Hey, y’all! It’s great to be back at writing this series, I missed it a lot over the summer (and the few weeks that it’s taken me to get back up and running). I read plenty of books over the summer break, so for my first recs of the year I’m going to tell y’all my favorites.

• Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche: Written by one of my favorite authors, Purple Hibiscus, follows a teenage girl, Kambili, and her family. When Kambili’s brother decides to skip church one morning, the household seems to come crashing down. A well-timed visit to their aunt’s gives Kambili and her brother a taste of the world outside their pious, controlling father and now they’re not sure about going back. This is a beautiful and harrowing coming of age story by an author with a strong and creative voice. Easily my favorite book I read this summer.
• Maus by Art Spiegelman: This graphic non-fiction is infamous for a reason, it’s emotional, engaging, slightly funny, and utterly tragic. In this graphic hybrid memoir-biography Spiegelman tells his father’s true story as well as his own. Using anthropomorphic animals—mainly mice and cats—to tell his father’s experience of the holocaust—and later his own experience in writing the book. It sets itself apart with the layered narrative that switches between the past and present. Spiegelman is an amazing comic and storyteller in this beautiful and well-paced book.
• LumberJanes by N.D. Stevenson: Before this summer, I really didn’t read many graphic novels, but in the past few months I’ve been on a real kick. I picked up this book—the first in the series—because I liked both the book and movie Nimona, also by Stevenson. This series is more than delightful, it’s the kind of book I wish I could have read as a child. Featuring a diverse and memorable cast of characters and their escapades at a less-than-normal summer camp, LumberJanes is a great read. It perfectly balances surface-level jokes and shenanigans with a deeper, more complex plot. If you enjoyed watching things like Gravity Falls growing up, you’ll enjoy this.
• The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi: This book simply destroyed me—I found this book towards the end of summer and finished it in the first week of school—when I read the final page, I had to bite my lip to keep from crying right there in the middle of third period. We follow the titular Vivek Oji, a young man growing up in Nigeria alongside a tight-knit community of families called the Nigerwives—a group of wives from various foreign countries all married to Nigerian men. Vivek grows up struggling with his mind, which is deeply entrenched in hiding a part of himself. The only one he trusts is his cousin and closest friend, Osita. When the two both discover their queer identities, they become close in an effort to hide it. We see how fear and shame can hurt people, communities, and families—and how it leads to Vivek’s untimely death.

I hope you’ll give some of these a read and I’m so excited to be back at writing for the Pawprint. Expect another review next week—with a more specific theme—and keep reading TC!