rachel Dawson – Borrowed from a friend.
I was staying at a friend’s house after coming back from Hay Festival so of course we had a bookish catch up. She told me about Neon Roses, which she had just bought but hadn’t read yet. As soon as she told me it was Welsh and gay I was desperate to read it. Beginning in the Dulais Valley at the centre of the 1984-5 Miners’ Strike, Neon Roses follows Eluned as she meets members of LGSM (Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners) as they visit her small town from London. During their visit Eluned realises a few things about herself…
Neon Roses was joyous, sexy, angry, and so loudly Welsh. I absolutely adored it. I’ve never read any queer Welsh fiction before, and as a queer Welsh young woman this novel felt so special. I cannot wait to see what Rachel Dawson does next.
(And Ems you will get your book back soon, I promise!)
Percy Jackson and the Chalice of the Gods by Rick Riordan – 1b Books, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen that I recently re-read the Percy Jackson series while on holiday at Hay Festival. I love this series and have since I was a kid. I remember reading the books with my brother and mum and still adore them now. Rick Riordan is a master of his craft and ignited a love of Ancient Greek and Roman mythology in a whole generation (including me!).
I was walking past my local bookshop when I saw this new Percy Jackson book in the window and did a double take. A NEW PERCY JACKSON BOOK?! Turns out I was pretty late to the party as it has already been out for a year. But better late than never! I read this so quickly. It was so fun to revisit characters I was first introduced to as a kid and hold a huge amount of affection for. The stakes were incredibly low in this book, but it was a joyous, nostalgic ride with old friends.
Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa – Waterstones, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Mornings in Jenin took me on an emotional rollercoaster ride. Susan Abulhawa’s story follows one Palestinian family from before the Nakba to the 2000s across four generations. It is harrowing and shocking, do not get me wrong, but it is also so full of joy and love. The characters are beautifully written and fleshed out so that you feel you know them so well. You feel their pain, they joy, their determination and confusion. I had a little cry at several points and any book that makes me cry immediately gets bumped up the recommendations list.
I’m trying to read more Palestinian literature and although Mornings in Jenin is very different to books like Palestine+100 (which I have spoken about extensively both on this blog and on social media), I think together they demonstrate how impactful literature can be. As the events of this novel follow from pre-Nakba Palestine to the years when I was a child, it follows the turmoil of decades of displacement, occupation and apartheid enforced on Palestinians and I felt like I understood the events of recent Palestinian history so much better. These weren’t just dates on a timeline anymore, they felt personal.
The Breaks by Julietta Singh – Queer Lit, Manchester
I won’t lie, I was first drawn to The Breaks by its gorgeous cover. I’m an aesthetic and superficial gal, what I can I say. The book itself has a lovely feel to it, and while that’s not the most important part of a book, it definitely enhances the reading experience. I love a well-made book so props to Daunt Books for that!
The Breaks is written as a letter from Julietta Singh to her six-year-old daughter. Singh is a beautiful writer. At times her words feel lyrical and there is a sense rawness and honesty throughout, at her own confusion and internal struggles while grappling with the adult capitalist world, her relationship to her heritage as a both Jewish and Punjabi living in North America, queer family-making and the climate crisis. This is a fascinating look at how we live our lives both on a broader scale but also on a smaller, domestic level, and the connections between generations.
There was one aspect of the book I wish Singh had unpacked more: the topic of overpopulation. It’s something she mentions a few times in relation to the climate crisis and expresses her previous intense anxiety over. However, as many climate campaigners, scientists and academics have pointed out, overpopulation as a cause of the climate crisis is a racist myth. Many people better equipped than me have written and talked on this issue, so please do your own research, but we know that the cause of the climate crisis is largely down to overconsumption of the rich, people with resources. The impact of a single person on the climate various greatly often depending on their wealth, with resources unequally distributed across global populations. As an academic who looks into capitalism, colonialism and the climate crisis (and are all extensively discussed in this book), I was surprised at how little that idea was challenged by Singh.
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell – Richard Booth’s Bookshop, Hay-on-Wye
Having read and adored Hamnet, I have been very excited to read more of Maggie O’Farrell’s work. While at Hay Festival, I wandered into Richard Booth’s the largest and oldest bookshop in Hay-on-Wye and found a huge array of her books. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox caught my eye.
In Edinburgh in the 1930s, the Lennox family have a troublesome daughter called Esme. Decades letter, Iris Lockhart receives a letter informing her that her great-aunt she didn’t know existed is about to be released from a psychiatric unit. The premise hooked me in straight away. It includes so many things I love in a book – complex women characters, mystery, intrigue and questions about wider systems like patriarchy and the state. If I was still doing my Master’s, this is the kind of book I would have loved to have written about and fits in with the kind of texts I was researching.
I was not disappointed when I read this. I absolutely adored it. It had brilliant characters, was shocking, and took twists that I didn’t expect. Maggie O’Farrell, I love you!
The Shadow of Perseus by Claire Heywood - Borrowed from my local library
Another retelling, this time from the notorious hero Perseus (the namesake of Percy Jackson) to the women in his story: Danaë, Medusa, and Andromeda. Claire Heywood retells the story of Perseus – from the origins of his birth to his return to his mother’s homeland – except removes the lens of glory through which we are used to viewing these ‘heroes’.
I didn’t know much about Danaë and Andromeda before reading this book. But I’m keen to find out more about them now. Perseus’ character became repulsive as we see how the pressure of patriarchal masculinity twists him into something his mother was striving to prevent. He’s not the only character we see affected by such pressure. Throughout there are male characters who are driven by their power and station and the idea that the women around are there property – and it often becomes their demise.
All the Violet Tiaras by Jean Menzies – Gay on Wye, Hay-on-Wye
I have followed Jean Menzies’ work on social media and YouTube for years, but before All The Violet Tiaras I hadn’t read any of her writing. I saw a signed copy of this book in Gay on Wye, Hay’s newest bookshop, and straight away knew it was coming home with me. I couldn’t attend Jean’s talk at Hay so I was excited to still read her book, especially as a lover of Greek myths and queer stories.
Part of the 404 Inklings series, All the Violet Tiaras is pretty short, at only 82 pages, but there is a lot packed in there. The three main chapters look at how new stories have used ancient storytelling forms, how Greek myths are still relevant to us today and how those myths are being re-queered. Menzies draws on a wide variety of ancient and contemporary texts to demonstrate this and introduced me to some texts I’d never heard of before but am now so excited to read. She highlights queer characters in mythology, such as Tireisus and Achilles and Patroclus as well as historical figures like Sappho, but also emphasises the importance of the narrator – who is telling this tale? Is the villainous women really as bad as she’s made out or the hero really so great?
A joyful read I would so recommend of mythology and I now can’t to read more 404 Inklings!
If you liked this post you might like: My Top 10 Non-Fiction Books of 2023
