Bibliokitty

I can understand why the African American classic Their Eyes Were Watching God is considered an important work of 20th century American literature. First published in 1937, it is a novel written by a Black female writer and it tells the story of a Black female protagonist, Janie, from her own perspective, at a time when stories were seldom told from the female perspective, and if they were, it was from a (white) man’s idea of the female perspective. Their Eyes Were Watching God is also mostly told in the Black vernacular, which makes Janie’s story more authentic, but also makes it a more challenging read. I am usually a speed reader, but I had to force myself to slow down while reading this novel so that I did not miss anything.

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Michael Christie’s Greenwood made CBC’s Canada Reads 2023 shortlist, which I thought was interesting as it was published in 2019. It is exciting when a great book comes unexpectedly out of nowhere. I don’t think I would have ever come across this novel if it had not made this year’s Canada Reads, and I am so glad it did, even though it did not win the top prize. Greenwood is a compelling story about humankind’s relationships with other humans, and humankind’s relationships with trees. It is a novel about the terrifying future of climate change, but it is also a novel about hope and faith in human resilience.

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I recently read Maggie O’Farrell’s The Marriage Portrait, which I think is a great novel. Hamnet is O’Farrell’s last novel before The Marriage Portrait and was published in 2020 to much acclaim, so I decided I had to read it as well. If you were required to read William Shakespeare’s plays when you were in high school, you may recognize the name Hamnet. Hamnet was Shakespeare’s only son and he died at the young age of eleven. Hamnet is a sad and moving story about how the death of Hamnet affects his family.

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