Whether they love romance, action, adventure, or a touch of self-help, books are the gifts that keep on giving. Here are five books you should buy this Christmas.
For the Fantasy Lovers
The Dark Lady by Akala
Well known for his social commentary and lyricism, bestselling author of Natives Akala has turned his hand to fiction.
The Dark Lady has been hailed as ‘one of the most highly anticipated books of the year,’ A supernatural fantasy story set in Elizabethan England, it follows fifteen-year-old Henry, an orphan, and pickpocket gifted with magical powers. Perfect for teenagers, young adults, and adults alike looking for action and escape.
Akala’s fictional debut is an ‘exhilarating, magic-laced adventure’ – The Observer
For The Romantics
Love In Colour By Bolu Babalola
Love In Colour explores love through the ages, from West African mythology to iconic Greek myths and Middle Eastern legends. Babalola delves into the different kinds of love that touch us, be it, love at first sight, or the slow-burning love of shared experience and time.
This collection of short stories is, ‘perfection in short story form. So rarely is love expressed this richly, this vividly, or this artfully.’ – Candice Carty-Williams
For The Non-Fiction Fans
Maybe I Don’t Belong Here by David Harewood
A black working-class kid from Birmingham, an award-winning actor that’s shaken hands with Sidney Poitier, a man that’s been sectioned. Twice.
Maybe I Don’t Belong Here takes you on David’s journey of mental health crises and eventual recovery and success. From his earliest memories, he leads you through a life littered with happiness, ambition, and shattering moments of racism. David explores how racial trauma and a subsequent inability to feel you belong can impact mental health and may have led to his eventual hospitalizations under the Mental Health Act.
A deeply personal and poignant memoir of struggling to feel whole when you’re Black and British.
‘Heart-warming, eye-opening, gut-wrenching. David Harewood’s brutally honest account of his experiences in the mental health system should force us all to examine the impact that our past has on our lives…’ – David Lammy
For The Literary Minded
The Assembly by Natasha Brown
The Assembly by Natasha Brown has been called the debut of the summer. Brown’s novella is an insight into the Black British elite. Her protagonist is a woman who has achieved everything she’s ever aspired to, Oxbridge educated, dominating in the financial sector, engaged. But beneath this is a woman both proud and numbed by what she has achieved and the impact of the microaggressions she has sustained to achieve it.
‘Natasha Brown’s exquisite prose, daring structure, and understated elegance are utterly captivating. She is a stunning new writer.’ – Bernardine Evaristo, author of the Booker Prize-winning Girl, Woman, Other.
For The Thrill Seekers
The Other Black Girl By Zakiya Dalila Harris
Described as Get Out meets the Devil Wears Prada. The Other Black Girl is satire with an extra edge.
Dalila Harri’s debut novel follows two young black women trying to carve out a career in the savage world of publishing. When Hazel starts working in the cubicle next to her’s editorial assistant Nella Rogers is overjoyed to see another black face in the otherwise white workplace of Wagner publishing. However, after a string of unforeseen events make Nella public enemy number and threatening notes start appearing on her desk warning her to leave, Nella starts to wonder what sinister forces are at play.
